Posted on 01/14/2012 12:19:44 PM PST by TitansAFC
DUNCAN, S.C. -- As soon as Newt Gingrich wrapped up his remarks on Saturday night at a forum hosted by the Republican Parties of Greenville and Spartanburg counties, it was Rick Santorum's turn to take the stage.
But Gingrich ensured that the spotlight remained on him.
As the former Pennsylvania senator began his remarks to hundreds of GOP activists gathered inside a high school cafeteria, Gingrich drew most of the media on hand to a nearby hallway where he held a press conference apparently timed to steal Santorum's thunder.
Gingrich took a pass when asked how, over the next week, he would contrast his record with Santorum's.
But even before taking a question, the former House speaker -- who just last month promised to run a “relentlessly positive” campaign -- launched an all-out barrage against Mitt Romney, laying into the former Massachusetts governor’s record on abortion, the Second Amendment, taxes and job creation.
The message Gingrich was trying to convey was clear: that the real battle in South Carolina was between himself and Romney, with the other candidates playing bit roles.
“If we end up splitting the conservative vote, we’re going to end up nominating somebody with whom 95 percent of the people in this room are going to be very uncomfortable,” Gingrich had told the crowd, clearly referencing Romney, whom he has labeled a “Massachusetts moderate.”
Gingrich has some recent numbers to back up his belief that he is the Romney alternative best-positioned to turn back the national front-runner’s momentum in South Carolina. According to the latest RCP Average of Palmetto State polls, Gingrich trails Romney by less than 5 percent, while Santorum and the libertarian-leaning Ron Paul are 12 percentage points behind. Rick Perry and Jon Huntsman continue to spin their wheels in the mid-single digits.........
(Excerpt) Read more at realclearpolitics.com ...
Sorry, I have never posted a Thread, don’t know how and I don’t want to screwup my day by trying. LOL
But other than that I agree with you. ;>)
Good for you! ☺
Read it and weep. Santorum missed 10 counties that McCain won, but won 35/45 of the McCain counties. Perry won 2, Paul won 2 and Newt won 6 of 45 McCain counties. The majority of Newt counties came out of Obama counties, not McCain. Clearly Newt's support comes primarily from moderates, not conservatives.
Yeah, Santorum is a snorer for sure… he can’t communicate very effectively. Needs to drop out.
At least you got some cleaning done, lol.
Poor Santorum. Older women apparently like him because he seems like such a “nice young man”...but I don’t think he’s going to fly outside of that bracket.
Finny, you’ll love this.
What he says about voter fraud is great.
The whole talk is fabulous. Newt speaks the first 33 min.
http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/303686-1
I was there, Newt was great. Santorum was pretty weak by comparison. Candidates who didn’t attend this event were foolish. GOP presidential candidates Newt Gingrich, Jon Huntsman and Rick Santorum participated in a forum and barbecue in Duncan, South Carolina. |
“he is a nice young man, He used to cut the grass”
Green = Santorum.
Blue = Romney
Yellow = Perry
Red = Paul.
Of the 45 McCain Counties:
Santorum 35/45
Romney 5/45
Perry 1/45
Paul 4/45.
Romney’s 17 counties had 12 Obama/5 McCain
Paul’s 18 counties had 4 Obama/14 McCain
ZERO for Newt.
LOL.... You would love the coat my wife gave me for Christmas.
Cabelas, Silent suede green camo.... it’s awesome. It goes great with my well worn jeans and it serves as a nice alternative to my heavy road weathered black leather biker jacket. ;>)
There was a time when I had to wear expensive suits, but I now dress for me... comfort and more consistent with my attitude. ;>)
What A Big Government Conservative Looks Like
NEA
Voted for taxpayer funding of the National Endowment for the Arts.
Voted against a 10% cut in the budget for National Endowment for the Arts.
Bankruptcy
Voted for a Schumer amendment to make the debts of pro-life demonstrators not dischargeable in bankruptcy.
Defense and Foreign Policy
Voted for the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC).
Voted against requiring the President to certify that the CWC is effectively verifiable.
Voted against requiring the President to certify that that Iran, Iraq, Syria, Libya, North Korea, China, and all other countries determined to be state sponsors of terror have joined CWC prior to submitting the instrument of ratification.
Voted for the START II Treaty.
Voted to allow the sale of supercomputers to China.
Voted to ban anti-personnel landmines.
Voted against increasing defense spending offset by equivalent cuts in non-defense spending.
Voted to require that Federal bureaucrats get the same pay raises as uniformed military.
