Posted on 01/09/2012 5:37:00 AM PST by Reaganite Republican
Like it or not Rick Santorum is the leader of the NOT ROMNEY voters. Which is 70% of us. Rally behind Rick or Romney wins with his 30%
Exactly!
No...Mr. Jeeves had it right with this comment:
Romney is winning because there are too many single-issue conservative factions
Gingrich is the only candidate who can conceivably beat both Romney and zero, but if we don't rally behind him and give him wins in SC and FL then Romney will be our candidate.
If Romney winds up being the candidate I will hold my nose and vote for him. Four more years of zero and this country will be done for.
Rick Santorum cannot beat Obama in the general.
The Ron Paul constituency will vote for no one but Paul no matter what happens, so his dropping out wouldn’t change anything.
Social conservative/ nativist/ populist Republicans seem to have settled on Santorum. Gringrich is too intelligent and practical to stoop to Santorum’s level, so he’ll never get that vote. Romney, as we know, will say anything to anybody, despite his socially liberal record.
Gingrich could get Perry’s voters, but sadly that’s it.
Gingrich is my guy, but I can’t see how he penetrate the various factions.
Send money to your candidate, then. I don’t like the idea of these manipulated elections and premature bandwagons.
I think Newt is a great candidate. Let him win fair and square without a falsely united conservative push behind him.
We knew NH was going to go for Mitt, so it means nothing if he wins. South Carolina will tell the story a bit better.
Santorum is fading already. He whines and stammers and cannot fight back against Romney. Also, he has no new ideas, and the ideas he has are the usual redistributionist big-government ideas of anybody who spent his time in the Senate (without having accomplished anything during his time there, btw). He supported Arlen Specter and basically supports any of the usual RINO crowd.
He’s a social conservative, but so is Gingrich (anti-abortion, anti-gay marriage), who can defend those positions much more effectively without sounding bitter and priggish.
“...without a falsely united conservative push behind him.”
What exactly do you mean by this?
Newt can’t win because there are enough women voters who wil not vote for a serial cheater. The election comes down to just a few percentage points. That gap will be lost to those women who won’t pull the lever for him no matter what.
Sorry, I don’t want to unite behind the man who is going to bring us GingrichCare. I don’t want the federal government involved, period.
I am sure there are women out there that won’t vote for a serial cheater, but this women would. While I detest adultery, I care more about what kind of future my kids are going to have. From my perspective, Newt is the only one with the policies, experience, desire and the strength to turn our country around. Just my thoughts.
Maybe I’m not expressing it well. I don’t like these “Let’s all do this” or “Let’s all do that” programs. I don’t like manipulated elections.
Everyone knows the conservative vote will be split. Why don’t we wait and take a look at the actual results in SC? If Perry or Santorum doesn’t do well, they will drop out at that point.
We have seen plenty of ups and downs, and rapid ones. This does not seem like the time to rush ahead and pick our candidate.
There is plenty of time to back Newt once and if it becomes a two-man race between him and Romney. But we aren't there yet.
And the problem with going all-in for Newt at this point is the same problem I saw with going all-in for Newt a few months ago. He has not yet fully rolled out as a top-tier candidate and, Newt being Newt, anything could happen.
I'm willing to let the primary process work for a while. Frankly, calls for unity at this point, even if heeded, are not all that meaningful. IOW, they won't accomplish much. But once the race finally becomes a recognized two-man horserace, then, yes, people will be put to the choice and will choose.
I like this piece and think it's one of the more compelling ones I've read. But the reservations about Newt are not at all about his accomplishments. In my view, they are about his political judgment over the years. Clearly, had he not had serious missteps in political judgment he would not be in the position he is today. Instead, the record of accomplishments the poster iterates would have compelled Gingrich to a formidable frontrunner status.
The fact that he is not the frontrunner doesn't demonstrate that people don't know or understand Gingrich's accomplishments. It means they don't trust him sufficiently.
And so calls to "unite" behind Newt are, at bottom, calls to "trust" him. And people are not going to put their trust in him until they feel there is no other alternative. That may happen soon, but it will happen as a natural consequence of the primary process working, not through calls for "unity."
I am behind him....and have been behind him for weeks now.
I post on blogs all the time and talk to all my friends and family. I sent him money 2 weeks ago, and I plan to send him more!
Go Newt!
It crystallized weeks ago in my mind, that he is the only one who could beat Obama....
Paul voters vote for Paul only. Someday they will vote for Rand only. LOL. Santorum did well in Iowa because I believe he picked up a lot of Huckabee voters. Those were probably split wilth Perry, but Santorum picked up most of them.
If Santorum actually does pretty well in NH, he may go on to do well in SC. maybe. I like Rick, but I don’t think he is enough of a shark to beat Obama.
I can understand the desire of uniting around one non Romney, but the question still is whether it will be Newt or Santorum. The most important thing is to beat Obama.
I don’t see that happening until after SC. I hope then that those who don’t have a chance would leave the race. The timing is crucial. If Romney wins NH and SC, he will be hard to stop because people tend to get behind the winner.
Right on, SS
I vehemently disagree. Santorum brings Florida, North Carolina, Iowa, Indiana, Ohio, Virginia, and Pennsylvania into the Republican column. That is enough to win.
Santorum far too weak a candidate, almost totally lacking in charisma
And his record of accomplishment is mediocre, at best
Hate to say it, but this reminded me of a couple of passages in Tempest At Dawn, where this is exactly what James Madison predicted and *wanted* to happen. He saw the process as functioning as a check and balance on what we would call "single issue" voting, regional views, etc.
The Tea Party movement grew and became powerful because the problems with the country were finally big enough to convince a whole bunch of people that it was time to focus solely on getting our fiscal house in order or die.
That focus has been squandered by the present field of candidates. Herman Cain was propelled to frontrunner status simply because he undauntingly pushed BOLD and MASSIVE tax reform and seemed 100% set on seeing it through, in some way, shape or form, until the end.
THAT was a unifying issue, regardless of whether one was for or against 999.
Since then we have been talking about kids working as janitors in inner city schools and so on. That, and similar tangents, is NOT a unifying (overarching) issue.
Voters intuitively know that if a candidate is not focused on massive tax reform at this point in history, that candidate is not serious about solving the nation's problems. Therefore, the discussion devolves into "regional (not literal regions)" issues.
The thing is, the people ARE going to decide, regardless of any “calls to unity” or what happens on FR.
This type of post, regardless that it’s styled as a call to unity, in my view boils down to a simple call to support Newt Gingrich, period. That’s totally appropriate for a Gingrich supporter to post, but I don’t think basing one’s plea for support on “unity” — at this point in the process — is going to be very persuasive.
“Unity” is an operative concept once and if the race becomes a two-man race. (The race will only be viewed as a two-man race if the first and second place finishers are close.)
We aren’t there yet.
As it is now, imo people who want others to support Newt simply need to keep making the case for that without trying to appeal to a “unity” that is not organic at this time.
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