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Breaking: Gingrich replaces campaign manager, lays off 1/3 of staff — to focus on the convention
Hotair ^ | 03/27/2012 | AllahPundit

Posted on 03/27/2012 8:15:26 PM PDT by SeekAndFind

Clearly it's his campaign manager and the staff who are the problem.

Alternate headline: “Gingrich finally approaching the fifth stage of grief.”

It’s largely a strategy of necessity: The former House Speaker is a distant third in delegates, behind Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum. His campaign-finance report for February, released last week, showed more debt ($1.55 million) than cash on hand ($1.54 million).

DeSantis said the former Speaker will continue to visit states with primaries, but will have a less intense campaign schedule. DeSantis promised that the campaign will be “more positive and ideas-focused,” eschewing attacks on Republican rivals. The aide said the campaign will be more digital, focusing on low-cost communications tools, including informational videos, social media and the web…

DeSantis elaborated on the announcement in an email: “Newt 2012 is transitioning into an organization appropriate for winning a big choice convention. This big choice convention phase will be focused on two goals. 1. Affecting the national dialogue to show that Gingrich is the most capable of defeating Obama, by leading on issues that put the president on defense – like Newt’s $2.50 Gas Plan; and 2. A parallel communications strategy directly to the delegates…

“Furthermore, the fact is the more than a million more people have voted against Mitt Romney than for him. We believe that if Governor Romney is unable to secure 1144 by the last primaries, he will be unable to do so at the convention where the vast majority of the delegates are conservative. That creates and environment at the convention where Gingrich can emerge as the one candidate who can unite social, economic and national security conservatives (a fact which is borne out by polling).”

Like I said in the earlier Gingrich post, that last paragraph is pure fantasy. If you’ve reached the point in a convention floor fight where, for whatever reason, both Romney and Santorum are deemed unacceptable, why wouldn’t you roll the dice on a dark horse outsider? You’re much better off with someone like Christie or Paul Ryan who’s young, appealing, superb on the seminal issue of fiscal reform, and yet to have their national image defined than you are with High-Negatives Newt. Passing over the guy with the most delegates and the guy with the second-most delegates means you’re thinking way out of the box on the nomination, which means there’s no reason to limit your choice to the people who are running. Although I guess choosing someone who hasn’t held elective office since the 90s and who can’t seem to win anywhere except his home state and the state next door would qualify as “way out of the box.” Way, way out.

I don’t know, guys. I’m starting to think maybe he really believes in this ludicrous convention idea. What other explanation is there? Exit question: Why on earth would he cite Romney’s vote total as relevant to the delegates’ calculus when Newt himself is much closer to Ron Paul’s total than to Romney’s?


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: brokeredconvention; gingrich; ideasvsideology; newt; newt2012; newtcampaignstaff; santorum; santorumfanatics; santorumzombies; sourgingrichgrapes; teaparty4newt
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To: JediJones
"What we know for sure is that Gingrich would actually be THE MOST EFFECTIVE PRESIDENT of all of these men."

As my dear departed Grandpa would say, "That's a fact!"

61 posted on 03/27/2012 11:03:10 PM PDT by moehoward
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To: mylife

I guess it was too bad he was incapable of verbalizing that to the voting public.


62 posted on 03/27/2012 11:04:34 PM PDT by Lazlo in PA (Now living in a newly minted Red State.)
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To: Lazlo in PA

Well, Newtie has a plethora of strategerieys. One just has to select the winning ones.


63 posted on 03/27/2012 11:06:23 PM PDT by Paladin2
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To: mylife
I know where your candidate stands.

See. We don't need any more debates. We both agree.

64 posted on 03/27/2012 11:06:34 PM PDT by Lazlo in PA (Now living in a newly minted Red State.)
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To: Paladin2

And there’s the rub.


65 posted on 03/27/2012 11:09:29 PM PDT by Lazlo in PA (Now living in a newly minted Red State.)
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To: Steelfish; PSYCHO-FREEP; Red Steel; VinL; Gator113; Mariner; onyx; Christie at the beach; RitaOK; ..

“Only real question is who will be the VP pick.”

Bahahahaha! I wondered how long it would be before you gave up on your “Gingrich splitting the vote” nonsense, and admitted the real reason you want Newt out!


