It’s “Super Tuesday,” only Romney and Gingrich can emerge to challenge Obama
Posted on 03/06/2012 9:18:04 PM PST by LonelyCon
Rick Santorum's campaign is calling on conservatives to pressure Newt Gingrich to abandon his bid for the White House, a senior adviser told reporters tonight.
Senior campaign strategist John Brabender said the key for the campaign going forward will be creating an opportunity to challenge Mitt Romney one-on-one, though Brabender maintained the Santorum campaign would not directly call on Gingrich to drop out of the race.
"We're never going to call on anybody to get out, but what we are calling is on Tea Party supporters and conservatives is to rally behind the only candidate that has demonstrated over and over again that he's the one who can compete against Mitt Romney," Brabender said.
"The real key right now is, can we get an opportunity to get a one-on-one shot with Mitt Romney," he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at firstread.msnbc.msn.com ...
NEWT already earned it years ago! POS Rick is a liar and is NOT running on his record (it's pathetic) but to help Mitt to win. He's lying his way through and duping Americans.
I'm painfully aware that there are problems with Rick Santorum’s record. He's not a hard-right strict economic conservative. His stances on economic policy are about what would be expected from a Republican in a heavily unionized traditional Democrat state — it is not reasonable to expect an elected official to ignore his constituents. Also, speaking as a Calvinist whose economic views are also framed by my religious beliefs, I cannot expect a Roman Catholic conservative to defy the teachings of his own church on economics. I'm a hard-right capitalist because I'm a Calvinist who believes in what is sometimes called the “Protestant work ethic.” The Roman Catholic church teaches very different things from what I believe, and as long as Santorum is a member of the Roman Catholic Church, he **SHOULD** believe what his church teaches.
However, some of the items on Marguerite's list don't make sense from a conservative perspective.
Somebody explain why, from a conservative perspective, it is wrong for Santorum to attend a conservative Roman Catholic church along with Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia whose priest is a member of Opus Dei, which is roughly a Roman Catholic equivalent to Jerry Falwell's Moral Majority or Pat Robertson's Christian Coalition.
Somebody explain why, from a conservative perspective, anybody should care that Rick Santorum attends a Latin Mass. That's his own business, and as long as he's attending a church where the Latin Mass is authorized by the local bishop, all it shows is Santorum is a strictly conservative Catholic.
Somebody explain why, from a conservative perspective, it is wrong for Santorum to oppose increases in the minimum wage.
Somebody explain why, from a conservative perspective, it is wrong to be a supporter of Wal-Mart, which, by the way, is strongly anti-union and routinely gets targeted for attacks by unions.
Somebody explain why, from a conservative perspective, it is wrong for Santorum to support tort reform to make lawsuits more difficult — especially since Santorum is himself a lawyer.
Somebody explain why, from a conservative perspective, it is wrong to push for eliminating the estate tax, which, by the way, would disproportionately benefit not Wal-Mart but rather small business owners who own unincorporated businesses and whose heirs could be forced to sell their parents’ business if they die unexpectedly.
Somebody explain why, from a conservative perspective, it is wrong to promote coal plants which could eliminate or even reduce dependence on foreign oil. I am very leery of government getting involved in economic incentives to business, but if there's anything that the government **SHOULD** be promoting, it's things like this which have a clear national security benefit.
Looks to me like this list of complaints about Santorum includes some items which are actually reasons to vote for him.
Somebody in Gingrich's campaign can verify this quicker than me, but I strongly suspect that Newt Gingrich is also an opponent of increasing the minimum wage, a supporter of tort reform, and an opponent of the estate tax. If so, good for Gingrich. What's Mitt Romney's stance on those issues?
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83 posted on Wednesday, March 07, 2012 12:01:47 AM by SatinDoll
7. The defender of family values was also slavish in his devotion to a large American corporate behemoth, Wal-Mart: In the wake of the report about Santorum’s travel in the Wal-Mart corporate jet, I counted the many ways that Santorum had done the bidding of the world’s largest retailer in the Senate, including battling to limit any increases in the minimum wage and seeking to make changes in overtime rules that woulld benefit the company and hurt its blue-collar workforce, tort reform to limit lawsuits against what is said to be the world’s most-sued company, and changes in charitable giving laws and of course eliminating the estate tax that would benefit the billionaire heirs of Sam Walton.
