Saturday, January 22, 2011

Here We Go Again

The GOP Comedy All-Star 2011-2012 tour kicks off officially today in New Hampshire as Granite State Republicans hold their first straw poll.

WMUR-TV and ABC News will sponsor New Hampshire's first-ever straw poll of state Republican officials, who will gather in Derry, NH to choose their next state chair. The event, one of the earliest of its kind, ever, is expected to be watched by political junkies across the country.

But it's unclear if the event will do much more than briefly satiate the appetites of those hungry for all things electoral -- coming so far before the primary, and before the major candidates have officially declared their intention to run, what exactly the "winner" of Saturday's straw poll suggests about the nomination race is difficult to predict, to say the least. But the event will offer a chance to see who has the heart of the activists and party organizers in New Hampshire, which could suggest who's got the momentum heading into next year's primary season.

Here's how the straw poll is going to work, from WMUR's announcement of the event:
This Saturday, the 493 members of the New Hampshire Republican party will gather at the Pinkerton Academy in Derry, New Hampshire for their annual meeting. While there, each one of these party members will be able to anonymously choose the candidate they'd like to see as the party's nominee for 2012.
Politico reports the officials in Derry will be handed a 21-line ballot -- "20 names of potential candidates and one line marked "Other," where participants can write in an unlisted candidate." Who's on the list? "The ballot includes some Republicans who say they aren't running, such as New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, and others who have only vaguely hinted at the possibility of a run, like former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani."

I'm the most interested in that "Other" line to see who's going to look at that list of twenty GOP hopefuls, go "none of these idiots can win because they're crazy" and then write in somebody even more crazy.

Still, we'll see who comes out on top on "So You Want To Be President".  Twenty-one-and-a-half months to go!

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