66 posted on 03/27/2012 11:17:23 PM PDT by trappedincanuckistan (livefreeordietryin)
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To: Steelfish

You don’t think Palin/Gingrich or Gingrich/Palin could make it into nomination? If Romney can be denied enough delegates, I think anything can happen. I don’t think this intense focus on Obamneycare is doing Romney any favors now. Santorum’s profane outburst pretty much disqualifies him as presidential material. For all the people who claimed Newt “whined” or was “angry,” I’m still waiting to see those clips, but I now have at least one of Santorum out-whining and out-angering any presidential candidate I can remember in my lifetime.

We’ve got a couple of terrible frontrunners. They can win ONLY by virtue of Obama being so terrible that people just want to get rid of him. Sort of the same way Obama himself got elected. So I’m not going to put it past the delegates to recognize the deep flaws in the frontrunners and turn to Newt if they get the chance.


67 posted on 03/27/2012 11:21:17 PM PDT by JediJones (The Divided States of Obama's Declaration of Dependence: Death, Taxes and the Pursuit of Crappiness)
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To: tennmountainman
What did he do with all that money that Casino owner gave him?

Didn't the casino magnate's money go to the SuperPAC and not to Newt's campaign itself?

Campaigning is expensive. Salaries, hotels, airfare, advertising, etc. No money, no campaign.

68 posted on 03/27/2012 11:27:35 PM PDT by rogue yam
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To: SeekAndFind
AllahPundit has it right. If it gets down to a brokered convention, they're not going to skip over the top two runner ups and go for the guy in third. They're going to go outside the box for someone fresh.

There was a time when the other lesser candidates started dropping out, that an anti-Romney could have been successful. The problem is, Newt's ego and Santorum's obtuseness prevented either one of them from doing the right thing for the country, stepping aside and letting there be one conservative candidate to rally behind. Now, they have effectively split the conservative vote between themselves, and left Romney's campaign of attrition to march to a slow but steady victory.

The idea that either of these knuckleheads are going to be rewarded with anything other than a kick in the pants by the Rough Boot of Historical Footnotehood is laughable. Mittens was on Leno, joking that he might make Santorum his press secretary one day. Soon, Rick will look back on the time where people bothered to make him the butt of their jokes as 'the good old days'.

Sadly, the joke is on the rest of us. By their own reckless ambition, Rick and Newt have allowed Mitt to advance unchecked on to the nomination. If it comes down to a brokered convention, neither of them will be rewarded for it.

69 posted on 03/27/2012 11:34:52 PM PDT by Steel Wolf ("Few men desire liberty; most men wish only for a just master." - Gaius Sallustius Crispus)
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To: trappedincanuckistan

Newt all the way to the Convention. Lets see what happens.


70 posted on 03/27/2012 11:36:01 PM PDT by Red Steel
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To: Steel Wolf
The problem is, Newt's ego and Santorum's obtuseness prevented either one of them from doing the right thing for the country, stepping aside and letting there be one conservative candidate to rally behind.

The problem was that neither had any reason to drop out. The voters never really liked Newt and Santorum was never really a good candidate.

Santorum thought "I can't drop out for this guy, people just don't like him." And Newt thought "I can't drop out for this guy, he's just not a good candidate."

The problem was, they were both right.

71 posted on 03/27/2012 11:43:30 PM PDT by rogue yam
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To: mylife

“What’s Saintorums strategy?

“Zimmerman has a sick mind and committed a heinous crime?”

We are so screwed.”

Santorum is a lawyer? Unreal.

You know he could have issued a retraction and corrected himself, the honorable thing to do.

So far, nothing of the sort, so his initial statement stands.

Constitutional conservatives know better than to dismiss Santorum’s outragously disturbing comments so attuned with the lynch mob mentality of the left.

Folks, Obama’s racist lynch mob of hate is out for blood, and will stop at nothing to satiate their vengeful bloodsport.

And Santorum made it crystal clear he is with them in their lust for blood and treasure, brutally annihilating anyone who dares question them, in the name of “justice”.

The contrasts here, between those of us who realize the gravity of Santorum’s mentality, which reveal a willingness to subvert our justice system to it’s lowest level, and those who dismiss them out of hand as unimportant, are glaring.


