Public Radio talking about WI primary/ freepers calling

The freepers keep calling the show saying that they are going to vote for Kucinich. I think they hope they can sway the vote because they feel he can't get the vote when it comes to real election.
How do I know they're freepers, they can't even say the guy's name. One even said that she and her husband were republicans but they were going to sign up with the Dems so they could vote in the primary.

when he beats the pants off *

What a bunch of cheating assholes. They're so stupid they openly admit their cheating intentions.

It's one of those things that goes along with the style of primary certain states hold. I never did it, but I've heard of it being done here. Both parties do it in open primary states -- it's just another tactic. Because it's legal, you can't call it cheating really -- just dirty tricks. Does it worry me? Hell yeah. Is there anything that can be done about it? Not really. Do both parties do it? Of course they do.

Admitting it in a public forum is just hubris -- they're pretty sure they have it in the bag anyway, so they don't care who knows.

Of course I kind of like the guy.

...and actually getting your ass off the couch and down to the polling place to do that are two different things.

We've had an open primary here in WI for as long as I can remember. I don't remember it ever appearing to be overly affected by cross-party voting (in a presidential primary).

I'm not particularly worried about it -- as long as actual Democrats manage to get THEIR asses off the couch that day.

and you are right on the money when you say that the DEMs have to get off their collective butts to get the vote out. The 2000 presidential contest was waaaayyyyy too close.

I don't believe there's anything else major on the ballot in WI's primary. (Is the Milwaukee mayoral election that day? I live in the suburbs.) The Congressional primaries aren't until September. There aren't any major ballot initiatives I'm aware of. So people would have to actually get up and go vote just for this one thing.

There's always a little cross-party voting -- I might have voted for McCain over W, if Gore-Bradley had been settled by then. (Turns out both were -- we had a later primary in past years.) (Oh, and not to infiltrate -- McCain just scared me less.) I don't think it's statistically significant, though.

For the record -- The Kucinich organization is damn strong here. It wouldn't surprise me if he did better here than in most other states on his own merits. So I'm sure not all of the callers are freepers, but, yes -- the WI for Kucinich people I've talked to all can pronounce (and spell) his name.

popular in Madison? I bet he would be, and I also see him have lots of events there. In fact I think one stop on DK's "announcement tour" was there, along with Cleveland and Des Moines.

He's got quite a following in Madison, second perhaps to Dean.
He had a brief appearance in Madison on his announcement tour, and he's been there a couple other times.

I do have to say, it seems the only candidates with a really strong grassroots presence in Wisconsin (at least the parts of it I've seen) are Kucinich and Dean. The "Draft Clark" movement was pretty big, but now that he's officially in, it seems to have quieted down. I do see a small movement for Kerry. That's about it.

Even Joy, lame as she can be at times as host, remarked about their inability to pronounce the name.

I am intrigued by the poll results they are citing as well
Dean 21%
Lieberman 16%
Clark next but I don't know the numbers

I heard Ms. Scattergood say they polled likely voters. I suppose that is valid since we have an open primary, but I wonder what the numbers would be if they had polled dems only.

lives in Fon Du Lac and he switched over in 1996 because Clinton was secure, and he voted for someone like Buchanan or Pat Robertson, for the same reasons that these Republicans are doing it here. That's cool though, it's all fair IMHO. I'd do it too.