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As Gingrich Reels From Attack Ads, Some Aides Suggest Fighting Back
nytimes.com ^ | 12/30/2011 | TRIP GABRIEL

Posted on 12/30/2011 7:36:21 PM PST by TBBT

DES MOINES — Alarmed by Newt Gingrich’s decline in the polls in the face of a fusillade of negative advertisements, some senior aides and grass-roots supporters have suggested that he reverse course and fight fire with fire, fearing for the future of his candidacy if he does not.

Mr. Gingrich’s vow to stay positive draws applause at every stop of his winding Iowa bus tour, but polls raise questions about that strategy as attack ads against him from his opponents’ campaigns and independent groups have seeped into voters’ minds.

New polls of Iowa Republicans this week suggest that Mr. Gingrich has lost more than half his support, as he has fallen from the top of the field to a statistical tie with candidates he once was far ahead of, like former Senator Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania and Gov. Rick Perry of Texas.

“How long can you take the beating before hitting back?” said Josh Byrnes, a state representative and the chairman of Mr. Gingrich’s campaign for Mitchell County, who added that he was “blown away” by how much damage the attack ads had done.

“Maybe someday you’ll look back and say, ‘Boy, he should have pulled the gloves off,’ ” Mr. Byrnes said.

Among the campaign’s senior staff, “there’s a small chorus of folks who have been urging him to respond in kind” to the blistering barrage on the airwaves, a top aide said.

Instead of the gauzy “Morning in America”-type ads that Mr. Gingrich prefers, some advisers discussed whether the campaign should run the kind of attack that the Democratic National Committee created last month aimed at Mitt Romney’s shifting stances, accusing him of being “two men trapped in one body.”

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


TOPICS: News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: 2012; because; causeiowadontmatter; gingrich; iowadoesntmatter; iowaisirrelevant; iowasoesntmatter; newt; newtgingrich
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To: Psalm 144

Not to him and Nancy all comfy on the couch. You didn’t make a rebuttal. You made a generic statement and called me invincible and ignorant. That’s not a rebuttal. That’s an insult.

I provide facts with evidence. You provide insults.


21 posted on 12/30/2011 8:46:52 PM PST by takenoprisoner (Constitutional Conservatism is Americanism.)
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To: TBBT

Negative ads work. I don’t think Newt needs to roll in the mud but some hard hitting ads pointing out the differences between him and Mitt would go a long way. If he doesn’t fight back he’s going to really take a beating.


22 posted on 12/30/2011 8:50:41 PM PST by Georgia Girl 2 (The only purpose of a pistol is to fight your way back to the rifle you should never have dropped.)
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To: TBBT

Newt needs to take the gloves off, period.

Failure in this fight is not an option.


23 posted on 12/30/2011 9:04:33 PM PST by Gator113 (~Just livin' life, my way~.. Newt/Palin-West-2012."got a lot swirling around in my head.")
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To: takenoprisoner

(He earned it. He made his bed. Now he must sleep in it. Nancy and Newt butter cups and couch potatoes)

So Newt sat on a couch with Pelosi and then said it was a huge mistake, one that he would regret. He admitted it and moved on. I think all of us were pissed seeing him on the couch with her but this is now and we have moved on.
It seems you have not. But then, some people just simply refuse to see the political situation as it is.
Would you like to be hammered constantly by some mistake that you made and later regretted? Get a life and move on.


24 posted on 12/30/2011 9:06:50 PM PST by Islander2
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To: TBBT

If there was nothing negative in other media about his attackers, Paul and Romney, I’d agree, he needs to respond.

But I *think* it would be wiser for him to stay positive.


25 posted on 12/30/2011 9:18:59 PM PST by D-fendr (Deus non alligatur sacramentis sed nos alligamur.)
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To: Islander2

Whether or not Newt fights back is not the issue for me.

His precipitous fall from the polls can be traced almost exactly to the release of the video of him supporting an individual mandate aka Romneycare aka Obamacare.

The only thing he had going for him was that he was going to be an alternative to Mittens and his Progressivism.

After watching that video, I was so disgusted that I wanted to vomit.

Basically our choices at this point are:

1.) Mittens (RINO)
2.) Gingrich (RINO)
3.) Paul (NUTTY BAR)

That is unless Santorum can keep it up. I’d gladly pick him vs. these other three boobs.


26 posted on 12/30/2011 9:23:21 PM PST by adm5 (AMERICA HAS ONLY GOD AND THE SECOND AMENDMENT LEFT TO SAVE THE REPUBLIC. by: LibLieSlayer 3/18/10)
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To: TBBT

Newt is on the ropes and as far as I am concerned it will be a tragic loss to conservatives at this time in history. His brilliance was called arrogance, his seriousness was considered mean, and his vast political knowledge made him a Washington insider. All of this made him a formidable adversary against Obama, sadly some couldn’t get beyond a photo op with nancy pelosi.


27 posted on 12/30/2011 9:26:41 PM PST by Toespi
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To: Islander2
So Newt sat on a couch with Pelosi and then said it was a huge mistake, one that he would regret. He admitted it and moved on.

First off, I would never have made such a mistake. Sitting on a couch with Pelosi endorsing her and Al Gore's BS propaganda? You have got to be kidding me. Only a fool would do that.

