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Understanding the Gingrich Phenomenon (and his appeal to a younger audience)
FOX News ^ | November 28, 2011 | Van Hipp

Posted on 11/28/2011 9:57:44 AM PST by presidio9

Last summer, when all of the pundits had pretty much written off Newt Gingrich’s presidential candidacy, my niece, a college sophomore whom I always believed to be apolitical, remarked, “My friends and I like Newt – he tweets a lot on Twitter.”

I should have remembered that.

Two years earlier, I had heard Gingrich speak at the National Rural Health Association’s Annual Conference. At the beginning of his remarks, he took out his new mobile phone, and thus began a 30 minute dissertation on social media as the new paradigm in communications, and challenged us all to learn it, understand it and implement it.

Gingrich, ever the student of history, grasped early on the significance of President Obama’s use of social media as an effective tool for communications in the 2008 campaign.

Unlike Obama, Gingrich has had scarce resources and hasn’t had a cadre of aides, handlers and public relation firms to devise his social media campaign strategy. Instead, the 68 year-old former Speaker of the House from Georgia, whose campaign up until now has been just about a "one man band," learned everything he could about social media and how to effectively employ it. As a result, he is now the one Republican presidential candidate who has mastered its use, and the results speak for themselves.

Today, Gingrich has over 1.3 million followers on Twitter. His nearest rivals, Mitt Romney and Herman Cain, have roughly 170,000 each, followed by

(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: gingrich; globaltax; globalwarming; newt; newtmania; newtured; reevaluategingrich
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To: knarf

“Would it be so REALLY bad to have Pres. Gingrich?”

Compared to the destructive bag of puke currently in the WH he couldn’t help but be an enormous improvement.


21 posted on 11/28/2011 10:22:25 AM PST by Magic Fingers
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To: presidio9
Attacking my rear, I am stating Newts position on illegals, that is amnesty and bigger government.
22 posted on 11/28/2011 10:23:07 AM PST by org.whodat (Just another heartless American, hated by "AMNESTY" Newt, Willard, Perry and his fellow supporters.)
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To: presidio9
Attacking my rear, I am stating Newts position on illegals, that is amnesty and bigger government.
23 posted on 11/28/2011 10:23:50 AM PST by org.whodat (Just another heartless American, hated by "AMNESTY" Newt, Willard, Perry and his fellow supporters.)
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To: presidio9

Why is Newt tweeting to the twits?


24 posted on 11/28/2011 10:24:44 AM PST by Jack Hydrazine (It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine!)
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To: knarf

“Would it be so REALLY bad to have Pres. Gingrich?”

Cain would change the disastrous course of Obama about 180 degrees. Romney about 20 degrees. Gingrich, about 70 degrees. I’ll take it.


25 posted on 11/28/2011 10:25:21 AM PST by Rennes Templar (Cain Train is rollin'!)
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To: presidio9

There is little chance that any Congress would impose that list of requirements on illegals in order to qualify to stay.
If they did require them, the proof would be so low that it would just be their word. None of our immigration laws have been strictly enforced for years..except of people trying to enter the country legally. That isn’t by accident and any solution for those already in the country would be equally uneforced..except for granting the initial unlimited stay.


26 posted on 11/28/2011 10:27:11 AM PST by Oldexpat
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To: presidio9
My Filipina wife, here since Mar. 2010, immediately chose Cain and Gingrich at the first 'debate' ... she hasn't changed.

Her reason is; they both talk serious, like adults.

None of the others interest her.

27 posted on 11/28/2011 10:29:15 AM PST by knarf (I say things that are true ... I have no proof ... but they're true)
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To: presidio9

They can start here:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2813141/posts


28 posted on 11/28/2011 10:29:40 AM PST by marty60
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To: knarf
Would it be so REALLY bad to have Pres. Gingrich ?

I'll take a President Bachman, Cain, Perry, Santorum, Gingrich, or (gasp) a President Romney. Huntsman, on the other hand, creeps me out. In summary though, I'm for ABO. Whoever does get elected will get ripped to shreds by the MSM so I do want someone who can think on his or her feet. What I don't want is a circular firing squad where we humiliate ourselves with dischord.

29 posted on 11/28/2011 10:31:53 AM PST by rhombus
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To: org.whodat

Speak English please.


30 posted on 11/28/2011 10:33:30 AM PST by presidio9 (Islam is as Islam does.)
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To: rhombus

Newt talks a great game. His appeal to younger audiences is based on the fact that few have any vivid recollections of how easily he was neutered by the Clintonistas and their sympathetic press.


31 posted on 11/28/2011 10:37:12 AM PST by Vigilanteman (Obama: Fake black man. Fake Messiah. Fake American. How many fakes can you fit in one Zer0?)
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To: presidio9
Amnesty
32 posted on 11/28/2011 10:37:47 AM PST by org.whodat (Just another heartless American, hated by "AMNESTY" Newt, Willard, Perry and his fellow supporters.)
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To: presidio9
Amnesty
33 posted on 11/28/2011 10:38:42 AM PST by org.whodat (Just another heartless American, hated by "AMNESTY" Newt, Willard, Perry and his fellow supporters.)
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To: Logical me
The last Rasmussen poll I looked at the profile showed his support low with folks under 50.

I guess it's a matter of how they classify “younger audience”. Here in SWF most people in attendance were over 60 at his Town Hall.

From God's Waiting Room.....

34 posted on 11/28/2011 10:40:54 AM PST by not2worry
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To: Oldexpat
A few things you need to be aware of before you go down the whole amnesty thing with me.

Newt's plan starts with sealing the border. It would cut off all entitlements to illegals, and enforce EVerify.

None of the other candidates actually HAS an imigration plan.

Actually, that's not fair. Herman Cain has one, but, like most of Cain's plans, it leaves a lot to the imagination. It assumes the problem will just go away on its own of we enforce the existing laws (wich, remember, Gingrich wants to do also).

Gingrich is the only Republican candidate with the honesty to point out that sealing the borders, cutting entitlements, and EVerify won't solve the problem. He has said that he knows he will take heat for this, but he's willing to take it, if it stokes the debate. The other candidates (YOUR candidate) are simply willing to pretend the immigration problem will go away, rather than hurt themselves politically.

35 posted on 11/28/2011 10:43:54 AM PST by presidio9 (Islam is as Islam does.)
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To: presidio9

FRspeak:

Amnesty:
1. When a candidate’s plan has any component other than “Deport them all.” This version currently describes all Republican candidates, past, present and future.


36 posted on 11/28/2011 10:46:12 AM PST by magritte
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To: Vigilanteman
Regardless of whether we like it or not we're still held captive by the Independents. The only good thing is that so are the Democrats.
37 posted on 11/28/2011 10:48:11 AM PST by rhombus
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To: Prokopton
Newt's got the corner on the BS market.

He can make infidelity and adultery look like a character building trait.

He can represent family values while boinking interns in the Congressional parking lot.

He can tell us we are inhumane if we don't like people living in our Country who entered illegally and then issue a 10 point program back peddling his stance three days later, sometimes call CYA.

He can counsel government lobbyists using his insider information and call it not consulting.

Newt is the Master B.S. Artist. He is no different that the in-crowd in the Beltway and that is exactly why the GOPEstablishment and their long time pundits want him on the GOP Ticket.

Newt's got lots of baggage, including enemies from his old days in Speaker who know where his skeletons are hiding and will let them out of the closet to guarantee Obama has four more years.

38 posted on 11/28/2011 10:48:11 AM PST by not2worry
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To: org.whodat

CAINESTY!!!!!!


39 posted on 11/28/2011 10:48:27 AM PST by TitansAFC (Mr. Cain, infanticide is not a "social decision," and it SHOULD be part of the political discussion!)
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To: Paperdoll
"Nut Grinch’s surge is due to a major push by the Establishment, and to many new young voters who think that fast talk is cool."

You are incorrect!

Newt's surge is proportional to Cain's disintegration.

It's the tea party, independents and young conservatives who think.

Gingrich will use the establishment to win, and then he will chart his own new course.

40 posted on 11/28/2011 10:50:31 AM PST by PALIN SMITH (In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.)
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