Gingrich: Winning Michigan Remains a Feasible Goal

NewsMax ^ | February 16, 2012 | Newt Gingrich

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Presidential candidate NewtGingrich says even though rivals RickSantorum and Mitt Romney are currently leading the pack in the important primary state of Michigan — which is also Romney’s home state — the former House speaker has not given up on his chances. Gingrich, who has dumbfounded political pundits before with his repeated surges, also told Fox News’ Greta Van Susteren Wednesday that he continues to confidently look to Super Tuesday.

“I’ll be in Michigan campaigning next week — we have every reason to believe we’re going to be competing there effectively — and we’re going to have a number of surrogates also competing in Michigan,” Gingrich said. “You have to break 15 percent — it’s a proportional representation state — I think we will do that....

“And my prediction is that if Mitt Romney goes and attacks Santorum as negatively as he attacked me in Florida and elsewhere, that what you’re going to see is he’ll peel votes off Santorum — but they’re going to come to me — they’re not going to go to Romney,” he continued. “This is the challenge Governor Romney has . . . he has, you know, Congressman Ron Paul, who’s done very, very well in Maine, virtually tied him. He has Rick Santorum, who did very well last week. And I’ve done pretty well against him in — I came in second in Florida and in Nevada — and I came in first in South Carolina.

[snip]

“I’ve got a new message out, for example, of getting back to $2-a-gallon or $2.50-a- gallon gasoline, how to have a national energy policy, totally positive, totally designed to solve one of our major problems,” he said. “I’m going to continue to focus on these kind of very positive messages.

“People are looking for a positive leader...

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Newt Gingrich is going to be hitting energy independence and gas prices hard. The people are seeing the price at the pump and how Obama is downgrading our national defenses and sending money to Middle East countries.

This is a winning issue for Newt. I hope to see Rick Perry on the stump pushing this same platform for Gingrich.

[cripplecreek]

Yeah at around 11% he’s just a step away from taking all the Michigan delegates.

[wolfcreek]

Latest poll has him 24 points down to Santorum.

Good luck, Newt

[Right_in_Virginia]

Is Michigan a “winner take all” state? Thx.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

.......”“I’ll be in Michigan campaigning next week — we have every reason to believe we’re going to be competing there effectively — and we’re going to have a number of surrogates also competing in Michigan,” Gingrich said. “You have to break 15 percent — it’s a proportional representation state —’....

[Cincinatus' Wife]

More about the Michigan primary:

http://www.thegreenpapers.com/P12/MI-R#0228

All the contests:

http://www.thegreenpapers.com/P12/events.phtml?s=c

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks Cincinatus’ Wife.

[Right_in_Virginia]

Thanks!

[Happy Rain]

The CNN debate Tuesday may be a make or break for Newt.
But after what he did to King last time the only questions he is going to get, if he gets any, will be on the line of “Have you stopped molesting children answer yes or no!”

[Cincinatus' Wife]

The moderators will do everything to avoid pitching a softball to Newt in AZ. They will probably not call on him often. It will be up to him.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

The interview quoted in the NewsMax article: Another Newt Gingrich 'comeback' on the horizon?

[Mangia E Statti Zitto]

Go Newt!! This is a great issue, which is why I’m willing to bet that very soon we’ll be hearing Santorum talking about $2 per gallon gas.

[cripplecreek]

Should be interesting to see how many people called it stupid when Michele Bachmann promised the same.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2767284/posts

[ScottinVA]

Might as well push hard for it.. the primary is the only win in MI a GOP Presidential candidate will see.

[Strategerist]

Yeah, I’m sure Rick Perry will help enormously in Michigan.

[TomGuy]

many people called it stupid when Michele Bachmann promised the same [$1.89 gas]

In a related thread, several of us made the comment that this is nothing but overt pandering.

The current price rise has been fairly consistent since the early years of GW Bush's presidency, except for a sudden drop in late 2008, followed by a fairly consistent increase.

[txrangerette]

Context is everything.

It’s well known CW and I live in Texas.

The comment you ridiculed is based on that context, in regard to Rick Perry campaigning.

Also, everyone in America is hurting badly from the stupid energy policy we have. No exceptions. And we will only hurt more and more as things worsen.

Therefore the comment about it being a winning issue.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Exactly.

[Darren McCarty]

He's not looking to win Michigan. He wants 15% to get at least one delegate. He's polling at 11% in most polls here, so that's possible. He's only polling over 25% in one congressional district, and that district has Santorum at 57%.

I'm looking to knock out Romney. Newt won't help me do that here, nor will Ron Paul. Santorum can.

[parksstp]

Even if he gets above 15%, he won’t get delegates because only 2 are awarded statewide and they will go to the two highest finishers unless the highest finisher gets 50% or more statewide.

At the CD breakdown, it’s 2 delegates for winning it out right. MI has 14 CD’s. Santorum looks very poised to win 9 of these even if he doesn’t carry the state.

It’s hard to see how Newt picks up any delegates in MI