Romney wins Maine – another blow for Ron Paul

Let me guess – he was cheated out of that one, too. Sure enough…

Although there is one small county (Washington County, population 33,000 or so out of a state of about 1.3 million) which did not conduct its caucus yesterday due to snow, the Maine Republican Party announced last evening that Mitt Romney was the winner of their primary. He collected 39% of the vote, Ron Paul was second with 36%, Rick Santorum third with 18%, and Newt Gingrich 6% for last. The results broken down by county and caucus site are here, and they show both Romney and Paul battled it out in a number of small precincts. Eight counties were carried by Mitt Romney, six by Ron Paul.

Yet the Paul campaign is claiming foul once again. This is from campaign manager John Tate:

Tonight you saw dueling examples of how much the establishment is scared of Ron Paul and his message of liberty.

Ron Paul will win the most delegates out of Maine tonight.

In fact, he will probably even win the “beauty contest” Straw Poll the media has already called for Mitt Romney – even before all the votes have been tallied.

“HOW CAN THAT BE?” you might be asking yourself.

Simple.  The national political establishment and their pals in the national media will do ANYTHING to silence our message of liberty.

(snip blatant fundraising appeal)

You see, in Maine today, you and I saw a perfect example of just how much the establishment fears Ron Paul.

In Washington County – where Ron Paul was incredibly strong – the caucus was delayed until next week just so the votes wouldn’t be reported by the national media today.

Of course, their excuse for the delay was “snow.”

That’s right.  A prediction of 3-4 inches – that turned into nothing more than a dusting – was enough for a local GOP official to postpone the caucuses just so the results wouldn’t be reported tonight.

Michael, this is MAINE we’re talking about.

The GIRL SCOUTS had an event today in Washington County that wasn’t cancelled!

And just the votes of Washington County would have been enough to put us over the top.

This is an outrage.  Perhaps you heard about it on the mainstream news tonight?

Probably not.  In fact, if you were watching one major network, they cut off their telecast of Ron Paul’s speech right when he began mentioning this fact.

The truth is, there is no length to which the GOP establishment won’t go.  There is nothing the mainstream media won’t do.

But they can’t stifle our message.  And with your help, they will have to listen to it all the way to the GOP nominating convention in August.

Ron Paul told me this weekend — he is in it to stay and to WIN.

And we are bringing delegates with us to the fight.  Lots of them.

In fact, while the national media continues to focus on Straw Polls, we’re racking up delegate after delegate . . .

. . . the folks who will ultimately decide who goes to Tampa, Florida to select our Republican nominee for President. (All emphasis in original.)

Now I will concede that the people who run the Washington County GOP may be related to those who close the public schools around here if seven flakes of snow fall out of an overabundance of caution, but if you read this carefully here is the CAMPAIGN accusing a local county GOP and the national media of fraudulent behavior just to hold back the “true” winner. It’s not just the “supporters” as several of those who commented claimed here. (Be sure to read the postscript and link, which purportedly showed Maine was willing to cheat.)

Yet, once again, the Paul campaign is claiming they will emerge with the most delegates out of Maine despite finishing second. (And it will be second, unless there are more than 200 caucus participants in Washington County and other sites which haven’t participated yet and all of them vote for Ron Paul.) We will see on that one, but we are being set up for a contentious convention in September August.

There’s no question that a political consultant’s key job is to spin the results of an election to make his or her candidate look the best he or she can, but when they believe that everything is a conspiracy stacked against them, that’s a problem. I wouldn’t mind a brokered convention myself and Paul may have enough delegates along with the other two in the race to force this. But he’s not going to win, nor is he winning the hearts and minds of thoughtful conservatives by his campaign and supporters claiming foul every time Ron Paul loses.

Peak climate?

My latest for PJ Media…

Back in 1956, geophysicist M. King Hubbert advanced a theory that the United States would peak in its oil production within the next decade. Ever since the day of reckoning passed around 1970, those who buy into this postulation have warned us the proverbial end is near, and that we need to change our oil-thirsty ways. The peak oil theory continues to affect our lives, but there are two key areas where the influence is felt the most.

Massive subsidy spending by government in so-called alternative sources of energy — like solar panels and wind power — drives up our national debt by billions annually, while corporate average fuel economy standards which dictate how many miles per gallon a manufacturer’s overall fleet of cars must achieve have made cars less safe in case of an accident. Both have redistributed capital from what could be more productive pursuits into a vain attempt to turn the clock back to a pattern of weather which was more hospitable.

On that note, the other day I read with interest that the University of East Anglia — ground zero for the Climategate scandal which rocked the scientific community — has quietly released data showing the Earth’s temperature had reached its modern peak fifteen years ago. Since then, the temperatures have remained steady or even dropped slightly.

So the question has to be asked: have we now passed peak climate?

(continued at PJ Media…)