Posted on 12/20/2011 4:13:51 PM PST by presidio9
Slipping in polls under an onslaught of attacks, Republican presidential contender Newt Gingrich promises to wage a sharper and more aggressive campaign in the final two weeks before Iowa kicks off the party's nominating race.
Gingrich says he will be quicker to respond to attacks and more agile in getting his message across to voters who may have lost faith in him after rivals launched a withering barrage of criticism of his past as a Washington insider.
A 44-stop bus tour in the run-up to the January 3 Iowa caucus, daily calls with supporters to respond to new criticisms and another round of television ads will be cornerstones of the response by Gingrich, who will focus most of his efforts in Iowa for the next two weeks.
"I think a certain amount of drop in polls was to be expected given the amount of negative campaigning that has been going on," said Linda Upmeyer, the Iowa House Republican leader and the state chairwoman of Gingrich's campaign.
"But there are a lot of people out there who have not made up their minds yet," she said. "The challenge is to make sure that people have accurate information, and to get them the facts as quickly as we can."
The question for Gingrich will be whether he has enough time to rebound in the two weeks left to campaign in Iowa or if he has begun a political free-fall that will be hard to stop.
"The problem is he has probably waited too long," said Craig Robinson, former political director for the Iowa Republican Party. "This is the frantic finish. The clock might run out on him."
Gingrich, the former
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
Bain Capital, has cut checks totaling $90,000 to Romneys operation.
Gingrich has slipped significantly in NH as well. Of course Romney is also down thanks to Huntsman and Paul - and Newt never was ahead of Mitt, so that state is a bit of an anomaly.
RTFT: Learn it. Know it. Live it.
Again, RTFT.
Again, Gingrich never had any delusions about NH. He barely campaigned there. NH has 12 delegates. SC & FL have 75.
Next up after that are four more caucuses before Michigan, a month later and one of five(!) "home" states for Romney.
Rick Santorum is more conservative and more electable.
He's the best choice of what we're stuck with. And he's rising in the polls while Newt is tanking.
Santorum is at 10% in Iowa and rising, per both Rasmussen and PPP, while Newt is at 14%/17% and falling.
Santorum is not perfect, but he's more conservative and more electable than Newt.
When polls have fluctuated wildly throughout the campaign, why do you insist on supporting Newt and attacking supporters of all the conservative candidates as stooges for Romney -- because of a 4%-7% lead over a far better candidate?
Bachmann has, Perry has, Cain has, and now Newt? All the good folks - everyone, in short, except the right one.
Rommey never spiked.
BTW I'm completely fine with Rick Santorum. He's gold.
Look, I love the guy, but I can't see how you can seriously make that claim. Santorum's appeal is limited to hard-core conservatives. Rougly 10% of the electorate. He is about as electable as Howard Dean.
And should he win Iowa, what then? Dean won there too. Santorum has put ALL of his effort there. He has done a townhall in every county. Romney is going to win NH regardless. Gingrich is safe in SC, and looks strong in FL.
Winning Iowa will delay the inevitable for a few weeks for Santorum. The best he can do is this election's Huckabee.
Absolutely true. Even the Ron Paul lunatics are effectively supporting Mitt Romney.
He may not have campaigned there but to say that Gingrich is beating Romney in all other polls by double digits is simply false. They are even in a new CNN survey and in Virginia Newt is only five points ahead.
Santorum was repeatedly elected in a left-leaning industrial state until running into the "pro-life" scion and namesake of the sainted Gov. Casey in a Democrat landslide year. He has proven he can appeal to the white working class swing voters that turn Ohio-Wisconsin-Michigan-Pennsylvania.
Newt is an electoral disaster. He was one of the most unpopular figures in America when conservatives forced him out of the Speakership, and it won't take much to remind people why. He has never been elected to statewide office and has never demonstrated electoral appeal outside his district. Polling at 15% in Iowa and trailing Obama head-to-head is evidence of his potential, and not in a positive sense.
Romney is a good bet to win NH, but Gingrich was at 35% nationally a week ago and has fallen to 27% now (RCP avg) -- South Carolina is a full month away and his last 3 polls there are going the wrong way: 42 -> 38 -> 31.
A week is a lifetime in politics. Gingrich picked up a lot of Cain's support but now he's bleeding fast.
In other words, don’t panic.. stay cool.... Stay on course...I think it’s Newt’s to lose.
In other words, don’t panic.. stay cool.... Stay on course...I think it’s Newt’s to lose.
If I said that, it was a typo, but I can't find where you think I said it. Please show me the referrence.
Of course Gingrich isn't beating Romney by double digits.
Which "conservatives" were those? The ones who failed to balance fourteen consecutive budgets or do anything about Social Security?
You are not helping your case here. In the same time period, Santorum has gone from 3.5% to 3.8% nationally. And two weeks ago he was at 7.7% in Iowa. Now he’s at 7.0%. Not exactly what I would call picking up momentum.
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