Fear of com-Mitt-ment

Michigan voters put their mitts on their ballots last night, with mildly surprising results on both the Republican and Democratic sides of the race.

For the Republicans, Mitt Romney, left for dead a week ago after humiliating losses in Iowa and New Hampshire, had a convincing victory over (this week's) national frontrunner, John McCain. The win — Romney's first — likely saved his candidacy, and further muddled the race amongst Republicans, with Romney, McCain, and Mike Huckabee each having taken one contest. Rudy Giuliani barely came in 6th place. No clear frontrunner has emerged, and it's possible that none will even after the Feb 5 mega-primaries.

A bit of surprising news on the Democratic side as well. For reasons that are far too arcane to get into, Democratic candidates were forbidden to campaign in Michigan, and both Barack Obama and John Edwards had their names taken off the ballot. Hillary Clinton easily won the primary, but surprisingly, nearly 40% of voters went to the polls to mark their preference for "Uncommitted" delegates to the nominating convention. And a Fox News exit poll noted that African American voters chose "Uncommitted" over Clinton by a 2-to-1 margin.

Westmonster hears it was a snowy day, with low voter turnout. We find it pretty impressive that voters would come out in the cold to vote for "Uncommitted" — especially when the state has been stripped of all its delegates on the Dem side. We're certain it gives Sen. Clinton great comfort that given the choice to (a) vote for her, (b) not vote at all, or (c) vote for nobody, just to spite her, so many of Michigan's Democratic voters chose option (c).