1. On the day Santorum dropped out, Newt hit bottom in the polls. Rush and company would have been putting it on the line for someone who appeared to have no chance.
2. Rush, for one, keeps saying that it is not his job to make people glom onto a candidate, it is the candidate’s job. If they cannot figure out how to win among Republicans, how can they win in the fall?
Next Tuesday, unless Newt can find a miracle, Romney is now poised to pick up 231 (or most of 231) hard delegates. I really think that Santorum was not only losing money, but he looked at the polls and decided the best he was going to do in Pennsylvania was a split, with the other 200 delegates going to Romney. Wisconsin really had become make or break for him.
I have a question for those following Newt the closest: it seemed that the Newt PAC spent most of its money on bashing Santorum (here in Tennessee at least). Is that why Newt’s sugar daddy did not jump in with more cash two weeks ago when it might have helped?
RE 1. On the day Santorum dropped out, Newt hit bottom in the polls. Rush and company would have been putting it on the line for someone who appeared to have no chance.
The first RCP average since Santorum dropped out, now has Newt at 19%... 19%, I have to admit, is not great. It is close to 20% though, which is close to 1/4... And that is with a total media blackout of his campaign going on...
You may need to check the source of those ads, because Newt really ran very few, if any, anti-Santorum ads. I think one, which was pretty generic, and not debasing at all.
I do know in Tennessee, the night before the primary, Newt's state campaign manager and 2 other of his other state staffers, defected to Rick. And took their delegates with them. Many thousands of people in TENN who had voted for Newt, long before the primary, had their votes go to Santorum. It was a low-down thing to do, especially for someone who touted himself as the only good principled conservative running. And when you the state GOP doing shenanigans like that, who knows what else went on behind the scenes.
I know Newt's last polls before the vote were very positive for Newt, and I have read that his internal polls are brutal and leave no room for optimism unless it is truly warranted.
Rush has been stealthily supporting Romney for months now, almost from the start. He won't put himself on the line and do it forthrightly, at least Mark Levin did that. For instance, today he said Romney was positively surprising him these last few days.
The ads that ran here all had Newt’s PAC listed in the disclaimer. I suppose you would call them mild as I have heard much harsher out of Gingrich’s supporters on FR. They spent over half the ad on Santorum, then switched to Romney as if the two were the same. I know candidates are not supposed to communicate with the PACS, and in Newt’s case I am willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.
==> this makes me wonder a bit: “He’s had two weeks of being the alternative,” Gingrich said of Santorum. “I think there are profound reasons why Rick lost his Senate race by the largest margin in Pennsylvania history.”
The Knoxville Republican made his announcement in a post on his blog. In an interview, Campfield said he believes that conservatives need to unite behind a single candidate and that Santorum is best positioned to defeat “establishment Republican” candidate Mitt Romney.
Campfield’s decision comes after a conversation with Santorum earlier this week.
In his blog post, Campfield said he was “twisted inside because of my loyalty to Newt, my loyalty must first lie with my country and getting a country with a conservative leader must take precedence to my own personal whims of fancy.
==> I knew about the resignation. I seem to have a great deal of difficulty locating anything about delegates switching. Can you help me out here?