He does angry a lot better than Rick Santorum. While he isn’t the perfect candidate, and some of the stances he’s taken over the years give me pause, he is the one I voted for.

While I had this to say about Rick Santorum:

I really like him. I like the consistency of his message. I like his principles and the clear way he articulates them. I think he was wrong on supporting Specter, but I can’t fault his reasoning. I don’t care for his spending history, but even that I can accept his explanation. What I don’t like is his “Angry Rick”. While that may be the role he needs to play based on his underdog position, it just doesn’t work for him.

What was unsaid was a belief that between the two Gingrich was the more “electable”. I justified my thoughts about electability with my disappointment regarding Santorum’s debate performances. I still believe that his debate attacks can sound whinney and that, as a strategy, he could find something that works better. “Angry Rick” aside, I honestly would prefer Santorum to Gingrich, but bought into the idea that Newt stood a better chance of winning.

I was wrong.

I was wrong, not because of Santorum’s Tuesday night hat trick, but because I let “electability” be the deciding factor. I should have voted for Santorum because I believed, and still do, that he is the conservative in the race who’s beliefs most closely mirror my own.

I don’t get a do-over here in Florida, but I hope that I will be able to correct my error in November.

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When you’re done voting, come back to this post and tell us why you voted the way you did.

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In the first closed primary of the season I get to join 4,063,852 other registered Republicans and make my choice known. Polls open 30 minutes from now (7:00am) and close at 8:00pm. Nearly 300,000 have already voted, but there is something I really like about voting on voting day. I’ll be there shortly after the doors open.

Nine names are on the ballot: Michele Bachmann, Herman Cain, Newt Gingrich, Jon Huntsman, Gary Johnson, Ron Paul, Rick Perry, Mitt Romney, and Rick Santorum. Over half are no longer a part of the race. So, what are my thoughts on the final four?

Ron Paul was never a part of any personal consideration. I don’t care how good some of his domestic and fiscal ideas may be, they can’t offset his foreign policies and isolationist views. It doesn’t help that his more ardent supporters are the most irritating on the planet. Rather than helping his cause they do just the opposite.

That leaves the three winners of the previous contests. I’ll take them in order of their wins.

Rick Santorum. I really like him. I like the consistency of his message. I like his principles and the clear way he articulates them. I think he was wrong on supporting Specter, but I can’t fault his reasoning. I don’t care for his spending history, but even that I can accept his explanation. What I don’t like is his “Angry Rick”. While that may be the role he needs to play based on his underdog position, it just doesn’t work for him.

Mitt Romney. I just don’t trust him. I fully believe him when he explains his change of heart on being pro-life. I don’t have quite the same level of trust when it comes to some of his other changing positions. Most of all, I’ve never been satisfied with his defense of insurance mandates in Massachusetts. While I agree that states have that right, that doesn’t make it good policy. Other than that I have to go back to my gut impression of “used car salesman”. I always come away feeling that he’s trying to sell me something I don’t necessarily want to buy.

Newt Gingrich. He does angry a lot better than Rick Santorum. While he isn’t the perfect candidate, and some of the stances he’s taken over the years give me pause, he is the one I voted for. (This post took way to long to write.)

Given all of the above, I still think that any of these candidates are head and shoulders above Obama. Whoever gets the nomination will get my full support in the fall.

If you’re in Florida, please get out and vote if you haven’t already done so. If you want to share your thoughts, the comments are open for you.

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The method of least squares is a standard approach to the approximate solution of overdetermined systems, i.e., sets of equations in which there are more equations than unknowns. “Least squares” means that the overall solution minimizes the sum of the squares of the errors made in solving every single equation.

The candidates and their credentials are our overdetermined system. We know these men, or at least we have our opinions on them, and try as we might we just can’t get them to match up on every single point along the line that is our ideal. In this examination, “there are more equations than unknowns.” If we wanted to take the time we could rate each one on every criteria that we feel is important from their positions on financial matters to national defense to how presidential they look. If we plotted each value for each candidate we could see how their regression line looks compared to our own.

So what?

There are a couple of things that we can learn from this. A much simpler expression is, “there is only one perfect person, and Jesus ain’t runnin’.” Sorry if I’m the one breaking this news to you, but none of the candidates is going to match your idea of perfection on each point. They’re not. Get over it.

