amazing that iowa republicans screwed up their caucuses so badly they wrongly reported the results and had to flip them after the fact. historically amazing. but in terms of the impact of the race, not so much. now though, if another state pulls an iowa, that would have a huge impact on the narrative of the race. therefore, it would have a big impact on who is likely to get the republican nomination for president. i think that is where we are right now. heading in the maine caucuses this past weekend, mitt romney supposedly the front-runner for the nomination, lost straight races, not in places like iowa, he lost in minnesota, which mitt romney won in 2008. not only did he lose minnesota this time, he lost every single county in the state and came in not second but third in the state. mitt romney also in 2008 had cleaned up in colorado. with 60% of the vote there. he had won colorado in 2008 hugely.
won iowa this year. then the chairman went on a radio show and said rick santorum won. and then the state republican party came out with a new line yes, rick santorum won, not mitt romney like they said before, and not a tie or who knows like they said that morning, but rick santorum the winner, the result tonights were reversed rick santorum won, more than two weeks after iowa republicans actually voted and were told the opposite result. it was crazy, right? what happened in iowa this year was crazy, that had never before happened in modern american presidential politics, with you the impact of that, effect of that screw-up by the iowa republican party on the overall presidential nominating process, honestly mostly just affected iowa. frankly made it seem like maybe iowa should not be trusted to be first in the country anymore with the attention and money that status brings. costs the chairman his job, he resigned in disgrace over the caucus debacle. in terms how it affected the
its results and then at 2:30 eastern time the chairman of the party said there was finally a result. i can report with 1770 precincting reporting, mitt romney received 30,015 votes, rick santorum received 30,007 votes. congratulations to governor mitt romney, winner of the 2012 iowa caucuses. so on caucus night, in iowa the iowa republican chairman says mitt romney won by 8 votes. 8 votes out of 120,000 cast. no provision for a recount with a result that choice, the republican party of iowa said that was the result and they said they would certify it and make it official within two weeks. two weeks later the party said they still didn t have an official certified result, then once they had gone past the deadline the state chairman said actually turns out iowa was a
history of american politics there had never before been a presidential nominating contest that was reversed after the fact where a state declared candidate x was the winner of the state and then that state changed their mind. before this year, in iowa, that had never happened before. now, it may have happened twice. hey, beltway media over here! this is not a ron paul conspiracy theory i don t want to discuss delegate allocation. the ron paul candidacy is not what this is about. i think that republicans in the state of maine may end up having to withdraw their declaration that mitt romney won the state of maine. the same way republicans had to do in iowa last month. remember what happened in iowa was that on the night of the caucuses we stayed up until what felt like dawn, waiting for the iowa republican party to report
not affect their vote being counted by the state party. now they are being told no matter how they vote this upcoming weekend it s a done deal their vote won t be counted no matter what it is. the town of waterville main in, kennebec county, they voted for ron paul over mitt romney they are recorded as a zero in the republican party s official results. again the margin of victory for mitt romney in maine is only reported to be 194 votes. these anecdote screw ups were reported in iowa after they declared mitt romney was the winner there. remember the iowa republican chairman at the time dismissed all those reports and said those little typos won t change the outcome of iowa s vote. ultimately the outcome was affected by the discrepancies and iowa had to reverse its results and the chairman is out of a job. so far in maine, specifically on the issue of washington county not having votes counted at all, maine s party chairman his line that is it s inconceivable that washington county cou