Posted on 01/22/2012 2:24:38 PM PST by Steelfish
Dan Balz
Florida Will Show Which GOP Candidate Has Momentum
By Dan Balz, Published: January 21
Columbia, S.C. — Just a week ago, what was most striking about the Republican presidential race was the possibility that the party’s least-dominant front-runner in many years — Mitt Romney — could effectively wrap up the GOP nomination faster than anyone in his party ever had. That came crashing down Saturday night.
Newt Gingrich’s stunning victory in South Carolina, which came after he finished fourth in Iowa and fifth in New Hampshire, respectively, rewrites in dramatic fashion the latest story line of the Republican campaign. Now a competition that, for all practical purposes, might have ended here moves on to Florida for another major showdown on Jan. 31. In all probability, the fight will continue well beyond that.
Florida presents a major challenge, given its size and complexity. The stakes there will be sizable. Romney cannot afford another defeat there, given that he has more resources to wage a campaign in a state where campaigning is costly. Gingrich, however, risks losing his momentum if he is not able to capitalize on this success in Florida.
Though Romney is clearly hurt, many Republicans still see him as the favorite to win the nomination. The overriding question is whether Saturday’s loss is merely a small setback of the kind experienced by many past presidential nominees. Or does South Carolina mark the beginning of real erosion in Romney’s standing that could lead to the former House speaker winning the nomination, something unthinkable only a month ago?
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
I don't think so. Yesterday my wife told me that Republican women won't vote for him. "He's disgusting" she added. Today my conservative mom told me the same thing. I think we have a real problem with Newt. I've said that I would hold my nose and vote for him. But I don't think he can ever beat Obama.Gingrich beat Romney by 9 points among women in South Carolina, so tell your wife and your mom that their tenuous purchase on the facts of this world is a positive embarrassment to a stubborn empiricist like yourself. You cannot allow ignorance of that level to go unanswered in your own house.
Your wife and your mom are our of step, ExtremeUnction. Tell them to get with the program.Extremeunction's wife and mom have the poor man baffled by their deliberate deceptions. I suspect them of ulterior motives.
The idea that a moderate Republican can win and a conservative Republican can't is what we now call a meme, an idea or a narrative that has come to be an understood and agreed to truth. It matters not, of course, whether it is really true. It matters only that the MSM can create, support and sustain this supposed truth in the minds of the public for a full election cycle. In this case, I don't think the MSM can.
And for proof that it is a lie just go check on the number of votes that the conservative Gingrich got in 2012 compared to the moderate McCain in 2008. Not even close.
Don’t forget newt isn’t on the ballot in Virginia.
Methinks Ron Paul may win that one. LOL
This kind of thing makes Florida a must win for Gingrich.
Huntsman pulled a considerable amount of the NH vote. IMO he was a “straw” candidate. He is related to Willard and the Huntsman family fortune is intertwined with Bain.
Ask yourself, what place did Huntsman finish? Why didn’t he continue? Who would have gotten his vote if he wasn’t running? His delegates will back Romney at convention, but they were obtained by deceiving the voters of NH.
So they’ll vote for obama? The choice is between one of two people, if you don’t like it run for office yourself.
quitters who proclaim they won’t vote are disgusting.
It also helps keep the Ron Pauls out, by the exposure of their flaws.
Viable candidates will attract money to keep them going. I don’t personally mind a long process and hard-hit campaigns, but I think the Republicans need to improve the process.
For someone who has "never" run a business, Newt paid income taxes on $3 million last year -- I sure wish I could earn $3 Million not running my own business like Newt.
For someone who has "never" run a business, Newt paid income taxes on $3 million last year -- I sure wish I could earn $3 Million not running my own business like Newt.
Everyone should vote at one snapshot in time
Absentee balloting is just rife with fraud but I suppose it's a necessity.
Though it could all be eliminated if everyone had a photo voting card and you could walk into any voting place and cat a vote in your district from anywhere ... a paper backup is available just as it is now with a scanner
.
Fundamental errors combine to make the outcome more important than it was designed to be.
Congress sets domestic policy, not the president - although Congress prefers to avoid all accountability, and encourages the public to focus on the presidential race, and Congress goes along with the notion that the president essentially sets budget, spending, borrowing, and pretty much all substantial domestic policy.
The federal government is way outside constitutional bounds as it goes about setting policy for the states. The Commerce Clause is used to justify regulations from federal gun control, to federal control of medical care, to federal control and even ownership of industry.
If the federal government were right sized, few people would object to political parties picking presidential candidates without so much as a primary (the first presidential preference primaries were in 1910 or so, IIRC).
Fortunately for the rest of us, the nation's conservatives can prolly pull it off in spite of the three of you.
If all states voted at once, The underfunded candidates would have no chance. They simply dont have the funding or organization to compete every where at once.
My problem is most of the early states are open. This allows the Dems to skew the votes toward there preferred candidate.
In a war, a general does not want to lose any real battle. And there is no state that isn’t a real battle. A state cannot be a feint or a decoy. There really is no such thing in primary politics.
So, I want Newt to approach every state full speed ahead...even Michigan, Massachusetts, and Utah. Those would be tipping point level defeats if delivered.
That's funny. I just was reading a long Newt thread on Facebook, where a ton of conservative women were chiming in about their thoughts on Newt. I didn't even want to butt in, because there were nothing but ladies on the thread.
If I had to guess, I'd say that 95% of the comments were entirely positive, and in fact, a lot of the women were totally down on Newt's ex-wife for trying to scuttle his chances in SC with her ABC interview.
According to all of the polling that was done just after the SC vote, Newt did better with women voters than Mitt did, by far. The numbers were posted here last night.
That myth has been blown out of the water, my friend.
A bit painful though the process might be, it plays out like a war with moves and counter moves. It proves out over time which candidate can react the fastest, connect with voters, organize ground troops, respond; in a word manage. A one-day primary would benefit the person with the biggest pile of dollars to run an ad blitz; i.e. someone like Romney.
You must have an ill informed mother and wife. Mine and many others we know will chose Newt over Mitt and especially against the Media!!!
Good try???
Maybe you need to share this with your mother&wife leading them on the right track???
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