Voted to allow food and medicine sales to state sponsors of terror and tyrannical regimes such as Libya and Cuba.
Voted to limit the President’s authority to impose sanctions on nations for reasons of national security unless the sanctions were approved by a multilateral regime.
Voted against requiring Congressional authorization for military action in Bosnia.
Voted to give $25 million in foreign aid to North Korea.
Voted to weaken alien terrorist deportation provisions. If the Court determines that the evidence must be withheld for national security reasons, the Justice Department must still provide a summary of the evidence sufficient for the alien terrorist to mount a defense against deportation.
Voted against delaying the India Nuclear until the President certified that India had agreed to suspend military-to-military exchanges with Iran.
Voted against the Conventional Trident Missile Program.
Nominations
Voted for Richard Paez to the 9th Curcuit (cloture).
Voted for Sonia Sotomayor, Circuit Judge.
Voted for Richard Holbrooke to be Ambassador to the UN.
Voted for Margaret Morrow to be District Judge.
Voted twice for Marsha Berzon to the 9thg Circuit.
Voted for Mary McLaughlin to be District Judge.
Voted for Tim Dyk to be District Judge.
Voted for James Brady to be District Judge.
Labor
Voted against National Right to Work Act.
Voted against repeal of Davis-Bacon Prevailing union wages.
Voted for Alexis Herman to be Secretary of Labor.
Voted for mandatory Federal child care funding.
Voted for Trade Adjustment Assistance.
Voted for Job Corps funding.
Voted twice in support of Fedex Unionization.
Voted against allowing a waiver of Davis-Bacon in emergency situations.
Voted for minimum wage increases six times here here here here here and here.
Voted to require a union representative on an IRS oversight board.
Voted to exempt IRS union representatives from criminal ethics laws.
Voted against creating independent Board of Governors to investigate IRS abuses.
Guns
Voted to require pawn shops to do background checks on people who pawn a gun.
Voted twice to make it illegal to sell a gun without a secure storage or safety device.
Voted for a Federal ban on possession of “assault weapons” by those under 18.
Voted for Federal funding for anti-gun education programs in schools.
Voted for anti-gun juvenile justice bill.
Reform
Voted for funding for the legal services corporation.
Voted twice for a Congressional pay raise.
Voted to impose a uniform Federal mandate on states to force them to allow convicted rapists, arsonists, drug kingpins, and all other ex-convicts to vote in Federal elections.
Voted for the Specter “backup plan” to allow campaign finance reform to survive if portions of the bill were found unconstitutional.
Voted to mandate discounted broadcast times for politicians.
Voted for a McCain amendment to require state and local campaign committees to report all campaign contributions to the FEC and to require all campaign contributions to be reported to the FEC within 24 hours within 90 days of an election.
Immigration
Voted against increasing the number of immigration investigators.
Voted to allow illegal immigrants to receive the earned income credit before becoming citizens.
Voted to give SSI benefits to legal aliens.
Voted to give welfare benefits to naturalized citizens without regard to the earnings of their sponsors.
Voted against hiring an additional 1,000 border partrol agents, paid for by reductions in state grants.
Taxes
Voted against a flat tax.
Voted to increase tobacco taxes to pay for Medicare prescription drugs.
Voted to increase tobacco taxes to fund health insurance subsidies for small businesses.
Voted to increase tobacco taxes to pay for an $8 billion increase in child healh insurance.
Voted to increase tobacco taxes to pay for an increase in NIH funding.
Voted twice for internet taxes.
Voted to allow gas tax revenues to be used to subsidize Amtrak.
Voted to strike marriage penalty tax relief and instead provide fines on tobacco companies.
Voted against repealing the Clinton 4.3 cent gas tax increase.
Voted to increase taxes by $2.3 billion to pay for an Amtrak trust fund.
Voted to allow welfare to a minor who had a child out of wedlock and who resided with an adult who was on welfare within the previous two years.
Voted to increase taxes by $9.4 billion to pay for a $9.4 billion increase in student loans.
Voted to say that AMT patch is more important than capital gains and dividend relief.
Welfare
Voted against food stamp reform.
Voted against Medicaid reform.
Voted against TANF reform.
Voted to increase the Social Services Block Grant from $1 billion to $2 billion.
Voted to increase the FHA loan from $170,000 to $197,000. Also opposed increasing GNMA guaranty from 6 basis points to 12.
Voted for $2 billion for low income heating assistance.
Waste
Sponsored an amendment to increase Amtrak funds by $550 million.
Voted to use HUD funds for the Joslyn Art Museum (NE), the Stand Up for Animals project (RI) and the Seattle Art Museum’s Olympic Sculpture Project (WA).
