Posted on 12/01/2011 7:57:27 AM PST by Fred
NEWT GINGRICH is the latest unlikely figure to vault to the top of Republican presidential polls, and unlike those who preceded him - Donald Trump, Michele Bachmann, Rick Perry, Herman Cain - he’s likely to stick around. That’s partly due to necessity. With just a month until the Iowa caucuses, conservatives don’t have time to anoint a new savior. It’s also because, despite his copious shortcomings, he seems immune to what felled the others. An able debater, he won’t flop like Perry and Cain. He’s not a full-on nut like Trump. And his legislative record eclipses Bachmann’s, which barely exists.
But his late emergence as the “true conservative’’ poised to challenge Mitt Romney is rich, and its broader significance underappreciated. For two years, the driving force in national politics has been the Tea Party, whose founding myth was that ordinary citizens were rising up in defiant objection to the hidebound, self-dealing ways of Washington. Greedy politicians, this view held, had bloated the government and lined their own pockets at taxpayers’ expense, while letting the country go to rot.
(Excerpt) Read more at bostonglobe.com ...
The “tea party” is essentially just the GOP rank and file.
They have always been out there, but as things get worse they are becoming more and more vocal. And the result is that there are a few conservatives in the race, and the others have to at least talk the talk.
We can’t go on autopilot. We have to push to get the best we can get from the humans who have put themselves out there as candidates, and then we have to keep on pushing. If Bachmann or Santorum would come out on top, we still would have to keep on pushing and hold their feet to the fire.
And whoever wins is going to be limited by the lack of support in congress... and only we can do anything about that, and only over time. They’ll be limited by the fact that the institutions and judgeships are riddled with frauds and anti-constitutionalists, and again that can only be solved over time.
There is no silver bullet. This is a generational fight and it will never be over.
Those saying a conservative VP is good enough are likely Cain supporters who see he can’t win anymore, but think Romney or Gingrich might pick him as VP so long as he holds out.
We haven’t had a single vote yet, it’s way too early to give up and let Romney win.
Palin is going to help get conservatives elected.
Sorry! Was thinking Globe and typed “Herald”. Ouch@!
Plus remember America is center-right.
If Gingrich is the Answer, then Congress and the Senate will be the other 2/3 of the Answer. Congress spends, Presidents sign.
And Hopefully this latest “immigration” scare that Newt has just experienced (again) will make him adopt some planks that Congress with Pass as laws, as the GOP takes over the other 2/3 rds.
And then we have the VP slot, which may be an Important Tea Party personna’....that just may be what Gingrich needs, and VP’s go on to be presidents in most instances...Joe Biden being a rare exception.
Tea Party has won huge gains in state legislatures.
Tea Party has changed the discussion.
It's been less than three years since the movement started and about two years since it became directly involved in picking winners and losers.
If the new president is successful reigniting a robust economy, in four years everybody will proclaim themselves Tea Party patriots.
The future is hard to predict. The system is already poisoned. The re-election of Barack Hussein Obama could also be the dose of ipecac we need to finally put us on the road to a real recovery, and another round of RINO adminsitrations could let it fester until we're too weak to ever recover.
It’s a stupid premise because the alternative is Romney, so complaining about the tea party “failure” to nominate a true conservative is ridiculous.
I doubt you ever attended a Tea Party!
You are incorrect in your assessment!
Newt Gingrich has met with the top Tea Party activists in many states.
I attended a meeting in 2010.
Newt was strongly in favor of the revolution.
I believe his new Cabinet would reflect Tea Party principles.
Michelle Bachmann
the most Conservative record
no baggage
first to oppose obama care in the house
Well said. Megadittoes, my FRiend.
The Boston Globe aka TNYT is ready to have another tea party but can’t admit what is going to be thrown over the edge is their commie master. Conservatives aren’t eating their sour grapes they are serving with their pablum propaganda.
Yeah, but he’s our piece of trash.....and a better piece of trash than Obama.
The Tea Party "revolution" appears to have been vastly overrated.
Think about Supreme Court nominees we would get if Obama is re-elected. Obama is poison and we can’t wait 4 more years to administer the antidote.
In his last year in the House Newt had a lifetime 90+% rating from the American Conservative Union. Is the ACU also a RINO organization?
Some people here drive me nuts. You look at the candidates you have backed and it is list of some of the most unelectable insignificant people in recent American politics. If you can’t win it doesn’t make any difference how principled you are. If Newt or Mitt is the nominee I will gladly vote for them because we simply cannot survive another 4 years of OBama. Surround them with a solidly conservative legislature,and hope for the best. If you want to fall on your sword for the sake of principle and hand OBama 4 more years, then don’t come back here and complain as the Country swirls down the toilet.
LLS
The Tea Party has barely gotten started. There are a lot of failure-minded people at FR, that’s all.
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