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.
Right now our top five polling candidates are all men at least in their 60’s.
I think that’s part of why we’re not yet seeing flop sweat on our flop of a president.
It will be Mitt, but not Newt. Cain is the man.
NO one I have ever know has so carried the torch for a woman they will never ever in their wildest dreams date they way you carry the torch for Palin
Dude, it's over. Move on with your life.
If I am part of your "we", that's an incorrect statement. I will not support Romney.....ever!
A one world government lovers wet dream.
Right on. Get the sideshow Cain who’s turning this into a joke out of the way. Let Perry fade away and we’re down to the adults in the room—Gingrich and Romney. I predict Newt will take him out in an upcoming debate. Romney will do the crybaby routine like he did with Anderson Cooper. “Anderson, Anderson, help me.” That’ll be the end of him. Newt will then zero in on Zero. I can’t wait.
“No thanks, have no interest in voting for McCain 2.0 in 2012.”
Right on.
If obama wins in Nov. the GOP upperclassmen need to be made aware it is THEIR fault, not the conservative electorate.
Recall NY23 when 100,000 registered Republicans didn’t even bother to vote. Gee, I wonder why. People are realizing it’s futile to ‘hold their nose’ and vote for the RINO so that someone ‘worse’ doesn’t get in. It doesn’t solve the problem.
There needs to be a rule on FR that before someone can post that picture of Newt & Nancy on the couch, they need to be able to summarize Newt’s actual beliefs on so-called global warming, as well as what enviornmental initiatives he would see to implement as president. I’m guess you you’re not up to the task.
My experience with most of the idiots who post that picture is that they actually don’t know a heck of a lot about Newt Gingrich. They have chosen their candidate like a football team, and any talk of an alternative insults them personally. That candidate used to be Sarah Palin, of course. Now, it’s Herman Cain.
Why doesn’t Newtie just get Nazi Pelosi to endorse him?
I didn’t mean literally “age” though. I would vote for a Reagan again easily. Older people, like Cain, has way more experience, which makes for wisdom and knowledge (if they reflect on it).
Age doesn’t make one wise—but it can help (according to Socrates and Confucius).
We heard all the same blow hard GOP Establishment talk in 2008. They all could not wait for “the war hero to take on the kid”. We were all told how “great” McCain was going to be going up against 0. Instead he folded like a cheap suit. Newt will be no different.
Hmmm so Newt is the “adult”? The “adult” who has consistently stabbed the Conservative movement in the back in the name of political expediency?
Newt who threw Paul Ryan under the bus, trash talked the GOP Health Care plan as “Right wing social engineering”, chastised Conservative for not backing uber RINO Dede Scusafasa, purposes a Amnesty lite “Middle way on Immigration” and jumped on the Global Warming couch with Nancy Pelosie??
So “adult” now means being a Bush like candidate who will talk a tough game on the Campaign trail and then go to DC and be a good little crony capitalist liberal GOP water boy.
No thanks, have no interest in voting for McCain 2.0 in 2012.
I don’t see it. I think mitt will be veep. I can’t tell who will win the nomination but I don’t see newt getting it.
Looks like it may not be such a friendly debate tomorrow after all, if Newt sees Cain out of it eventually. He may be looking to score points on his friend Herman tomorrow.
I see. Let us not have an honest discussion of the facts of Newt's record, let just engage in the same Cult of Personality worship that gave us McCain as our candidate in 2008. How about we have a factual discussion of Newt's record not just mindless cult of personality postings about "the adult in the room".
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