Protest Votes
Posted on May 8, 2008 by andrew
The Economist responds to my post about how McCain’s trouble with the base is showing up in a 20% protest vote in the primaries. They don’t think it’s a problem, but if you look at the late 2004 Democratic primaries the only candidate getting a substantial vote other than Sen. Kerry is Sen. Edwards. But unlike the Huckabee/Paul vote that vote was not a rejection of Kerry. I was one of those who voted for Edwards, not because I rejected Kerry as the nominee, but because I wanted him to pick Edwards as his running mate.
So when John Kerry was the nominee and a move on to have Edwards as his running mate, their combined votes were 81-87% of the vote – not the kind of number McCain is getting.
Hmm. Thing is, I voted for Edwards, too (and in the same primary, if Willis was also a Maryland resident in 2004 as I believe he is now). And unlike Willis, I voted for Edwards because I still wanted to register my protest again John Kerry as the nominee. Sure, I wanted Edwards to be the veep nominee if Kerry were going to win the big prize, but what I really wanted was for Kerry to not win at all because I didn’t think he could achieve the most important goal of defeating Bush. I was right.
I’m not sure what, if anything, that says about John McCain’s situation. Edwards was still officially in the race while the guys taking votes from McCain now have either already ceded him the nomination (Huckabee) or are not remotely viable candidates (Paul). All I’m saying is that Willis is not entirely correct in his assertion that voters were not rejecting Kerry when they voted for Edwards late in the ‘04 calendar. My vote was, above all else, a rejection of John Kerry, and I suspect there are a fair number of Democrats who could say the same.
Sphere: Related Content» Filed Under 2004 presidential election, 2008 Republican primary, John Kerry, John McCain
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FYI at the time I voted in Massachusetts, which Edwards never had a snowballs chance of winning or coming remotely close in the first place.