Posted on 01/04/2012 5:57:46 PM PST by bigbob
A group of movement conservatives has called an emergency meeting in Texas next weekend to find a “consensus” Republican presidential hopeful, POLITICO has learned.
“You and your spouse are cordially invited to a private meeting with national conservative leaders of faith at the ranch of Paul and Nancy Pressler near Brenham, Texas, with the purpose of attempting to unite and to come to a consensus on which Republican presidential candidate or candidates to support, or which not to support,” read an invitation that is making its way into in-boxes Wednesday morning.
The meeting is being hosted by such prominent conservative figures as James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family; Don Wildmon, onetime chairman of the American Family Association; and Gary Bauer, himself a former presidential candidate.
Many of the individuals on the host list attended a previous closed-door session with Rick Perry this summer. But Perry’s candidacy stalled out, though he’s pledged to take his campaign on to South Carolina despite a disappointing fifth-place finish in Iowa.
Movement conservatives are concerned that a vote split between Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum among base voters could enable Mitt Romney to grab the GOP nomination. A source who shared the invitation said the meeting was about how to avoid such a possibility.
(Excerpt) Read more at politico.com ...
Santorum POTUS, Gingrich VP
They kind of missed the whole individual vote thing didn’t they.
Personally, I’m terrified at all the conservatives trying to play politics with this thing. This is our last chance to save this country and everyone’s acting like a bunch of children.
I want whoever can step up and be an adult. I don’t appreciate any Republican bashing another because we are only hurting ourselves.
Bash Obama dammit! If anyone should be damaged from our primaries it should be Obama. I truly believe that the candidate who quits playing the Republican establishment games and wholeheartedly and passionately goes after Obama can and will win.
That also eliminates Romney without wasting our time and money since he can’t really go after Obama. He has too much in common with him.
Anyway, sorry to be so long-winded but I am seriously worried by all the venom being directed at our own both by the candidates and on the boards and blogs. Let’s get our heads in the game.
To paraphrase Clinton’s mantra: It’s Obama, Stupid!
If some of them were Perry supporters and they are now shopping for another candidate, can we presume that Perry is not going to emerge as the consensus?
That leaves Santorum and Gingrich which would set up a three-way race between Romney, Paul and the Consensus Conservative.
Right now any of the candidates running except Romney, Paul and Huntsman would get my vote. Only for Santorum would I NOT have to place vise grips on my nose.
I’ve been saying the same thing for a long time. Why isnt there any tea party favorite or newcomers? It’s all retreads.
Interesting because it goes completely against the strategy in 2010 where the Tea Party challenged moderates in the primaries. Yet in the biggest primary of them all...the tea party seems to be sitting it out.
It’s just a simple fact of numbers that we need to coalesce around a single conservative in order to beat Romney. As long as even two conservatives are in it, Romney will win. I’m good with a smoke-filled room at this point, if we come out of it with the single conservative named, locked and loaded.
P.S. This is a role the Tea Party shoud have taken on a year ago, in my opinion—an internal nominating mechanism by which the sanctioned conservative is picked, funded and supported to the exclusion of any and all interlopers. I know it’s rough and tumble but that’s the game. Look at how Romney and the Demoviks play. Moral high ground? There ain’t much of that.
I tend to agree, we get too caught up in who’s going to win the primary when the most important battle is coming in November against Obama.
I am very suspicious of any group of political people who describe themselves as “of faith”.
It’s just a simple fact of numbers that we need to coalesce around a single conservative in order to beat Romney. As long as even two conservatives are in it, Romney will win. I’m good with a smoke-filled room at this point, if we come out of it with the single conservative named, locked and loaded.
P.S. This is a role the Tea Party should have taken on a year ago, in my opinion—an internal nominating mechanism by which the sanctioned conservative is picked, funded and supported to the exclusion of any and all interlopers. I know it’s rough and tumble but that’s the game. Look at how Romney and the Demoviks play. Moral high ground? There ain’t much of that.
Agree with you
Right now Hannity is running mitten’s McCain infomercial on Fox !
Disgusting !
The battle right now is with Mitt Rino and then take on the real enemy.
Pray for America
One of the big problems with the Republicans here in Ohio is that they have this fear of a contested primary. They claim it uses up money that will be needed in the general election. So the Party leadership selects a candidate for each office, actively discouraging any competition. The Party members are presented with a candidate they had no choice in nominating, and have very little interest in supporting.
I'm all for contested primaries. They bring out the voters, and they give the candidates a chance to showcase themselves.
Well, my reservation is that when these guys get together, more often than not they pick the wrong candidate. They already had one meeting with Rick Perry. How’d that work out?
My preference is for Sarah Palin. Or, failing that, Rick Santorum. But who knows what these guys will pick?
As for the Tea Party, it’s a real grass-roots movement, all right. But, for better or worse, it’s not unified. Choosing a caucus of trusted leaders to choose a candidate would be hard, and it’s probably a bit late to start such a process.
I see about a 25% chance that Romney is cutting a deal explaining to Santorum that he should be Mitt’s VP since Santorum can’t win NH. Santorum might be made to see that almost every other candidate has been on top and he should strike a deal before he folds and Mitt offers the same deal to Ron Paul.
Movement conservatives are concerned that a vote split between Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum among base voters could enable Mitt Romney to grab the GOP nomination.I'm not.
Non-story. There are groups all over America getting together to decide whom to support and they are all picking different candidates. This group is not special.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.