This morning I saw that Jennifer Rubin, The Washington Post's President Romney press secretary wannabe, was gleefully retweeting this:
Hey, liberal poopyhead! We Republicans do so have enthusiasm!
Um, yeah, the turnout was way up, but this is an apples-and-oranges comparison. The 2008 Wisconsin primary was meaningless -- the #2 guy in the race, Mitt Romney, had dropped out a couple of weeks earlier, leaving Mike Huckabee as the only semi-serious challenger (an analogous situation this year would have been a withdrawal by Rick Santorum). The front-runner in '08, John McCain, already had 843 of the 1,144 delegates he needed to win before Wisconsin, according to AP. (Romney had only 572 before Wisconsin this year, and the Wisconsin primary was a month and a half later this time around.) McCain had already won the delegate-rich states of California, New York, and New Jersey.
So it was a meaningless contest in '08. Of course turnout was higher this year. Sorry, Jennifer, you're grasping at straws.
I wonder if she factored in the Democrats and independents who voted in the Republican primary this year. They have to account for some of the increase.
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