Posted on 11/04/2011 6:31:27 PM PDT by presidio9
Newt Gingrich predicts the race for the GOP nomination will come down to two weary candidates: "This will end up being Mitt and Newt."
Gingrich, the former Georgia congressman and speaker of the U.S. House, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Wednesday that his campaign is now where it needs to be and that by December he'll have the resources to compete head to head with former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.
"And Romney is the real competitor," Gingrich said in his Buckhead campaign headquarters, where he rallied two dozen volunteers before heading to Duluth for a town hall meeting sponsored by the 7th District Republican Party.
An obviously upbeat Gingrich said he survived June and July, which he called the darkest two months of his 53-year political career, and is poised to make a serious run at the nomination.
It's a remarkable turnaround for a candidate many pundits and news outlets had declared out of the race earlier this year. And while polls have shown Gingrich inching into sole possession of third place -- including a Quinnipiac poll released Tuesday that had him distancing himself from fourth-place Rick Perry -- he's still at least 10-12 percentage points behind Romney and Atlanta resident Herman Cain.
But Cain has suffered through four days of brutal news coverage over allegations of sexual harassment from when the former Godfather's Pizza CEO was head of the National Restaurant Association. Polls have yet to reflect any impact of the charges, and it's unclear whether Cain will slip from the top tier as have past challengers, such as Perry, the governor of Texas, and U.S. Rep. Michelle Bachman, R-Minn.
Gingrich, who suffered through his own bouts of scandal earlier in his career, said Cain needed to hole up somewhere and figure his way out of this mess.
"My first advice is what he hasn’t done, which is say nothing until you sit down with your lawyers and with the people who know the facts," Gingrich said. "You thoroughly and completely understand them and you go through a period where everybody asks you -- in your team -- every possible negative question so you thoroughly understand what will happen."
Gingrich said Cain is going through "a rough patch" and whether or not Cain survives Gingrich said he is ready to eclipse Cain.
"We just had the two best days," Gingrich said. "We raised more money Monday than we ever had before and we raised more money Tuesday. Those two days we raised 50 percent more than we raised in July."
As for critics who say he lacks the resources or organizational strength to compete in Iowa, whose caucus will be held Jan. 3, Gingrich said there's more than enough time.
"That’s part of what’s funny all summer," he said. "I work back from victory. Victory in Iowa starts about the 10th of December. Everybody else was saying, ‘Oh my gosh, look at August, look at September.' I’m like, well, it’s not the 10th of December."
The American people, Gingrich said, are tough and expect their leaders to be tougher.
"The job of the political leader is to reach past the distractions and to continue to communicate what they think matters, and to try and do it in a way that the American people decide they offer a better future," he said.
In Duluth, before about 300 local Republicans, as well as several local tea party leaders, Gingrich unveiled plans that he said could save the federal government trillions of dollars. His plans include turning Medicaid into a block-grant program that would allow states to tailor plans for its needs.
Questions from the audience dealt with national security, federal spending, concerns about the Environmental Protection Agency and border control.
Must Read. The most ironclad case against Mitt Romney Its damning.
Maybe not. The black vote can go ahead and support a gov handout the rest of their life and that keeps them happy right.........
If Romney wins, we're doomed.
Romney is not on the chopping block. Cain is. The WH cannot have a successful black slave descendant run against this thing from Kenya.
Me too!
I have decided on Newt. I believe he will make a good President. He is pro-life. He wants to audit the fed, and he will clean Obama’s clock in the debates!
Too much fun!
Answer the smear tactic. It holds no water. Obama is the absolute worst thing I have seen in my lifetime. Go ahead.....
Cain didn’t put his foot in his mouth over China and nukes? or over greenspan? if YOUR man is not the nominee...are you going to sit out the vote? and I am not even going to mention the recent erroneous accusations against other candidates...get a grip.
Your Heartless!
Yes, Obama is the absolute worst president ever. He has destroyed this nation to the point it will take generations to rebuild it
Read the title wrong. Thought the race was going to be
Knit and Mute.
I’m just toying. Stop the Cain attacks that have been quite orchestrated. Perry deserves a strong look as does Newt. We are in this to get Obama out.
Your charges that Cain has a ‘shady’ past were just tossed out of court based on a lack of evidence.
You are welcome, and encouraged, to seek info on a candidate. Don’t you just think it makes a little sense to arrive at a conclusion AFTER finding FACTS rather than media fed nonsense? Varina called Cain’s background ‘shady’. Varina doesn’t seem to want to defend the accusation. Seems like the type of accusation you’d like to have backed up with facts before just throwing it out there.
Well, if Mitt could walk like the recent talk of Newt (in the debates), we’d be OK. Sad to say, that is not to be. Mitt is probably one of the most sippery pols I’ve ever seen.
Exactly!
Hey Mr. Newbie, I said “shady” because has a mess hanging over his head until he answers the allegations succinctly — which he’s had plenty of time to do. None of here on FR were at the scene of the allegations, so “facts” are hard to come by.
If you want to look at your candidate a bit more, you’ll find he was engaged in one of the smarmy occupations in D.C., lobbying. I don’t doubt he is intelligent, but being intelligent and smart are two different things — or as Cain quipped “apples and oranges.”
What was he smoking when he said this?
Thanks katiedidit1. Trying to reason with Cainiacs is like talking to stones. I truly don’t understand the obsession with him by some.
July=$1
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