Posted on 02/02/2012 6:13:24 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
For Newt Gingrich, the next comeback bid may be his hardest yet.
The former House speaker didn’t just lose to Mitt Romney in Florida this week; he got beaten within an inch of his life. Now, Gingrich – along with Rick Santorum and Ron Paul – heads into a weeks-long lull in the campaign, with a lapse of 20 days before the next debate and nearly a month before the next major primaries in Arizona and Michigan.
If Gingrich is going to stop Romney’s candidacy from becoming a runaway train, he needs to change the terms of the race much sooner than that. And short of a hit-the-jackpot stroke of luck – another massive super PAC donation from casino mogul Sheldon Adelson, or a dramatic screw-up on Romney’s part – Gingrich is going to have to be creative.
Here are five ways Gingrich could reboot for the month of February, retool his message and refocus his campaign on the increasingly desperate goal of beating Romney.
Take out a Contract on Romney
For the so-called ideas man in the 2012 race, Gingrich delivered a remarkably hazy-on-substance message in Florida. Yes, he talked about space exploration and religious liberty and the Keystone XL project. But while Gingrich has accumulated a heap of political buzzwords and esoteric policy ideas, he has yet to organize his campaign around a simple, compelling, easy-to-remember set of concrete proposals.
That may start to change. Gingrich indicated in his Tuesday night speech that “in the next few days, we’re going to develop the equivalent of the contract from 1994,” referring to the insurgent policy platform that helped Republicans win control of the House of Representatives for the first time in a generation....
(Excerpt) Read more at politico.com ...
It seems to me that having a long lull in the primary schedule helps Newt. It gives him time to build up a cash reserve. It deadens the “momentum sting” in peoples’ minds. It gives him an opportunity to spend more time doing actual campaigning, instead of debate prep, etc.
Plus, the media seems to be turning on Romney now that he’s supposedly got it in the bag (after only 4 states?). Instead of flaking for him, they’re going to start covering all his negatives and gaffes, which will help Newt.
I agree with this.
Newt can’t build up a cash reserve if people aren’t donating (and they don’t seem to be, from all reports) and he keeps over-spending (which every time I read an article about his finances, he’s in massive debt from over-spending, such as on travel).
I’ve said before that it seems incredible that not one of these dudes took note of how an unknown pizza executive made it to the front of the pack: by relentlessly talking about massive tax reform!
The first guy that can learn from Herman Cain’s amazing ride could win the nomination and the election.
When Romney lost SC by nearly the same amount, that was a blip. When Newt loses FL he’s beaten to an inch of his life.
More fantasy spinning from the media.
We’re just two days into the “nobody can stop Romney” phase and he’s already stepped on his own d___ twice, once with the DNC-ready “I’m not concerned about the poor....” line and the second time with his “automatically tie the minimum wage to inflation” stupidity.
This thing is not over.
Yeah, Newt SERIOUSLY needs to get on task.
He needs to lay off the stuff about moon bases being the 51st state, and stick to the basic message that everybody can understand: tax cuts, spending cuts, balancing the budget, lessening regulation and intrusion, making America a business-friendly environment so we’re not stuck with the current sluggish job “growth,” and generally restoring our lost liberties. THESE are what will play in the GOP primary, and with middle America at large.
C’mon Newt, just stick to the winning gameplan.
I think rather than worry about money, Newt needs to worry about ideas. That’s his forte, and even without a lot of money, he can get his ideas out there via social media, the internet, and in personal appearances that will keep his face in the news.
I just checked, and “ngingrich” has 382 videos on Youtube. Who can make sense out of that? Instead he could first create his “contract” and second, lay the message out in simple clear fashion just as he would in a debate, to show in one minute long crisp and clear videos how he will roll back Obama’s bad policies, reinvigorate American exceptionalism, recapture the excitement of discovery with a new privately-run space program, and all the rest.
People want IDEAS. Not just begging for money and “click here for more”.
Newt.org looks like any other political website. If he can transform the country like he says he can, then he can figure out how to transform the internet into a more effective sales channel.
I'll say. Newt needs to stick to Obamacare and the economy. No reason to stray off into moon exploration and judges when no one cares. The economy is in shambles and Obamacare is being instituted every day, little by little. These two titems are the only thing he should be focusing on. Especially in NV.
Yes, we KNOW that Newt has the capability of being transformative and getting things done. This is the guy who forced a hostile Dimocrat president to accept both welfare reform and a balanced federal budget. This is the guy who came up with the Contract for America and took the House back for the first time in 40 years.
Where’s the old Newt? Can somebody wake him up and get him on a bus back to here?
It’s hard to believe this came out of “Politico”. It’s GGOOD! If Newt is as smart as I know he is, he’ll read this and take it to heart. The outline, should he follow, it is his ticket to win!
We’re not liberals.
We demand solutions, not feel good trash presented in a small package easy to remember like, “Yes we can.”
Nice lie to slip in, Politico. They're allied with Romney.
Really. It’s like political slogans made for toddlers.
Which is about the developmental age of many of his supporters.
It’s hard to believe this came out of “Politico”. It’s GGOOD!
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I agree, it shocked me. The NYT had a decent piece on Gingrich last weekend and that shocked me, too! It wasn’t glowing or anything but seemed fair, honest and the reporter got some good quotes from Gingrich.
In the next few weeks expect to see dozens come forward to endorse Mitt—Football stars, Movie Stars, old politicians, etc... Newt will be a forgotten man. he had better come out with a good slogan and a good plan—when I read the article it sounded at first like Newt should put out a contract on Mitt with the Mafia! Romney is on the run away train to the Nomination—Then he is to be ripped to shreds by the Democrats. What he did to Newt—will soon be coming to Mittens.
YES.
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