This is the biggest load of cr@p I’ve ever read. Are you actually try to pin the blame of a potential Romney nomination on the shoulders of the Santorum supporters? Let me have what you’re smoking because I’ve been feeling depressed for days watching the race go down the tubes.
This is what you hardcore Newt supporters don’t get. You don’t understand the electorate and you don’t understand the real factors that win elections. In a 1 on 1 of Romney vrs Newt, Newt gets crushed. That’s a fact. He can’t win Seniors, Hispanics, or females. Where does he win outside the South?
The other problem with Newt is that he lacks two factors that were important to both Bachmann, Cain, Perry, and even Reagan supporters: TRUST and LIKEABILITY. Santorum’s got warts, but guess what? Generally conservatives TRUST Santorum more than they trust Gingrich. They also give him higher favorability ratings. It’s not enough to just speak conservatism. Go back to Reagan’s two landslides. Conservatism may have won Reagan those elections, but TRUST and LIKEABILITY gave him his landslides.
Newt’s NOT going to make a comeback. You clearly see this in the polls. Santorum is dropping, but Gingrich isn’t benefitting because many of Santorum’s supporters don’t see Gingrich as a viable alternative to Mitt Romney. It’s that simple.
Despite the completely unnatural heights to which NG has been raised up on FR, there are posts upon posts in the archives denouncing Gingrich as a RINO, Establishment Republcian (grouped in with Mitt and Rudy), and a “genuine phony”. NOTHING has changed except the fear and panic among people here to stop Romney even if it means compromising their principles and having a willing suspension of disbelief, which is precisely what many Newt supporters have done.
I’ve watched Newt for a long time and I know the game he plays. For every brilliant, articulate statement Newt makes for something, you can usually find a brilliant, articulate statement Newt makes against the same thing! This isn’t by accident, it’s by design. He’s a master at developing the “technically correct” answer which gives him cover to chose the statement in his past that most reflects what he thinks the voters want.
The Payroll Tax debate. TARP. Climate Change. Gay Marriage. Right-Wing Social Engineering. Big Tent Republicanism. Tea Party Conservatism. Mandates., etc, etc, etc. You can find a statement at one point or another of Newt arguing both FOR and AGAINST these issues. With a system like this, it’s hard to be proven wrong when you’ve taken every side. With Mitt Romney, we call this kind of thinking: flip-flopping, but with Newt, we call it a “superior oration”.
I’m sorry, I don’t buy it. I think Newt’s insincere and a complete opportunist who cannot be Trusted. Many Santorum supporters, who were previously on board with Bachmann, Cain, and Perry, feel the same way, which is why there will be no Newt comeback. Abscence of Trust is the biggest disfunction of a working team.
Anyone that trusted the incompetence, poor judgment, and appalling lack of understanding on foreign and domestic policy issues of Bachmann, Perry and Cain needs to have their head examined. The profound inadequacies of all these candidates have to be unpacked for most voters at a much earlier stage next time and we won’t even be tempted with wishful thinking. Of course it’s all Paul’s fault anyway. No crystal ball here, but given the way things are going at present if he hadn’t been a spoiler in NH, Huntsman will likely be have been our hero. The most conservative, electable and cleanest candidate amalgamated.