8. Santorum has frequently insisted that his political values are guided by his religious values, and that John F. Kennedy’s famous 1960 speech describing a separtion between the two had done “much harm” in America. But despite inviting such scrutiny, there’s been little discussion of Santorum’s ties to ultra-conservative movements within the Roman Catholic Church Santorum’s comments about JFK were made in Rome in 2002 when he spoke at a 100th birthday event for Jose Maria Escrivade Balaguer, founder of the secretive group within the church known as Opus Dei. Although Santorum says he is not a member of Opus Dei — which has been criticized by some for alleged cult-like qualities and ties to ultra-conservative regimes around the world — he did receive written permission to attend the ultra-conservative St. Catherine of Siena Church in Great Falls, Va., where Mass is still conducted in Latin and a long-time priest and many parishioners are members of Opus Dei, mingling with political conservatives like Supreme Court Justices Antonin Scalia and former FBI director Louis Freeh.
I'd like to think the phone calls I made to my fellow Tennesseans helped put Santorum over the top.....but he topped it off by a very comfortable margin, and my phone calls were just a small part....Makes me proud.
“Rick Santorum’s campaign is calling on conservatives to pressure Newt Gingrich to abandon his bid for the White House, a senior adviser told reporters tonight.”
It says it all right there. He wants to know why a REAL conservative would stay in the race.
Ridiculous!
Newt is no one's puppet. And if he were any establishments puppet, don't who think he would have some establishment support.
Newt is the anti-establishment candidate.
I don’t care about any of the crap. Its simple math.
In Florida, Santorum took less than Gingrich lost by. In Michigan Santorum lost by 3 and Gingrich took twice that. In Ohio, Santorum lost by 1 and Gingrich took double digits. Aside from winning Georgia last night, Gingrich finished no better than 3rd in the rest of the races.
Frankly, anyone who really believes Gingrich is going to come roaring back for the big win isn’t being honest with themselves.
Its no secret that I don’t like Gingrich but I do think he would be nearly ideal for a VP pick. He’s strong willed enough that he would have considerable influence in a Santorum administration and he has experience in herding the cats in congress.
Not to mention the fact that Newt would destroy Biden in the VP debates.
Kinda makes me think back to when conservatives called on Santorum to endorse Pat Toomey over Arlen Specter. Santorum stabbed the conservatives in the back and endorsed Specter. Now Santorum's got the gall to ask conservatives to throw Newt under the bus. What a guy.
It’s a simple matter of voting for the most competitive conservative in your given state. I caught hell from the Newt supporters last night for saying this, but it cuts both ways. If you know that Newt is NOT going to win, then don’t be stupid and vote for him anyway. If you know Santorum is NOT going to win, then don’t be stupid and vote for him anyway.
We here need to do our due diligence and prove that we’re smart enough - and mature enough - to put defeating Barack Obama from Massachusetts as our #1 goal. We found out just recently that he lobbied Obama for Romneycare on a national level. Neither Rick nor Newt is even close to being that bad.
If Newt isn’t competitive in any of the remaining states, then yes, he should drop out, but I find that scenario hard to believe. I think it’s more likely that he and Santorum will each be popular in a few.
Frankly, a brokered convention is sounding better and better to me. I feel certain that’s the only way we’re going to stop Willard Romney the open socialist, and it might allow us to nominate someone who’s better than Santorum AND Gingrich.
He ought to join with Newt and ask Mittens to get lost.
Can’t go with it.
Destroying the opposition in debates is not the goal. Nobody watches them but us. Winning the votes of the uninformed american electorate is. . . they happen to be the majority.
Newt and Rick couldn’t be more polarizing to the masses of uninformed on the other side of the aisle, who get their news from the old media. Wish it wasn’t so, but it is.
“Santorum stabbed the conservatives in the back and endorsed Specter.”
Yep, he’d make a mighty fine POTUS. Just the type the GOP elite yearn for.
There’s a significant group of who wouldn’t even vote if Gingrich dropped out.
MSNBC once again creates a narrative that isn’t held up by reading the article.
Nobody called on Newt to drop out. LOL
MSNBC once again creates a narrative that isn’t held up by reading the article.
Nobody called on Newt to drop out. LOL
I think I agree. Vice-presidents in modern times have rarely presided over the Senate, but I've said before that having Gingrich as president of the Senate could be a very interesting scenario. One thing nobody doubts is that Gingrich effectively blew apart the go-along-to-get-along climate of the House of Representatives and maybe he could also do that to the Senate.
