Posted on 02/02/2012 6:32:02 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
Newt Gingrich says he's staying in the Republican presidential race all the way to the GOP convention in August, and that he's willing — even eager — to fight for the nomination on the convention floor. But does he have a chance?
Gingrich and his aides seem to think so, and they have a theory of how they can wrest the nomination from Mitt Romney.
It begins with pushing Rick Santorum to the sideline and uniting the party's conservative majority behind Gingrich. That's why Gingrich claimed a victory in having turned the campaign into a two-man race in Florida on Tuesday night instead of conceding defeat.
Next, Gingrich needs to win some additional caucuses and primaries — the Minnesota caucus on Feb. 7, for example, and several of the seven primaries on Super Tuesday, March 6.
And even if all that broke Gingrich's way, he might still have to battle Romney for the nomination on the convention floor, an exotic scenario that Gingrich has embraced and says is part of his battle plan.
"It's very likely that at the convention there will be a non-Romney majority [of delegates], and maybe a very substantial one," Gingrich told reporters this week. "My job is to convert that into a Gingrich majority."
But even for a candidate who prides himself on thinking outside the box, the idea of a wide-open convention takes some imagination.
No major party has needed more than one ballot to choose a nominee since 1952, when the Democrats selected Adlai Stevenson. The 1976 Republican convention came close because neither President Gerald R. Ford nor challenger Ronald Reagan had a majority on opening night — but Ford still managed to win on the first ballot.
Gingrich and his aides point to several reasons their plan might work....
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Newt needs to talk jobs. Stop the “America Going Out of Business” track and get us moving in the right direction. New businesses instead of closing or bankrupt businesses.
And he needs to start reminding American that we still have the best healthcare system in the world but won’t have if we blow this chance. Americans have short memories, remind them of the the lines, waits, and general horrible healthcare in other countries.
If there is a non-Romney majority, but no single candidate has a majority, I think the more likely result is Rick Santorum as the compromise candidate who is acceptable to all sides. His one major drawback is a lack of money and organization, and once you’re the party’s nominee, that problem all goes away.
He has the clean-cut, boy scout image that some voters (incorrectly) have of Romney, and he has Gingrich’s conservatism. But he doesn’t have money.
If nobody gets an outright majority of delegates, then anything goes.
Remember - Romney’s delegates are only bound to him in the first round of balloting. After than, they can go to whomever. Of course, same goes for everybody else’s delegates...
Time to sneak in Jim DeMint as a compromise candidate!
Okay, but what executive experience does he have? Speaker Gingrich ran the House in what many consider the second most important position in the US government. Gov. Romney, of course, ran a state and a company, as well as the Olympics. What has Rick done that even comes close? Don’t we already have a neophyte senator fowling things up?
Jim DeMint is a Romney man. I doubt if he would torpedo Milt.
Newt spoke about the Keystone pipeline, kids working in schools involving the private sector in space exploration which has been ridiculed. However, the Chinese are already working on that very project and plan to have a base on the moon by 2025. Newt spoke about reducing taxes on companies, corps and also removing govt regulations so they could hire more employees and get back to business without the govt down their throats. In reality it is not the job of the govt to provide jobs..it is their responsibility to quit stiffling free enterprise
Romney spent somewhere between 15-17 millipn dollars in Florida to win what looks like 10 delegates. He can’t continue that indefinitely.
I’m just telling you what I think will happen. I would still favor Sarah Palin or Jim DeMint, but I don’t think they would get it.
I trust Newt to know what he is doing. Going to be a very exciting convention. Newt is not going to give Mitt a lay down, and I support Newt in this.
Agreed but truly gutting goverment programs and putting us on track for fiscal recovery will restore confidence and encourage people to start living their lives normally.
I believe that when Santorum drops out if he does, he will endorse Romney, just like he endorsed Spectre.
I do not trust Santorum.
Santorum is an establishment guy who made no waves in the Senate for 2 terms and has a deadly unpleasant personality that manages to pick up all the worst parts of Jimmy Carter prissiness. Nobody will vote for him.
We’re voting for somebody’s wife and children.
The thing is, most Santorum voters are favoring him over Newt not because of the difference in their personal lives (though some are) but because of his outspokenness on moral issues. Even if Santorum endorses Romney, will his voters really embrace the intermittently pro-abortion, gay-marriage supporting Romney? I doubt it.
It would be better if Santorum dropped out and endorsed Gingrich, but the main thing is for him to drop out.
Sorry, that is, we’re NOT voting for somebody’s wife and children. Santorum is not a conservative in any way except for his pro-life positions, and even then his rating is lower than Gingrich’s.
I’m VERY saddened to say that 0bama is going to be re-elected.
Unless someone from the ‘outside’ like Palin jumps in RIGHT NOW to save the day, we’re screwed! It looks like Romney is going to take the nomination via the primaries. If he’s on the ticket, conservatives will stay home like never before. A republican CAN NOT win without an enthusiastic conservative base. I’d probably still vote for him(and be VERY unhappy doing so) just with the hopes of getting rid of 0bama, but I could perfectly understand why someone would sit it out with him at the top of the ticket. He’s a Massachusetts LIBERAL for God’s sake! How in the hell could he possibly come within a mile of winning a single republican primary is beyond me!!!!
If Gingrich somehow manages to gain the nomination at the convention, it will leave such a mess, the situation will become impossible. That’s the scenario we were all hoping would unfold between Hillary and 0bama in 2008, as our only hope McAmnesty would actually come out on top. Even if Gingrich would have been straight up nominated through the primaries, he wouldn’t have been electable in the first place!
How in God’s name did it comes to this? 0bama is a liberal. He’s easily the worst president during my lifetime(I have no memory of Carter). All the republicans had to do was nominate a good solid conservative candidate, and this thing would have been easy. The Dems almost couldn’t have sat down and planned it to turn out any worse for us! Maybe that’s what happened......
I’m not being a defeatist here. I’m a realist, and I know realism often has no place among many folks here.
Flame away......
“Plausible?”
He must. Not just for himself, but for all of us.
A Romney candidacy is not merely wide open compromise with moderates on the McCain model, is an absolute capitulation to the Clinton-Obama left. At that point Republican policies on abortion, HealthControl, Second Amendment rights, DHS overreach, TARP and all of its progeny, internet freedom, media freedom and the welfare state will be -indistinguishable- from that of the Democrats.
There is a fork in the road ahead of us. Romney will take us to a place of peonage and - at best - the authoritarian State. Gingrich will take us to a place where we will not be delivered from those dangers, but we will still have a fighting chance against them.
The dead souls who have run the GOP for the past two decades are very near total victory. They have pushed the TEA party accomplishments almost back to zero. We must defeat them, or form a new party based upon individual liberty and the rule of law. The GOP respects neither of these things. That is all there is to it.
If there's anyone on this forum that has not sent money to Gingrich, please don't address me in your posts.
You suck.
No, you had it correct the first time...you are being a defeatist. Newt knows what he is doing and if you were a general leading troops to battle you would suck!
...And that's why I'm not a general! lol
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