One story that has slowly but clearly emerged in the primary season is that the Republican Party has inexplicably managed to turn the “enthusiasm gap” on its head.
Throughout 2010 and most of 2011 the narrative was that President Obama’s supporters were disgruntled, disappointed – many on the left felt betrayed. As the story goes, Republicans were giddy in anticipation of voting the president out.
After a disappointing field of presidential candidates emerged and frontrunners came and went, that GOP enthusiasm gradually faded.
Many voters told pollsters they wished for a new candidate or planned to vote in a defensive manner, hoping to prevent certain contenders from getting the nomination.
That was followed by extraordinarily low turnouts in some of the early primary and caucus states.
Michigan followed this path without straying in the slightest.
The figures from Tuesday show that, if you separate the independents and Democrats who went to the polls, about 750,000 Republicans from across the state voted in the primary.
That’s a little less than 10 percent of the electorate. Or, probably where the figure would have been if Michigan didn’t have such an open primary.
What’s more, that was the participation rate in what was probably the biggest election in Michigan in 20 years. All eyes were on the Great Lakes State, and the Michigan GOP yawned.
While Obama’s national numbers are improving, the nasty campaign between Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum is taking its toll. In the two weeks leading up to our state primary, one national poll showed that the favorable/unfavorable ratings for Romney and Santorum had dipped by a combined 39 points.
At the same time, the national media that swarmed Michigan were puzzled by the low turnout. They were chagrined that a significant majority of voters said the Arizona debate held six days before the election – possibly the final faceoff between the four candidates – had little or no impact on their vote.
Then the exit poll numbers emerged and it showed that only 62 percent of all voters said they will “definitely” vote for the GOP nominee in November. Those who “strongly” favored their candidate was 45 percent. Another 38 percent said they like their candidate “with reservations,” and 16 percent admitted that their vote was based on the fact that they dislike the other candidates.
Not exactly sterling examples of GOP unity. Or enthusiasm.
