Posted on 12/29/2011 6:22:38 PM PST by TBBT
Rick Perry’s presidential campaign released a tough new ad Thursday targeting Rick Santorum and his history of supporting earmarks in Congress. Why is Perry attacking a candidate who has been mired in single digits in Iowa despite living there for most of the past several months?
Simple, Santorum is surging. A CNN poll of registered Iowa Republicans released Wednesday puts Santorum in third place with 16 percent of the vote – his highest share yet. It’s not an outlier. In fact, data from Perry’s internal daily tracking polling shows that the Santorum surge is real and that he has the potential to continue gaining in the days before voters gather for the caucuses next Tuesday.
The polling was described to TWS by a strategist for a rival campaign and confirmed by a source familiar with the numbers. The four important takeaways from Perry’s polling: Mitt Romney is “pulling away” from a group of four second-tier candidates bunched together behind him; Ron Paul’s numbers have dropped steadily in the aftermath of the attention given his troubling newsletters; Santorum’s rise has coincided with the erosion of support for Newt Gingrich; and Michele Bachmann is in danger of becoming a non-factor in the race.
Almost all of this is good news for Mitt Romney, who announced in recent days a busy schedule of Iowa campaigning and whose campaign let it be known that he would remain overnight in Iowa after the caucuses – both indications that the Romney camp is increasingly confident of a win in Iowa next week. And Romney, in an appearance in Iowa on Thursday, said only a win in Iowa would constitute a real victory.
(Excerpt) Read more at weeklystandard.com ...
Newt is going to have trouble winning 50 delegates in Virginia when he’s not on the ballot, and he’s admitted that 1500 of his signatures were forgeries so he didn’t even turn IN 10,000 real signatures, much less 10,000 that were registered voters.
If he DOES get on the ballot, he won’t win 50, because Virginia is proportional unless someone gets 50% of the vote, and Gingrich won’t take half the electorate.
Don’t believe the polls. I still think the Santorum score is an outlier. I still Newt will come in second once the rubber hits the road. Romney 24 Newt 20 Paul 17 Perry 14 Santorum 11 Bachman 7 Huntsman 4 Other 3
Your right about Iowa, but in only certain respects...
This is a perception/momentum game. For certain candidates, Iowa is inconsequential in many respects (Romney, Paul), unless of course they win it. For others a poor showing can cause considerable damage (Newt, Perry).
Newt is likely to win many states and has a strong chance to be the Conservative nominee. Go NEWT ! This is December of 2011 and the last 5 states will vote in 2012. The trend is the Red States will choose NEWT. Blue States might choose RINO. Purple states like Iowa not sure. But we know that Red States will choose Newt.
January
? - Iowa 28 delegates
? - New Hampshire 12
Newt - South Carolina 25
Newt - Florida 50
February
Newt - Nevada 28
Newt - Maine 24
? - Colorado 36
? - Minnesota 40
Newt - Arizona 29
Newt - Michigan 30
March
Newt - Washington 43
Newt - Alaska 27
Newt - Georgia 76
Newt - Idaho 32
RINO - Mass 41
Newt - North Dakota 28
Newt - Ohio 66
Newt - Oklahoma 43
Newt - Tennessee 58
? - Vermont 17
Newt - Virginia 50
Newt - Wyoming 29
Newt - Kansas 40
Newt - Alabama 50
? - Hawaii 20
Newt - Mississippi 40
Newt - Missouri 52
? - Illinois 69
Newt - Louisiana 46
April
Newt - Maryland 37
Newt or Perry - Texas 155
? - Wash D.C. 19
Newt - Wisconsin 42
? - Connecticut 28
? - Delaware 17
? - New York 95
Newt - Pennsylvania 72
? - Rhode Island 19
May
Newt - Indiana 46
Newt - North Carolina 55
Newt - West Virginia 31
Newt - Nebraska 35
Newt - Oregon 29
Newt - Arkansas 36
Newt - Kentucky 45
June
? - California 172
Newt - Montana 26
Newt - New Jersey 50
Newt - New Mexico 23
Newt - South Dakota 28
RINO - Utah 40
I understand the reasons for centrifugation of the three legs, and the TEA party’s ability to attract and deploy independents and even RATS is because the movement is based on Taxed Enough, not Queered or Aborted enough and not Warred enough or Not Protested enough.