It would also be clear from any analysis that President Obama’s plotted regression would look like a graph of the Chicago Cubs World Series wins. The inverse of that is that each Republican candidate looks much better by comparison. That leaves us to determine which candidate looks the best.

But there’s a problem.

You and I are going to score the candidates differently. Not only are we going to have a different opinion on where a candidate ranks on a particular issue, we are also going to differ on which issues are the most important, and which don’t matter to us.

Again I ask, so what?

Let’s not take our eyes off the goal. We need to defeat Barack Obama in November. We’re not going to do it with the perfect candidate. We just need to determine which candidate, for each of us, is our Least Squares Fit.

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First, Congratulations to Newt Gingrich for his win in SC. The question, as I see it, is how much of his momentum will carry over here in Florida. Of course that was days ago, which means I am really behind in posting here.

Second, I hate Direct TV but I think their latest commercials are really funny. See, I told you these were random.

Rick Santorum is scheduled to be in Lakeland (where I work) this Saturday. I have tickets to attend the event. It is also a straw poll of the local 9-12 group.

Finally, back to the primaries, I have a post started in my head about the right’s need to find the perfect candidate. The short version – one doesn’t exist. Check back later to read it.

One more thing about the debates, and this is for all of the candidates, whatever question the moderator asks, your answer should include the word “Obama”. Let’s focus here people. Just because I’m all over the map doesn’t mean you can be. In my mind, I really don’t care that much about what you think about each other. The person who is going to get my support is the one who will take on Barack Obama. That is the reason for this little exercise after all.

Have a great day. Let me hear your random thoughts in the comments.

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Texas Gov. Rick Perry is abandoning his presidential bid, a source tells the Associated Press.

Perry is expected to make an announcement at 11 a.m.

Perry is expected to endorse Newt Gingrich, the source told the Associated Press.

This is going to make a difference in South Carolina and Florida. We’ll see what kind of difference soon.

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I’ve been putting in a lot of time working on the 2012 GOP Convention Supersite, but I can’t ignore my main site. Here’s this morning’s roundup of posts from around the conservative side of the blogosphere.

Ed Morrissey keeps an eye on the Supreme Court as they tackle Stregulation in Sackett v EPA. Read Audio: Justice Alito oddly unimpressed with EPA procedures

Some very good news – Senator Marco Rubio has withdrawn his co-sponsorship of the PIPA bill.

My lovely Cindy is raging about Obama’s refusal to issue the Keystone permits. She’s not alone. Doug Ross says, “I love the smell of red-on-red warfare in the morning: unions vow war with Obama over Keystone XL”

Guy Benson lays out a plan for “how Republicans should respond to this mess” (Keystone) at Town Hall.

And, for those who are interested, we have hot water again.

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Got a call at work on Monday telling me the laundry room was flooding. Rushed home, shut off the water, examined the carnage. As I suspected, and feared, our water heater that is (was) older than Dick Clark had decided to pull a Julian Assange and then retire. The good news, if any, was that I found a practically new water heater on craigslist for $50. Not that I have an extra $50 laying around, but you do what you have to do. The bad news? I have to put it in myself.

I don’t talk about it much, but my boss and job are awesome. A quick text and I was able to get the day off to play Curly. The new (used) water heater is about twice as tall as the old one. The pipes are not. I get to change that today.

I hope your day is more fun than what I anticipate. I’ll let you know how it goes.

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Enter the 2012 GOP Convention Blogger Supersite. I am setting up this site to gather and share resources the attending bloggers might need. I urge you to visit the site and add it to your links, feed readers, etc. I would really appreciate it if you will visit the first post and add your comments and hit all the share buttons.

As I said over there, the first order of business is compiling a list of Tampa-Orlando area bloggers. Let me know if you fit that description. Soon, we’ll be looking for information about those coming to the convention.

Friends, 2012 will be a blur and August will be here before we know it. Help me spread the word today. Thanks!

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Here’s who’s left: Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul, Rick Perry, Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum, and All The Rest. If you vote for all the rest please feel free to leave a comment telling us who that vote represents.

Get you vote in soon. I think things will be moving very quickly. Tell your friends about the poll

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