160 posted on Wednesday, March 07, 2012 6:52:05 AM by Cato in PA: “It’s a simple matter of voting for the most competitive conservative in your given state. I caught hell from the Newt supporters last night for saying this, but it cuts both ways. If you know that Newt is NOT going to win, then don’t be stupid and vote for him anyway. If you know Santorum is NOT going to win, then don’t be stupid and vote for him anyway. We here need to do our due diligence and prove that we’re smart enough - and mature enough - to put defeating Barack Obama from Massachusetts as our #1 goal. We found out just recently that he lobbied Obama for Romneycare on a national level. Neither Rick nor Newt is even close to being that bad. If Newt isn’t competitive in any of the remaining states, then yes, he should drop out, but I find that scenario hard to believe. I think it’s more likely that he and Santorum will each be popular in a few.”
I agree with you on this. Neither Gingrich nor Santorum are the enemy. Romney is, followed by Obama.
I admire your high level of enthusiasm, but Newt was 1-9 yesterday. If he doesn`t catch fire RIGHT NOW and run the table through the rest of the south and get lucky nearly everywhere else, it just simply isn`t going to happen for him.
Like it or hate it, as things stand now, Santorum — with all his warts — is the only barrier left to Romney going forward.
Rick is known to “take one for the team” He will compromise his convictions in a heartbeat.
We know what Romney is but RS is a rino in conservative suits.
Because Newt is the ONLY real conservative
He is stringed up with the GOP E and whatever they want, they pull him in that direction. He stands for nothing other than to be 'used' for their agenda. Lying lawyer that he is.
He already did in '08 when he campaigned/supported with the ONLY pro abortion and against traditional marriage, pro homo candidate. That's the real rick - he stands for nothing but 'his' gain.
Now suddenly he's standing for it today. He'll drop it for his gain anytime. He's a political whore liar.
darrell, the thread that SatinDoll was referencing in post 83 was pulled on Feb. 11 by Jim Robinson - Reason? - Trash.
Maybe Santorum is smart enough to know this, and maybe this is what he is working toward. Santorum's voters are not smart enough to even fathom this electoral game; and that's why Santorum is tailoring his message for this bloc of voters. Same as Huckabee in 2008.
Newt gave him a chance to take Michigan, and he blew it, perhaps deliberately.
Santorum had a chance to take Ohio, and he blew it, perhaps deliberately.
Maybe Santorum knew the game being planned in Virginia, and didn't bother to get on that ballot.
As it stands now, Newt is looking like the only sincere non-Romney candidate.
Here’s what I posted elsewhere. Maybe somebody could suggest this to both the Santorum and Gingrich camps:
I’d feel a heckuva lot better voting for either Gingrich or Santorum rather than Mitt though. Mitt was the FIRST one to force religious institutions to commit what they believe to be murder. There’s no way I can support somebody who does that. And no way I can support the R establishment after the shenanigans they’ve done.
Gingrich and Santorum are both Catholics. How about they let God decide? How about they draw straws to see which will be the Pres and which will be the VP, and then go with whatever the Lord says? In the Old Testament times God’s people listened to the LORD by using the urim and thummin. Scripture says the LORD determines the cast of every die. If these guys are really trusting in the LORD they will be glad to take His answer and serve in whatever way HE ALONE says.
Somebody has to do something now. I haven’t followed every nook and cranny of the race but I don’t think those 2 guys have burned any bridges with each other, and if they united in this way I think it would mean a lot to both camps and would say that they are SERIOUSLY serving the Lord and this country rather than their own ego.
I say let the LORD decide which is top on the ticket, and let them both make it clear what they did to resolve the issue. Before either one burns brdges that we need intact.
It’s Santorum who should do the dropping out.
I don’t think too many took the time to read it. The knee jerk reaction is so much more fun and opens the door to more bashing.
Lately, I look at the source, when I see it is questionable, I make sure I read the whole thing. The left loves to keep stirring the pot in order to keep conservatives all split up.
LOL
Gee, I remember not so long ago that all we heard was how vital South Carolina was to the republican primaries. No candidate has gone on to win the nomination without taking SC, blah blah blah. Gingrich is still in the hunt. Those I talk to and on FR, viscerally dislike the whining, Rick Santorum, so who is to say that if Newt dropped, Mr. Oral Moral would automatically get the votes?
If Gingrich wins the nomination, I suspect, in the general election, that the “Eagles Up” will be those of the XVII, XVIII, and XIX Legions.
HEAR! HEAR! Bobbisox!
How many votes for Romney were democrats in Republican clothing?
