Free Republic

It's all very disappointing. Based on polls, It appears Newt Gingrich is not likely to be the nominee. But why? He is (in my mind) the most qualified man in the country to be President. He's the most knowledgeable and articulate candidate and, without question, the best debater in either party. Everyone knows he would obliterate Obama in a debate. He has the best and boldest ideas to get this country back on track. And I think that he would, by his sheer brilliance, and ability to put forth a convincing argument, garner enough independents to vote for him to...

...."This is going to go on for a good while," the former House speaker said on ABC's "This Week with George Stephanopoulos," one of several Washington talk shows Gingrich visited in the run-up to Super Tuesday. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney may outspend the rest of the GOP field "by multiples," Gingrich said, but "he's not a very convincing front-runner and he's a long way from having closed out this race." Gingrich said he expects to win Georgia, the largest of the states voting in Tuesday's nationwide sweepstakes, and to do so by more than Romney's narrow victory Tuesday in...

UPDATED: COLUMBUS, Ohio — Even if Rick Santorum wins Ohio on Super Tuesday, he won’t be able to claim all of its delegates. In fact, he is at risk of forfeiting more than one-quarter of them. In three of the state’s 16 congressional districts, including two that are near Ohio’s border with Pennsylvania, Santorum will lose any delegates he might have won because his campaign failed to meet the state’s eligibility requirements months ago. Those three districts alone take 9 delegates out of a total of 66 off the table for Santorum. But it gets worse: Nine more Ohio delegates...

Rasmussen corroborates the Q-poll from earlier today showing that Mitt Romney has made up significant ground on Rick Santorum in the key Super Tuesday state of Ohio. While Quinnipiac conducted its survey from Tuesday through Thursday this week, Rasmussen conducted its survey of 750 likely voters entirely yesterday. Two weeks after being 18 points behind Santorum in Ohio, Rasmussen now has him within two: The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of Likely Primary Voters in Ohio, taken last night, shows former U.S. Senator Rick Santorum attracting 33% of the vote and Mitt Romney earning 31%. ThatÂ’s a significant tightening of...

..."I guess about the only way I can describe him is unlike any politician we had ever encountered," Reed said. "He would come in, speak to your group, keynote the banquet and afterward go to the suite and stay up until the wee hours of the morning talking strategy with you." A generation of Republican politicians recalls listening to cassette tapes featuring Gingrich's talking points as they drove to campaign stops, and dialing in to weekly national conference calls to hear his advice on how to sell conservative programs back home. "He changed the whole formula here. Candidates were starving...

Apparently against steep odds, Newt Gingrich has been trying to expand his Georgia political base north into Tennessee. The Republican presidential candidate, who has a wide lead in Georgia in two recent polls, is striving for a strong showing in the Volunteer State. It, like Georgia, is one of 11 states with primaries or caucuses on Tuesday, and its 58 delegates are the third-biggest prize up for grabs. Of the “Super Tuesday” states, only Georgia, with 76 delegates, and Ohio, with 66, are more delegate-rich. Gingrich, a former Georgia congressman and House speaker, has largely written off Ohio in favor...

Despite Mitt Romney's victories in Arizona and Michigan on Tuesday, Rick Santorum is still bullish on his chances to win the Republican nomination. In an interview Wednesday on my radio show, "Morning In America," Santorum counted Michigan as a win of his own. "If you look at the entire state (of Michigan)," he said, "we won most of the counties. We won half of the congressional districts, which means we won half the delegates here." He went on to explain why he thinks Romney's success isn't what it seems to be: "I think the big reason we lost is because...

It’s crunch time. I am not going to sugarcoat the news for conservatives. Hate me all you want, but Republicans have just about picked their nominee. Forget these headlines such as Paul Belaga’s “Romney Wins Michigan and Arizona, but Political Tourette’s Is Costing Him” or CNN‘s “Romney survives Michigan as all eyes turn to Super Tuesday” or the New York Daily News‘s “Mitt Romney avoids Michigan disaster, but has ‘blood on him’ heading into Super Tuesday: experts.” God does not roll dice with the universe, and neither does the Republican Party. I am looking at the plurality wins in Arizona...

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that Newt Gingrich will not campaign in Michigan in advance of next Tuesday's primary there: Spokesman R.C. Hammond confirmed Monday night that the campaign is scrapping tentative plans to travel to Michigan at the end of the week ahead of the state’s Feb. 28 primary. Gingrich is spending Tuesday and Wednesday in the other Feb. 28 primary — Arizona — but that is mostly for the sake of Wednesday night’s debate, and his public schedule will be light.

