Gingrich Hit Hard by Iowa Mailers

New York Times ^ | December 30, 2011 | Jeff Zeleny

[lbryce]

A prevailing headline from Iowa has been the decline of Newt Gingrich, who attributes the fall in his standing to a barrage of negative advertisements from his Republican rivals and their allies. The criticism on television is pointed, but the attacks arriving by mail are even sharper and carry a far longer shelf life than a fleeting 30-second commercial.

“You can’t teach an old dog new tricks,” says a brochure that hit mailboxes this week. If the message wasn’t clear, another postcard declared, “Old Dog, Newt Tricks.”

For all the talk about the confidence of Mitt Romney in the days before the Iowa caucuses next week, his campaign continues to relentlessly hammer Mr. Gingrich. While Mr. Gingrich and his advisers concede that the negative messages have damaged his candidacy, not everyone on the receiving end of the mail agrees.

Kim Reem, a Republican activist from Cedar Rapids, has been saving some of her political mail for the past week for The New York Times. Much of it attacks Mr. Gingrich, a tactic she said has not been persuasive.

“I haven’t had a piece of Romney mail on Romney in quite some time,” Ms. Reem said. “I assume he is making such big tracks shredding on Newt that he has given up campaigning on his own merits.”

But a poll released Friday showed that Mr. Gingrich has lost more than half of his support. He was leading in the NBC News/Marist Poll conducted earlier this month, but currently is backed by only 13 percent of the voters surveyed. He is in a three-way tie with Rick Santorum (15 percent) and Gov. Rick Perry of Texas (14 percent).

“Romney’s negative mail campaign tells me he is afraid of Newt,” Ms. Reem said. “And he should be.

[BenKenobi]

This is pure fiction. The debt went up every single year. There never was a balanced budget.

[wardaddy]

Good point, most people are not answering polls right now.

Republicans in Iowa in their caucus vote have only predicted the GOP nominee twice in the past 40 years...a rather poor track record.

Iowa has voted for the Democrat nominee 5 of the last 6 presidential elections.

Iowa has a 7 member Washington delegation and 4 are Democrats.

Their state house is now after 2010 fairly split between GOP house and governor and Dem senate.

Democrats outregister Republicans historically in Iowa though the GOP did cut that in 2010 a bit.

and like I said, we have a slew of GOP in Iowa who support Ron Paul...someone not the least bit conservative

So my point is...despite that ya'll have nice beef and corn, decent deer hunting, pretty blonde women, cool state fairs and reasonable manners and conversational warmth...

Why does the national GOP always allow such a moderate(at best)state have the jump seat in our primary run..it front loads the system towards a more moderate or in some cases wacky guy or gal. I have nothing against Iowa ..it seems like a much more decent place than most to raise a family, but I would prefer we front load at least a few primaries with closed primaries in serious conservative states like many in the Old South(would have to be closed no question) or Indiana maybe or Idaho or Utah...though..lol..Utah would be a problem this year.

And yes...I think the choice of New Hampshire is dated. The state of Bob Smith ain't what it was but they are hanging in there despite Mass and NY libs working their magic like they did to Vermont.

Now I can see why Texas or Kali will never get first dibs...regardless...if you were popular there you would likely win it first and get a huge lead right away

[Rome2000]

Iowans are great people, but they might as well be on Mars when it comes to dealing with and facing the kind of threats from crime and the federal government the people in the south and west do.

Thats why they are so easily conned and hustled by wack jobs like Paul and Romney.

[HereInTheHeartland]

Our job in Iowa is not to predict or select the winner. We help to sort the candidates. The field is still very much in play after Iowa; that is good. Everyone gets their say.

[Yankee]

I’ve grown tired of this pointless debate.

Let’s just agree to disagree.

I’ll stick with Pelosi’s “liberal” couch partner and you stick with Arlen Specter’s “rock-ribbed conservative” BFF.

Happy New Year. GO GIANTS!

[devolve]

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Uber-Conservative radio talk show host Bob “Get off my phone!” Grant (WABC 770am NYC - and - WOR 700am for a while too) said that he liked Mike Huckabee and his ideas - and Bob Grant was educated to be a shrink

My phone number was on Bob Grant’s screener’s “Speed Dial” - (Bob knew he could call me back after a short obscene profit commercial on any topic or issue)

Huck was not my choice either -

Bob Grant often would tell his radio audience:

“If you agree with me 100% of the time - You are crazy!”

WARNING: If you ever call Bob Grant -

Never ask Bob “How are you Bob?”

-or- “Thank you for taking my call Bob!”

Grant is a sharp guy - El Rushbo will tell you he learned a bunch from the Old Master.....

He is very easy to talk to on air too - He has a stellar IQ too - A good talk show host knows how to get more interesting things out of a good caller (or whatever)

Mark Levin - not so much - Sorry all of you sportsfans out there!

Mark wastes airtime with jerks - Misses the good stuff - Less coffee Mark -

Steve Malsberg overnights during ChadGate on WABC 770am NYC - ripping the lefties to shreds nightly - “Pull your lace pillowcases over your heads you silly pansies!” (did you ever hear that on the radio?)

Rush - Well - What can “I” say about Rush Limbaugh

The man of a million voices declines to comment futher

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Go to commercial now

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