You need to move on to the Gore and Pelosi camp.

28 posted on 12/30/2011 9:26:49 PM PST by takenoprisoner (Constitutional Conservatism is Americanism.)
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To: D-fendr

Gingrich should not so much “fight back” as to have an attack strategy.

Use cut-outs to smear opponents.

After all, that’s what’s being done to him.

Doing any less is naive.


29 posted on 12/30/2011 9:28:27 PM PST by Cringing Negativism Network (ROMNEY / ALINSKY 2012 (sarcasm))
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To: Toespi

Excuse me.

Not one primary vote has yet been cast.

Anywhere.


30 posted on 12/30/2011 9:29:55 PM PST by Cringing Negativism Network (ROMNEY / ALINSKY 2012 (sarcasm))
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To: adm5

(The only thing he had going for him was that he was going to be an alternative to Mittens and his Progressivism.)

That is all you think Newt brings to the debate? Very shallow analysis on your part me thinks. Of course you took in to consideration his time in the House and the Contract With America.....sure you did and did not find those accomplishments worthy of anything.
To win this battle with the Repub. Establishment on our side and 0bummer on the other side we will need a candidate with a backbone and balls and one who will fight back when attacked (not like McCain or Bush). It is my opinion that Newt is the right one. I do like Backman and Santorum, but still think Newt fights better.


31 posted on 12/30/2011 9:34:15 PM PST by Islander2
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To: TBBT

The guy is a fornicator who has committed adultery in two marriages—he is unable to keep his marriage vows so I seriously doubt he will keep his oath to the Constitution (which he has already broken repeatedly anyway).


32 posted on 12/30/2011 9:36:05 PM PST by mpstewart
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To: takenoprisoner

(You need to move on to the Gore and Pelosi camp.

Lay off the sauce, juvenile. Try to make sense on this thread. You are failing with each of your postings as shown buy the rebuttals to your nonsense.


33 posted on 12/30/2011 9:41:02 PM PST by Islander2
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Only a fool would do that.

I will retract that. He may have done it for the money. In that case, he wasn't a fool at all. He was merely making money. The question is how much did he make for joining Al Gore, and Nancy Pelosi, to promote a bogus socialist global warming scheme?

Forgive him, and move on? No way no how. Not under any circumstance under the heavens. Man cannot undo what God created. When man thinks he can, then he is convinced he is greater than the almighty. Good luck with that fallacy.

Sure, man can pollute the rivers, streams, and the air. But not to the point where he can disrupt the work of the lord almighty.

Can man destroy the earth with nukes? Nope. But he can destroy us, and life as we know it. But God's creation will be here till God determines it's fate.

34 posted on 12/30/2011 9:49:49 PM PST by takenoprisoner (Constitutional Conservatism is Americanism.)
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To: mpstewart

I think it’s time to change you magic Mormon underware or something.


35 posted on 12/30/2011 10:00:12 PM PST by TexasFreeper2009 (Gingrich/Palin 2012)
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To: Islander2
Lay off the sauce, juvenile. Try to make sense on this thread. You are failing with each of your postings as shown buy the rebuttals to your nonsense.

Here we have another attempt to insult. Is this all you have? My 4 YO grandson could make a better argument. And has.

36 posted on 12/30/2011 10:00:24 PM PST by takenoprisoner (Constitutional Conservatism is Americanism.)
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To: Islander2
That is all you think Newt brings to the debate?

Very shallow analysis on your part me thinks. Of course you took in to consideration his time in the House and the Contract With America.....sure you did and did not find those accomplishments worthy of anything. I don't care what kind of history he had if the most recent things he's supported are PROGRESSIVE POLICIES.

He believes/believed in the global warming BS and now we find out he really agrees with Mitt & Obama on Socialized Medicine.

He might be the smartest dumbass I've ever seen. Why can't there be A TRUE CONSERVATIVE in the race??

37 posted on 12/30/2011 10:02:42 PM PST by adm5 (AMERICA HAS ONLY GOD AND THE SECOND AMENDMENT LEFT TO SAVE THE REPUBLIC. by: LibLieSlayer 3/18/10)
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To: TBBT
I think Newt missed a bet by not campaigning in a Santa suit this month. It might have helped counter that whole "gin-Grinch" image.


38 posted on 12/30/2011 10:05:51 PM PST by JediJones (Newt-er Obama in 2012!)
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To: mpstewart

He lived up to the Contract with America, old buddy, old pal. If you ran a business and had a potential employee show up with a terrific resume and the right experience, would you send them home without the job if you found out they were divorced?


39 posted on 12/30/2011 10:09:39 PM PST by JediJones (Newt-er Obama in 2012!)
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To: adm5
Why can't there be A TRUE CONSERVATIVE in the race??

There is. But she is a member of he Tea Party Caucus. We can't have that now can we? I mean, she is too far outside the GOP establishment, and the so called mainstream.

Standing on principle, in spite of the odds, has standing in my book of Constitutional adherence. Too bad she is only in the single digit percentile. I wonder why? Is it because we have given up? Or is it because of the fierce forces battling against her?

40 posted on 12/30/2011 10:14:52 PM PST by takenoprisoner (Constitutional Conservatism is Americanism.)
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