Possible Republican On Republican Vote Fraud? Won't Somebody Think Of The Children?

Bachmann Rigged Iowa Poll by Buying "At Least" 4000 Votes  If this is indicative of the upcoming 2012 nomination process, hang on!  The ride's gonna be fantastic, and really funny!  From Domas Jefferson.  Excerpts:

Bachmann, who finished with 4823 votes, narrowly beat second-place finisher Congressman Ron Paul who collected 4671 votes.

The Ames poll, although important because of the early significance of Iowa in the primaries, is nonbinding and unscientific.

AFP reported that "It has been criticized as playing too heavily in favor of candidates that are well financed, since their campaigns can buy the $30 tickets for their supporters to attend and presumably vote in their favor."

The Ames event was considered to be a Republican fundraiser, yet Bachmann's campaign bought and "handed out at least 4,000 free tickets to supporters."

Therefore, Bachmann appears to have rigged the vote at a minimum direct cost of $120,000 to her campaign. (The problem with this statement is there is no information comparing ticket purchases of other campaigns to Bachmann's.  I would field a guess, though, as to Ron Paul's supporters buying most, if not all their own tickets, without help from Paul's campaign.  But I don't know that for sure, as there is no information supporting my theory, or to the contrary, either..)

Another anomaly with the vote surfaced this morning when it was discovered that 218 votes went unaccounted for. In other words, these votes were in the overall tally but not registered to any of the candidates.

One would think the media would attempt to uncover the discrepancy given the razor thin 152-vote margin between Bachmann and Paul. However, so far, they've been content to call her the "queen" of the event.

Bonus:  When you click the link and read the whole article at the site, feast your eyes on what might be the funniest political photo I've ever seen. As long as Bachmann is in, we'll be getting these wonderful Kodak Moments, probably daily!  Bachmann deserves hilarity-based scorn not because she is a woman or a Tea Partier.  She is laughable because she is a clown and aggressively talky.  She can't help herself, and people can't help laughing.

The Republican Party could forever be written off as Criminally Insane, save for Ames' second choice(and possible/probable winner), Ron Paul.  The MSM narrative is "Ron Paul always wins straw polls, but can't win an election."  That was 2008, 2009, and 2010.  2011/12 might be different, as this could be the cycle where people realize Paul was right much more than he was wrong, and much more right than anyone else running in either 2008 or 2012. 

He is thoughtful, articulate, and honorable.  He is in no way a clown.  And, for the moment, he's second right out of the gate.  Hopefully, his message can be heard over the bleating and tomfoolery of the Bachmann ass clown posse.  We'll see, but I think it's gonna be a great trip down!