72 posted on 03/27/2012 11:44:11 PM PDT by wolficatZ (:"TV is king, you're my everything..")
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To: mylife; lazlo

” Rick Perry got trounced in the debates, Ricky S got ignored. Now there are no debates since he’s been sent to the front of the line. I would put Perry’s record against Santorum’s any day. “ -—

VERY well said. Santorum has had to recover from nothing, but for what he consistently does to himself, of course, when he opens his mouth.

If one asks, what about his wife’s story? THAT lasted but 24 hours if that, but oh, no, not Newt’s story, with the whacky wives. Unforgivable. Unstable. Unchanged.

What a crock full of gift horses for the Rickster, gift wrapped by Romney whom he endorsed in ‘08, his own pals at the GOP-E, and an exwife #2, against the only man qualified for the job.

I am not left for even a moment wondering why the US is in the shape it’s in, or why the qualified no longer run for office.


73 posted on 03/27/2012 11:49:59 PM PDT by RitaOK (LET 'ER RIP, NEWT. Newt knows where all the bodies are buried, because he buried them.)
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To: Lazlo in PA

If Zimmerman is your big issue, then don’t vote for Rick. Romney will be listed on the ballot as well.


Post of the night.


74 posted on 03/28/2012 12:07:26 AM PDT by Yaelle (Santorum 2012 - our sole chance to stop the Rominee)
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To: trappedincanuckistan

If Romney is a democrat, by trade, which I believe him to be, he will want on his ticket some utilitarian vest, whom he knows will pose no significant challenge to the democrats in ‘16.

Newt has never been utilitarian for anyone and he doesn’t even attempt to wear a vest.


75 posted on 03/28/2012 12:08:39 AM PDT by RitaOK (LET 'ER RIP, NEWT. Newt knows where all the bodies are buried, because he buried them.)
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To: rogue yam
"The problem was that neither had any reason to drop out. The voters never really liked Newt and Santorum was never really a good candidate."

To a certain extent, I would agree completely. If it were a two man race. In our particular scenario, two man logic doesn't apply. Mitt was always the man to beat. Any calculation had to factor him in first, and others second.

Rick and Newt may have accurately assessed on their own that the other guy was a flawed candidate in some way. Fair enough. They're both flawed candidates. But the point they should have been looking at was, 'is the other conservative guy in the race better than Mitt Romney?'

Now Mitt has the initiative, and the conservative side remains fractured and divided. Since nobody is going to drop out, our side will remain fractured and divided, and Mitt's initiative will translate into inevitability.

76 posted on 03/28/2012 12:23:58 AM PDT by Steel Wolf ("Few men desire liberty; most men wish only for a just master." - Gaius Sallustius Crispus)
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To: Christie at the beach

That’s self righteous Rick’s style - condemn no matter what the facts are. He’s done it to Newt, he’ll do to anyone. He’s the most blow ‘whatever way the wind blows’ candidate, a compromiser of the worst kind.


77 posted on 03/28/2012 1:33:24 AM PDT by presently no screen name
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To: trappedincanuckistan

>> “Only real question is who will be the VP pick.”

Well, that didn’t take much...

The entirety of Rick’s campaign has been about moral vanity in my opinion. This superficial rush of what-is-right has cost us dearly. To his credit, Rick rode it well.

Of course I’m hoping for the crap-shoot of a brokered convention. I’d love to see Sarah and Paul Ryan in the mix.

BTW, Rick’s a good man, but not the man for the job. God bless him and his family. Ultimately, we’re on the same team (just not Team Santorum ;)

Go Newt!


78 posted on 03/28/2012 1:45:32 AM PDT by Gene Eric (Newt/Sarah 2012)
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To: Lazlo in PA
we called it sour grapes.

You can call it whatever fits your need but the fact remains he wasn't vetted and it's all designed before hand. He can't do the battle of being vetted and stand against trashing Newt at the same time as that's his main reason/assignment for being in the race to begin with.

It's about AMERICA, not about a two bit lawyer player to keep the GOP E in power - the 'do it for the team' candidate supporting the worst of the worst against a conservative! He's vetted enough for those who can see but NOT for those who refuse to see.

79 posted on 03/28/2012 1:55:19 AM PDT by presently no screen name
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To: CharlesWayneCT
The Gold Standard for judging things around here, Sarah Palin,

And she voted for Newt!

80 posted on 03/28/2012 1:57:25 AM PDT by presently no screen name
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