I live in Florida too. All that talk started in early January. In fact Rush made the statement around the 10th of January which was nearly two weeks before the South Carolina Primary. So I’d still have to say it had little effect.
By the time the election came here to Florida, all I heard day and night was Newt was thrown out of Congress for dirty deeds. Newt’s not trustworthy. Newt is the first Speaker to leave in disgrace for ethical wrongdoing. Newt and Nancy Pelosi. Newt and Hillary. Newt is a Washington insider. Newt is sleazy. Newt is unethical, erratic, and reckless. Newt was paid $30,000.00 an hour to work for Freddie Mac. The democrats want to face Newt. All lies from the pit where Mitt lives. Newt wants amnesty and Newt says be humane to the illegals.
I saved the information from Mitt and his PACs. I could not find one thing on what Rush said. Maybe it bothered some people. But that is not what Romney concentrated on round the clock when he beat him. I don’t think what Rush said was very much of a factor. Mitt chose plenty of other things to focus on. So I can’t blame Rush.
It’s true that the Romney PACs were hard at work here in Florida, and of course one of the problems is that early voting is so very early here that many people had already voted (under the influence of Romney’s scorched earth campaign) before primary day even got close. I read that Romney got something like 60% of the early voters - although some of them certainly did regret it later.
It was a real Romney lie-fest, to be sure, and that was no doubt the main reason Gingrich didn’t do well. The thing that gave me the impression that Rush’s comments had an effect, however, is that they were heavily discussed and even adopted here on FR, and Gingrich - probably the most free-enterprise of all of the candidates - was suddenly being portrayed as an anti-business liberal, which is utterly ridiculous.
I think you’re right, though, and it probably had less of an effect than other things with the rank and file voter. But because it was picked up by the Wall Street Journal and other papers, I suspect it had more of an effect on discouraging political endorsements from higher-up GOP pols here.
Of course, only a couple of weeks later, I recall reading articles in those same papers saying, “well, maybe that wasn’t what Gingrich was saying after all,” or “well, maybe Bain Capital isn’t exactly a fairy godmother,” or even “well, maybe Romney was lying about his business career,” which was the point Gingrich was making all along.
But I think the damage was already done because it gave Romney yet another thing he could use. I don’t think Rush handled it well, because just as in the Fluke episode, he doubled down for a few days and then finally admitted that maybe he had “misspoken.” Maybe this latest episode will remind Rush that, rightly or wrongly, a lot of people look to him not just as a radio show host, but as a conservative leader, and there’s no such thing as random remarks from a leader.