Voted to increase spending on social programs by $7 billion.
Voted to increase NIH funding by $1.6 billion.
Voted to increase NIHnding by $700 million.
Voted to for a $2 million earmark to renovate the Vulcan Monument (AL).
Voted for a $1 billion bailout for the steel industry.
Voted against requiring that highway earmarks would come out of a state’s highway allocation.
Voted to allow Market Access Program funds to go to foreign companies.
Voted to allow OPIC to increase its administrative costs by 50%.
Voted against transferring $20 million from AmeriCorps to veterans.
Voted for the $140 billion asbestos compensation bill.
Voted against requiring a uniform medical criteria to ensure asbestos claims were legitimate.
Voted to increase community development programs by $2 billion.
Spending and Entitlements
Voted to make Medicare part B premium subsidies a new entitlement.
Voted against paying off the debt ($5.6 trillion at the time) within 30 years.
Voted to give $18 billion to the IMF.
Voted to raid Social Security instead of using surpluses to pay down the debt.
Health Care
Voted to allow states to impose health care mandates that are stricter than proposed new Federal mandates, but not weaker.
Voted twice for Federal mental health parity mandates in health insurance.
Voted against allowing consumers the option to purchase a plan outside the parity mandate.
Education
Voted to increase Federal funding for teacher testing.
Voted to increase spending for the Department of Education by $3.1 billion.
Voted against requiring courts to consider the impact of IDEA awards on a local school district.
Energy
Voted to allow the President to designate certain sites as interim nuclear waste storage sites in the event that he determines that Yucca Mountain is not a suitable site for a permanent waste repository. Those sites are as follows: the nuclear waste site in Hanford, Washington; the Savannah River Site in South Carolina; Barnwell County, South Carolina; and the Oak Ridge Reservation in Tennessee.
Voted to make fuel price gouging a Federal crime.
I just dont see it brother.
Santorum is the quintessential squishy candidate on most matters and he is rock solid on religious/social matters.
No one cares about the stuff he is selling.
America Wants JOBS!
“Santorum is the quintessential squishy candidate on most matters and he is rock solid on religious/social matters.”
His fiscal plan is more conservative than Paul Ryan. Last I checked, you didn’t consider Paul Ryan a squish.
“No one cares about the stuff he is selling.”
Aah, so we have a social liberal telling conservatives that nobody cares about social conservatives. You are wrong. Very wrong.
To come here and say that social conservatives have no voice, I don’t know what to say. People - this is the support behind Newt. They do not support what you believe in and what you value. That is why they are backing Newt!
I see it, I hope you can too.
“America Wants JOBS!”
And they ought to rely on the president to provide them is what you are saying?
Lucky, lucky YOU!!! Actually there.
Gingrich is so comfortable in his own skin, he makes me feel safe and confident and actually hopeful.
Best talk EVER. First 33 min is Newt.
http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/303686-1
“Older women apparently like him.....”
Not so much.... when they finally learn what Santorum intends to do with the monthly SS checks they need to live on.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2829774/posts
I think Rick Perry is focused like a laser on jobs and I think he is a good social conservative.
Alas.. his decades of record seem to be being dismissed forthright.
Santorum is weak as water.
You’re right.
It should have its own thread.
Maybe you can show Gator how to post it.
Yes, he does have some bizarre ideas about SS. Punish the recipients (who paid into it in good faith all of their lives)...
Rick Santorum is a nice guy with Christian morals. As such, that should not be the only qualification nor sole determinant to be President under the present circumstance.
This is a political race to see who will be the best candidate to take on and bring down the Marxist-Leninist Muslim running for a second term in the White House.
So-called Christians who are opposed to Newt Gingrich becasue “he is a serial adulterer” - and I have spoken to a plethora of such on Free Republic - are missing the big picture here: this is not a contest about who has or has not sinned in the past.
Mitt Romney is the choice of the Globalists in the Reoublican Party because they think he is malleable. None of them give a rat’s arse about morality, exept to give it lip service.
BHO2 is the choice of the Global Social Justice league. They too, chose Obama because he is malleable. All they want is world-wide Communist domination.
Neither group above has any concern for the Bible carrying, gun owning common man and woman in this nation, whose main concern is the continuance of their God given rights.
We must change the way Washington, D.C., does business, period.
Newt Gingrich has been expounding on that issue for a very long time. I’ve noticed that Rick Santorum is a follow-along on this issue, but he lacks the fire-in-the-belly of a serious contender like Gingrich.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.