Silliness at work

This is somewhat moot now, what with Romney suspending his campaign, but it’s silly nevertheless. Steve Sailer over at VDARE has noted that Mitt Romney has largely been winning in states with caucuses and has an explanation:

That seems to be a pattern — Romney does well in caucuses and loses in primaries. Before today, he won caucuses in Wyoming, Nevada, and Maine, and a primary in his “home” state of Michigan. Perhaps that’s just because the more dedicated, public affairs-oriented individuals who show up at caucuses have carefully assessed each candidate’s positions and resumes and made a responsible choice for Romney.

Or maybe … it’s because Mormons keep packing the caucuses.

Unfortunately, I can’t find exit polls for Colorado and Minnesota, but we do know that Romney’s victory in the Nevada caucus was boosted by Mormons making up 25% of the GOP caucusers and going close to 100% for Romney. So, I have my suspicions about his other caucus victories. If anybody has any evidence one way or another, let me know.

For starters (as I wrote Steve and told him), if you take his article and substitute “Obama” for “Romney” and “African-Americans” for “Mormons”, the article quickly seems silly, if not pointless.

Second, I’m not sure how Mormons would “pack” caucuses. My wife attended the Republican caucuses last Tuesday night; everyone attending was carefully checked against voter registration roles to ensure that they were currently registered for that precinct. (In fact, my wife said a friend of ours — a Mormon, no less! — was turned away because his voter registration wasn’t current.) Since Mormons only make up a little over 2% of Colorado’s population, the idea of Mormons somehow accounting for Romney’s 60% of the caucus votes — other than by simply showing up in their own precincts, as anyone could — seems far fetched. ..bruce..

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