Michigan Primary Caveat: "Open"

Now Playing: One Note At A Time by the immortal Shawn Lane - playing all instruments...

The Michigan primary has officially been called - Romney for the Republicans and Clinton for the Democrat-Socialists. This is pretty much as expected, and given the fact that no one person has yet won two GOP primaries in a row, any prognistications are pure speculation. While I'm normally loath to engage in guessing on political matters and even less fond of "spin," the exception in this case is that this is getting fun, and I'm a big fan of fun.

So what's my angle?

First, an essential attribute of the Michigan primary is that it's an "open" primary - which means that anyone can cast a vote for anyone, regardless of party affiliation. Secondly, Hillary Clinton was the sole candidate on the Democrat ballot due to the DNC's penalizing the state for holding its primary earlier than that party's rules allow. For once the Demo-Socs get something right - bravo!

Thirdly, though there's no positive confirmation that this actually took place, leftwing activists were urging Michigan Democrats to monkeywrench the GOP results by picking up Republican ballots and skewing the vote to their liking. Given the total absence of any appreciable stake in the Democrat contest, it's likely that a large percentage of votes on the Republican side were actually cast by hardcore leftists from the dark other side

One leftwing blogger had argued for Democrats to cast votes for Romney, on the theory that Romney's continued presence in the race would dilute the perception of any clear GOP frontrunner, thereby benefiting (somehow,) the Demo-Socialist Party. Umm, I always say "there's a Rush lyric for every situation in life," in this case it's: "You can twist perceptions / reality won't budge." If the Demo-Socs think they're going to get some kind of tangible uptick in November from that strategy, they're more delusional than even their ideology would suggest.

My take on the results: The more likely scenario of leftwing electoral tinkering is that they cast votes for McCain, who aside from his stance on the war is one of the two Democrats currently masquerading as Republicans. The other, of course, is Huckabee, but his theocratic worldview is too disturbing even for those enamored of his strident statism and hostility to economic liberty. The Romney-McCain-Huckabee trifecta indicates that Michigan GOP voters a.) like the Romney pedigree, and b.) remain disturbingly aligned with the religious right's tunnel-vision - as evidenced by Huckabee's double-digit showing well ahead of Giuliani, Thompson and Paul, also their probable contribution to the religious Romney's win.

All in all, with the GOP results from upcoming primaries in Nevada, South Carolina and Florida projected to maintain the "horse race" status of no consistent frontrunner, the GOP primaries prior to "Super Tuesday" will be a push. As I've said before, the real battle within the GOP field won't have been joined until the results are in the night of February 5 - and the fact that Giuliani is my current fave has absolutely nothing to do with that appraisal, honest.

Seriously, Giuliani won't really have entered this race until and unless he wins some of the huge delegate prizes on the 5th, though pulling off a victory in Florida ahead of that would be a huge coup. He's selected a do-or-die strategy, and the gloves have to come off February 5th or he's out of this.

Stay tuned...