Thank God the TEA party has kept silent and the RATS and MITTs can’t divine what they’re going to really do.
That’s where all this schizophrenia is coming from. MITTS and RATS got disemboweled in 2010, and by ensnarling and antagonizing every possible candidate the TEA party might vote for, they somehow are still stupid enough to not really INTERNALIZE what happened to them Nov 10 and what’s going to happen again this Nov.
Hence all this weird obfuscation so far this election season, and every attempt to smother cohesion on the right.
Hmm, where do I begin?
Newt didn't attack Ryan, wasn't for cap-and-trade and has changed his mind on global warming.
Newt was for individual insurance mandates, because we have government mandated medical treatment in this country. That means that the free loaders take advantage of medical treatment while the rest of us are mandated by government to pay for their treatment.
The best most conservative solution of course is no government mandates of any kind. Now point out for me where Rick Santorum is against government mandated medical treatment.
You of course can't.
Meanwhile, I'll point out to you that Santorum increased medical treatment mandates by voting for the Perscription Drug Benefit mandate.
Moving on to Newt's amnesty, Santorum agrees with Newt.
Roll tape....
GINGRICH: [to Santorum]: We should make English the official language of government. We should insist that first-generation immigrants who come here learn American history in order to become citizens. We should also insist that American children learn American history. And then find a way to deal with folks who are already here, some of whom, frankly, have been here 25 years, are married with kids, live in our local neighborhood, go to our church. It's got to be done in a much more humane way than thinking that to automatically deport millions of people.
SANTORUM: My solution is very similar to Newt Gingrich's. We should not have a debate talking about how we don't want people to come to this country, but we want them to come here like my grandfather and my father came here. They made sacrifices. They came in the 1920s. There were no promises. There were no government benefits. They came because they wanted to be free and they wanted to be good law-abiding citizens.
So let's summarize...
Newt mentions his 25-years-and-up amnesty, and Santorum doesn't criticize Newt for mentioning his 25-years-and-up amnesty. Instead, Santorum says that his position is "very similar to New Gingrich's".
As I said...
Santorum has a lifetime conservative rating from the American Conservative Union of 88%. Newt's lifetime rating is 90%. Newt was beating Mitt in Iowa. Both are now splitting the anti Romney vote in Iowa, yielding the lead to Mitt.
And all for what?
Our primaries are from January - June, 2012.
The Left Liberal Media is trying to set the stage for Newt to drop out. HA We have 6 months to nominate our candidate and June is a long ways away. And Newt will win in the majority of RED States. Why would Iowa or New Hampshire ever predict the Conservative choice when both states are liberal leaning?
No matter Newt's showing in Iowa or New Hampshire, Newt will continue to gain traction across the nation.
That only holds in a static view...
The real world is dynamic. And what was yesterday, or today, can quickly change tomorrow. If Newt takes a bloodbath early on, his support many (likely) not be there by the time we roll around to the down states.
Hope I’m wrong.
“Santorum is not national material; like him or not.”
You’re being kind!
Is this the point where I throw it back at the Newtbots and preach to them that a vote for anyone other than Santorum is a vote for Willard? Somehow, I am not convinced that they would take the medicine they have been dishing out to everyone else over the last two weeks.
Do you have a link for the Forgeries?
Gotta love that logic [sic]. Evangelicals are going to screw us by voting for someone other than Mitt Romney. Yeah, that makes perfect sense.
The MSM is pushing Santorum? ROFLMAO!!! Stop it, your killing me!
You don’t get the irony...
The current head of the ACU is a Romney supporter. Imagine that.
Santorum could be President in a heartbeat.
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