Why Romney wins Illinois today

By tmcbpatriot

(Ed. note: We'll be live-blogging the results of the Illinois Republican primary this evening, starting shortly, and the patriot will be joining us, but here, for now, is his take on why Romney will win. -- MJWS)

Spoiler alert! Stop now if you do not want to know how this ends. Although it is really not that exciting.

Mitt Romney is going to win the Illinois primary handily today. Write it down and then forget where you put the piece of paper you wrote it on because Illinois is simply not going to vote for anyone else. Sure, there will be no short supply of Santorum lovers and a few Ron Paul nuts. Gingrich might even manage to get a few votes as well. But this is the Midwest and Illinois is as "mid" as the west gets.

Here too is what you won't see: You won't see a repeat of last week's bumble-f**kkk in the southern racist enclaves of Alabama and Mississippi. No sir. No how. Illinois is much more straight-laced in its conservative creds than the South and Illinoisans always vote with their wallet in mind. Social issues? Please. Illinois is as corrupt as it gets. Illinoisans looking for a politician with moral convictions is like South Carolinians looking for a candidate who is sane. It is just impossible to find.

In addition to that, Illinois is also a pretty blue state. It voted for Obama in droves and has a huge black and Latino population. But for all its blue-state creds, Illinois has some fairly red ones as well. The state has no helmet law, smoking in bars was banned only after years of opposition, Chicago is one of the most racially segregated cities in the country, and guns run rampant on Chicago streets like it's some old-time western town. Chicago is also the home of the Chicago Merc, where workers gleefully taunted the Occupy folks last fall.

Point is, red or blue, no matter where you live in the state, anything can be yours for the right price. In other words, in Illinois the pocketbook rules, period! Chicago is also a real working town. It is not a place where people get too hung up on social issues like abortion, gays, porn, or contraception. Sure, you will get some of that in the burbs. But at the end of the day, Illinoisans are taxed so much and nickel-and-dimed to death so regularly that they vote only for whom they think will provide the most bang for their tax dollars.

Rick Santorum was in Rockville, Illinois yesterday and actually said out loud to the folks in attendance that "the issue in this race is not the economy." Talk about out of touch! This is a man who knows nothing about the state he is trying to win. Illinoisans are not dreamers. Nobody imagines a Republican president or any politician for that matter doing a darn thing about the rampant crime, the shootings, fixing the crappy public schools, or lowering their taxes at all. Illinoisans have had multiple opportunities to vote for a Republican and even when they do nothing ever changes.

For Rick Santorum even to consider that Illinois Republicans care at all about the over-reach of government proves he is out of his league on this one. Government over-reach in Illinois is what keeps the state going! Today's primary is not about principles or morals. Illinois politics is devoid of it. It is simply going to be about voting for the guy who seems the most sensible in terms of dollars and cents. In Illinois, it is the only thing that really matters. In Illinois, it is about the economy, stupid. And with that there is no viable alternative to Mitt Romney other than Mitt Romney. And that is how it will play out.

Now, for the record I want to emphasize that my prediction is in no way a vote for Romney, or any of the other Republican clowns at this or any time. I am only saying that Romney will win today and will go on to win the nomination. These are the cold hard facts. And just like with Illinois, the cold hard facts are something you simply cannot ignore.