Sheldon Adelson plays as stubbornly in politics as he does in business. So the criticisms that he’s trying to personally buy the presidential election for Newt Gingrich are met with a roll of the eyes. “Those people are either jealous or professional critics,” Adelson tells me during his first interview since he and his wife began funneling $11 million, with another $10 million injection widely expected, into the former speaker’s super PAC, Winning Our Future. “They like to trash other people. It’s unfair that I’ve been treated unfair—but it doesn’t stop me. I might give $10 million or $100 million...

Just after the South Carolina primary, Newt Gingrich--or his minions--put considerable public pressure upon Rick Santorum to stand down, to get out, to leave the race. Santorum's response was simple. If he began to come in last in any series of races, he would do so. Santorum went on to explain that he had won as many states as Newt had at that point, so there was no need to go anywhere. That was five states, 3 Santorum victories, and several instances of bottoming out by the Gingrich campaign ago. The Gingrich people will not like what I have to...

Texas Gov. Rick Perry will appear with Newt Gingrich for the first time at the CNN debate in Mesa, Ariz., on Feb. 22, a spokesperson for Perry confirmed to ABC News. Perry will appear in the spin room with Gingrich after the debate. There are no other events planned, at this time. Perry endorsed Gingrich when he dropped out of the race on Jan. 19 but has yet to appear publicly with him.

According to the Quinnipiac University poll released today, in the state that the Atlanta GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich said he could win - Ohio, he is trailing behind two of his Republican challengers former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, attracting just 20% of the vote. -snip- The Quinnipiac survey finds Santorum leading with 36%, Romney second with 29%, Gingrich third with 20% and Texas Congressman Ron Paul last with 9%. However, 50% of the voters say they could still change their minds. -snip- Gingrich campaigned in Ohio for a few days last week with...

Mitt Romney is getting some heavy air support in Michigan — the state where he was born and raised — as the “super PAC” supporting him invests almost $500,000 on television ads there. According to someone who tracks Republican media spending, Restore Our Future has committed just over $470,000 for commercials starting Tuesday and set to run through Feb. 20. That marks the group’s largest purchase yet in Michigan, where it will have spent more than $700,000 on ads by next week. The group said Monday that it would continue for now to run an ad called “Risk” that targets...

PALO ALTO -- Newt Gingrich, fundraising in California this week to bolster his fading presidential campaign, said this afternoon that he is "on the way to Michigan and Arizona," which hold primaries on Feb. 28. The former House speaker's campaign characterized his week of California fundraising as necessary to compete on Super Tuesday, when 10 states hold primaries or caucuses March 6. "We're on the way to Michigan and Arizona, but we're out here doing fundraising, and we scheduled this a couple months ago," Gingrich said as he left a series of meetings at the Hoover Institution, a think tank...

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........There remains no one in the GOP field quite like Perry, a plain-speaking governor from a sprawling, Southwestern state who, when he says he's never been a creature of Washington, is telling it straight. With the debates behind him, he's been able to play to his strengths, his record as an 11-year governor, his anti-government attitude, and his capacity to bond with voters through allusions to faith, farm work and military service. But there's no doubt he has altered his approach. Gone are the days when he tried to stand toe-to-toe with front-runner Mitt Romney and boast about his job-creation...

(CNSNews.com) -Texas Governor Rick Perry is attempting to label himself as the presidential candidate that best represents conservative values as he campaigns across Iowa. “Why should you settle for anyone less than an authentic conservative to represent your values and your views without apology in Washington D.C. ?” Perry told the crowd at the Blue Strawberry Coffee Company in Des Moines, Iowa on Wednesday. “If we replace a Democrat insider with a Republican insider do you think Washington is going to change any? I agree with you, listen, I’m a limited government, fiscal conservative.” “I’m asking for your vote, and...

With a revamped message and a significant TV presence here, Rick Perry is hoping to revive his disappointing presidential campaign with a surprise finish Tuesday. But even as they hold out hope that Perry can find a way back into contention, some of his advisers have begun laying the groundwork to explain how the Texas governor bombed so dramatically in a race that he seemed to control for a brief period upon his entry in August. Their explanations for the nosedive come against the backdrop of a campaign riven by an intense, behind-the-scenes power struggle that took place largely between...

New Rick Perry Ad: A Fiscal Conservative The Right Scoop December 30, 2011 Rick Perry is just pumping out the ads and this one is excellent. In fact, I’d love to know what the music reminds you of, if anything, around the point where they focus on the handshake: