As for Newt Gingrich, his position on immigration is just one of the items in the "baggage" he has to overcome. But what the voters have to overcome is an insistence on a perfect candidate. Ronald Reagan, after all, supported an immigrant amnesty bill, but that did not prevent him from being a great president otherwise.
I wouldn't call Sowell's words an endorsement, but they weren't an attack either.
It sounds like he's committed to the nominee being some conservative.
On free republic, anything thats not an attack on a republican, is a sign of an endorsement, and that means the person saying it must be a RINO.
I'm joking (sort of), but the way things are now, if anyone says anything either positive or even neutral or just not attacking, of anyone but a particular freepers preferred candidate, its like a bloodbath.
I saw a thread where DeMint was called a RINO, because he dared say nice things about Perry, and the Palin supporters went nuts (ignoring the fact that DeMint had praised Palin often and repeatedly and never said not one negative thing about her). Its getting weird here.
Sowell was called a RINO when he talked about Perry, and didn't thrash him, he didn't endorse him, he simply didn't trash him, and spoke somewhat positively, that was enough to send people on edge.