No, one-on-one means the conservatives who are the majority of the vote coalesce behind one candidate.
I think the Lord leaves such decisions up to us.
FURS!
He hasn’t earned it. Santorum did.
If Santorum is running for Romney to win - why has he beaten Romney 7 times so far?
From what I can see, it’s just the opposite. Newt is helping Romney win states that he otherwise would win. Newt has cost team conservative 4 states while bringing home the bacon in 2. He’s a liability.
Add Alaska to the tally.
Newt’s team conservative record:
GA + SC brought in
OH + AK + MI gifted to Romney.
He’s given away more states than he’s actually taken in.
Sheldon Adelson seems to think Romney will be the nominee but continues to give money to Gingrich.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2846572/posts
Does he have the delates to prove he's beaten Romney? NO. He is in the race to take away from the conservative in the race - Newt. Mitt knew he needed some buffers on his side to win - and right now santorum is that buffer. Santorum has NO record to run on.
Don't ignore the fact that santorum campaigned for Mitt - now mitt is using him in the race.
And now he's staying on social conservative values when Rick didn't give a flip about them and campaigned for the ONLY candidate who was pro abortion and against traditional marriage, Mitt.
He standing now for values he didn't give a flip about earlier - this values are surface!! And can be bought. But he can't run on his BIG gov't spending record.
And as much as he's crying about Romneycare NOW - he embraced it when he wasn't running.
He's just a 'take one for the team' GOP E slackly who will flip flop with whatever they want for his political gain. And his record proves it. It's not hearsay but TRUTH and he will FOOL anyone that can be FOOLED. He's a liar about Newt and a liar to America voters and a POS.
Gingrich will stick it out until his PAC man stops footing the bill if he doesn't begin to win more States. Since both are determined to stay in, it insures that Romney will be our nominee but not as quickly as he would have liked.
I say the man who lacks money and organization should bow out now but I doubt his pride will allow that.
By the 17th, if Newt Gingrich is not out of the race, Romney is the nominee. Newt will siphon off enough delegates that neither he nor Santorum will ever catch Romney.
It’s going to be hard enough, even if Newt does drop out.
The real problem for Newt, is that the rest of the states are not his home state. He doesn’t have a prayer.
Watching him try to turn a home state win into a game changer, was rather sad really. He knows it. His supporters can’t admit it. To everyone else, it’s plain as day. I’m sorry folks, it’s over. Newt didn’t pull it off. Risking Romney getting the nomination is pure ego driven all the way.
If Romney goes into the convention 100 votes shy of the nomination, Santorum has 500 delegates and Newt has 350, who are the delegates going to nominate? Newt?
This has reached the realm of flights of fantasy. Newt is done. The only question at this point, is Santorum done too? Only Newt can tell us.
Most if not all the rest of the states are proportional with regard to the delegate disbursement. No matter who is going up against Romney, they’ll have a very hard time catching him a few delegates at a time.
Newt drops out now and maybe. He doesn’t, Romney wins.
Thems the hard cold facts.
I’m thinking Romney needs to drop out, as 1/2 the Republicans won’t EVER vote for him.
He got about half of that right i.e. somebody needs to drop out at this point, but it’s Santorum who needs to drop out. Newt or Romney either one could win in November, I don’t see a way Santorum could.
I think that at this point I’m going to have to withdraw my tepid acceptance of Santorum as a possible candidate. I’m sick of this.
Gator113 wrote:
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Dear Santorum camp......screw you.
>>
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You know... If you’re going to make derisive statements like that, it would probably be best to reserve it for our true enemy (Barack Obama) than level it against well-intentioned fellow conservatives and FReepers who support Rick Santorum.
If I may inquire for thoughtful responses here... If Mississippi, Alabama, and Kansas go to Santorum next week, how much longer should Gingrich remain in the race?
Rick would have won Michigan, Ohio, Alaska and GEORGIA, AT LEAST, without Newt. It’s time that Newt read the results: GET OUT NOW! He has great things to contribute, but right now, as a candidate, he is a fly in the ointment. Bob
We have had other candidates drop out because they were able to see the writing on the wall. Not everyone wants to see it.
That said, the chances left for Rick or Newt are sinking.
Sick of what? And allow Romney to go unchallenged all the way to the convention? Romney’s judges have been liberals, his record has been liberal to socialist, and he is a rotten liar. We need someone fearless to carry the fight against both Romney and Obama. Buck up. We all have a tough fight ahead.
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