Posted on 04/02/2012 1:43:16 PM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
Frederick, Md. - Newt Gingrich says the finish line for Mitt Romney's path to the GOP nomination is further down the road than what current delegate counts indicate.
The longshot hopeful, who has said he won't get out of the race until Romney secures 1144 delegates, is stressing that the delegates have to be "uncontested" in order to count. The frontrunner's rivals argue some of the states that awarded Romney all of their delegates violated Republican National Committee rules when they moved their contests ahead of April 1 and therefore should distribute delegates proportionally. This dispute, if it continues, would not be ruled on until the August convention in Tampa.
"All the media counts right now give him all of Florida, which is against the rules, all of Arizona, which is against the rules, and all of Idaho," Gingrich said Monday. "Those are all three proportional states and they should only be counting his share. So he has to win 1,144 uncontested delegates."
........."The last thing I want to see is a campaign this fall by a group of clever consultants, the people who advised Bob Dole in 1996 and John McCain in 2008," Gingrich said. "You can't run a campaign with no principles and win the United States. You are not going to beat Barack Obama by being clever."
(Excerpt) Read more at politics.blogs.foxnews.com ...
Don’t miss Post #1! GO NEWT!
Newt, please shout these comments from the tallest building you can find. Newt’s a man amongst boys.
But Newt may beat Mitt by being more clever.
If Mitt or the GOPe try to pull some slight of hand to give the disputed deligates to Mitt just because they say so, there will be a big problem that Mitt may not be able to overcome on the floor of the convention.
I’m afraid there’s a lot of wishful thinking here. While all of these States have quirks in their delegate allocation details - Fl and AZ were always “winner take all” States, while ID was proportional - but with a “winner take all” provision if certain percentages were reached.
Romney isn’t my first choice, but the math to get to 1144 is strikingly simple. The key is that there are only 7 remaining States that are “winner take all,” and Romney is likely to win all of them.
Given that, unless Santorum can win one of the major Winner take all States, Romney only needs to get 26.2% of the remaining proportionally distributed delegates to get to 1144 prior to Tampa. The state by state math here: http://axdwhiteman.info/index.php/quick-hits
The way I read this is Newt is moving the goalposts. He said he would drop out if Romney got to 1144; he now sees that Romney will almost certainly get to 1144; so he's now saying he will drop out only if Romney gets to an "undisputed" 1144.
Actually this column is not Newt’s first foray into the delegate discussion, as he has been tutoring on this fact since Florida, from time to time. Probably his supporters are the only ones paying attention, but now the media is beginning to get the picture.
This will affect the paradigm on “inevitability”, as facts fist have to be drawn in crayon for the media.
1144 means more than 1144. It means 1144 of the real deal - committed delegates. Newt teaching Basics 101. Again.
Oh the THORN in Romneys side, just won’t go away and he can’t ignore it. Good for Newt, keep going.
The rules from the rnc state that the states are winner take all PROVIDED the primary is held no earlier than april(IIRC).Well it wasnt so the delegates are proportional.Thats why NEWT is going to hold his feet(rombots) to the fire demanding those are hard delegates.
Bravo, Newt! Bravo!!
He's doing it again-----saying EXACTLY what needs to be said! He's the only one who gets it. I'm not giving up on Newt.
And the fact that Newt is more than willing to defy the establishment ‘GOP’ tells me that he is the man for this mosrt difficult job of saving US from what the criminal enterprise democrats and little barry bastard are building AND re forming the republican party. Almighty God, please help voters wake up and support the saving of America.
NTTT on those delegate facts. Didn’t know that.
I’ll add an “AMEN” to that.
Regarding "winner take all" in these same states moving their primaries before March 6th:
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Jan 30, 2012 "So the winner on Tuesday gets all of Florida’s 50 delegates to the GOP convention, right? It says so right in the Republican Party of Florida primary rules.
Eh . . . probably. You see, the Republican National Committee wanted the primary season to start later (that didn’t work out so well) and they wanted the early states to award their delegates proportionally. But those rules came about under Chairman Michael Steele; by the time Florida set its date, Reince Priebus was running the show, and the RNC approved the current winner-takes-all system. The Florida GOP says it’s a non-issue; the current RNC leadership has signed off on the winner-take-all system.
The Tampa Bay Times’s Adam Smith reports, “All it takes is a registered Florida Republican to file a protest with the RNC, and the party’s contest committee would have to consider the issue when it meets in August just before the convention.”
The party’s primary rules were intended to encourage a longer primary season, while ensuring that four smaller states — Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, and South Carolina — hold the first contests. Only those states were permitted to hold primaries or caucuses before March 6, the RNC decreed, while any state that held a contest prior to April 1 would award its delegates proportionally. Under the rules, any party that violated the sanctioned calendar would lose half its delegates and potentially face further penalties.
Republican leaders in Florida, determined to give the state a big say in picking the nominee, decided having their delegation slashed from 99 to 50 was worth it and set Florida’s primary for Jan. 31. The RNC has said Florida will be a winner-take-all primary, but that decision is still subject to challenge.
If tomorrow’s results are in line with recent polls, Mitt Romney will win 50 delegates and everyone else will win none. (Thus, Rick Santorum and Ron Paul spent a limited amount of time and resources in Florida.) But if it were proportional, Romney would win about 20-25, Gingrich would win about 14-16, Santorum would win about 5-7, and Paul would win 5-6.
In other words, Newt Gingrich may have enormous incentive to file protests and perhaps even legal challenges to the RNC to make Florida allocate its delegates proportionally."
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State by state math HERE
Math is "hard." The RNC, state Republican parties and Mitt's supporters are hoping the electorate isn't into understanding the details, while the party on the national and state level keep fiddling with the rules to keep their hand in the outcome.
[FL is hoping to get all their delegates back at the convention - their delegates will be "At-Large" due to moving the primary up but they are filling a full slate, as they know how the RNC plays fast and loose with the rules]
...."Friday 27 April - Saturday 28 April 2012: Quarterly Meeting. The At-Large delegates are selected according to the results of the primary. The party is selecting a full delegation of 99 and 96 alternates in compliance with RPOF rules."... Source
The natives have peeked into the sausage tent and discovered how RINO nominees are made. A splash of varying state rules, a pinch of early timing, a squeeze of money, mix together, then change out part of rules. Let set. Add more timing and cover lightly. Let rise. Garnish with final rules . Serve hot, on a platform.
I expect Newt to tame the tiger at convention, by mapping out the chicanery of the GOP-E engine that can steam role the sheeple.
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