Posted on 01/05/2012 9:44:03 AM PST by SmithL
As the results of the Iowa caucus dribbled in, Americans got to see how the GOP candidates greeted victory and defeat. Top vote-getter Mitt Romney was gracious toward Rick Santorum, who came in second by eight thin votes, but uninspiring as he pledged to get America back to work. Santorum pronounced, "Game on," then hailed his Italian grandfather's decision to leave Italy to dig coal, if that's what it took to bring his family to the United States.
Ron Paul, who came in third, saluted the work of his enthusiastic volunteers and credited his success to his role as a keeper of the flame of limited federal government. Fifth-place finisher Rick Perry told his supporters he would return to Texas to "assess" the race. The next morning, the Lone Star State governor tweeted that he was heading for South Carolina. Having won a disappointing 5 percent of the vote, Michele Bachmann clearly knew she would be leaving the campaign trail, but she had only good words about her Iowa experience.
And then there was Newt Gingrich - whose post-caucus remarks placed him in the Hall of Shame of sore losers. Gingrich, who placed a distant fourth, did praise Santorum for running a "great, positive campaign," but only so that he could throw his Cheerios at Romney and Paul.
The former House speaker had taken to challenging Romney to pull TV spots that lampoon Gingrich. The spots were produced by an independent super political action committee run by Romney supporters. The problem is, it is illegal for a candidate to tell a Super PAC what to do.
The best part: The anti-Gingrich spots have featured Newt in very public venues of his own choosing. No one slinked behind a bush to videotape Gingrich cozying up to Rep. Nancy Pelosi...
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
debra saunders is not a conservative..... she is a republican... why all the negative crap about gingrich??? when the libs start to throw a hissy fit, then we know who they are afraid of...... instead of letting them tell us about him, why not just take a look at what he accomplished while in office?
****Debra Saunders is the Chronicle’s token conservative***
Correction: Debra Saunders is the Chronicle’s Romney campaign staffer.
I like Santorum but it’s gonna take a Newt Gingrich to roll everything back pre FDR.
If we can just get Newt in then the only way that he could be prevented from restoring a constitutional republic is impeachment...he has already indicated he will not be constrained by the courts.
At this late date we require a pissed-off bull in the china shop to fix this mess. I can see no other avenue of escape. Can you?
Maybe if Newt could bend over, spank himself, hang himself and be dragged in the street by Coulter, Beck, Fox News, George Will, Mark Steyn, the GOP establishment and others stumping for Romney or Ron Paul, they would stop worrying so much about Newt and losing their credibility in the process.
Just because you have a R after your name does not make you a Republican!
I do believe Gingrich has owned up to past mistakes.
Mistakes?
Oh Debbie, how is that walking on water thing going?
Romney’s positions and that of Newt’s are pretty well known.
One has acted them out and the other has not.
One is opportunist for the purpose of advancement, the other is a serious intellect and strategist whose performance in the past I very much agreed with.
In fact, I had to educate our new local host his 2nd day on the air. He made the unfortunate mistake of Praising Bill Clinton for Welfare Reform, the Balanced Budget and lowered taxes through capital gains tax cut.
Brian Sussman made an unfortunate mistake of trying to give Clinton credit on the one hand while demonstrating his errors on the other.
I called in and thanked him for deciding to become a full time talk jock but I wanted to correct his view about Clintons legacy. Not to be contrarian or take away from him or Bill Clinton but they were just plain wrong and I asked I might quickly demonstrate why Clinton deserved zero Credit and when I am through who really should get the credit, without insulting anyone.
So I quickly went through them:
Contract with America, who wrote it? Newt Gingrich was his reply.
That is correct.
Now to clear the record I’ll go through them in the order I think is most powerful:
Capital Gains tax cut-
Was thought of as a response to Clintons raising of taxes and as a tool to keep the investment community well, inevesting and spurring additional investment. That was a Contract with America initiative and a well thought out position by Newt.
There was some horse trading and Newt gave away something no one really cared about to get it and the economy kept going with the result being unemployment dropping from 7% to 4% in a few short years.
The host immediately got the idea, said he would probably rephrase his thought at the end and asked me to continue.
Balanced Budget -
Again, Newt gave Clinton some bases that were already on the secondary list, devised by Dick Cheney, as alternatives for closure. Clinton got a win for his anti-military wing, we gave away something we didn’t care about and got what we wanted.
Welfare Reform -
this was the end goal all along and with a new Republican majority Congress it easily passed the House only to have Clinton veto it.
No problem. The President has the bully pulpit but was embroiled in a few distractions at the time which made it possible for Newt, Dole and few others to take their case directly to the American people who were sick of welfare queens.
Clinton was made aware the American people and the Houses were very much in the majority and very excited about reforming welfare. Still, he vetoed it again and then tried to make the argument he was going to co-opt the argument and reshape welfare reform as he saw fit.
It became very apparent the American taxpayer had, had enough and so had the houses. The pressure became to much and Clinton relented with nary a change to the original welfare reform act.
While he took credit for welfare reform it was never his idea, never became a priority until politically forced.
This was a Newt idea and part of the Contract with America which he shepherded.
Mitt has done nothing like this and I can trust Newt to follow through on his positions.
Still, I am in the Bachman(was), Santorum or Perry Camp. They just need to catch and if they cant’ then I am with Newt, all....the ...way.
Welfare Reform, the Balanced Budget and lowered taxes through capital gains tax cut.
Who has a record like that?
Who can perform like that?
Correction: Debra Saunders is the Chronicle’s Romney campaign staffer.
Saunders in her own words.. is a University of Massachusetts at Boston grad.
His rise and especially his fall were precipitous but not unexpected... He’s got more baggage than Imelda Marcos.
“I do believe Gingrich has owned up to past mistakes.”
Repeatedly.
I agree. I think Gingrich has been afraid of looking too "radical" and angry, since that was what he was criticized for when he was Speaker, but he should get over that and just charge!
I’ve always liked Newt, but agree with Saunders that his post-caucus speech left much to be desired. He looked small to me.
People want someone who talks the talk but so many of them still aren't in serious pain that they're not sure they want more than talk and symbolism. If you want someone who walks the walk as well as just talking, Newt has the track record, none of the others do.
JMHO
Spot on!
Only Newt Gingrich intends to make the radical changes necessary to save and restore our Republic and furthermore, only Newt Gingrich know how to get those radical changes through congress!
“He’s got more baggage than Imelda Marcos.”
Yep, at his age he would, and ditto for every other one of ‘em - career politicians all.
The only question is, which one of ‘em do you think will open the right bag when he gets to the Oval Office?
And some good point you make, IMHO.
For example - “People know Newt can get the job done but a lot of them only want part of the job done. That’s why they prefer someone without the background and experience Newt has.”
Exactly, which is why he has the establishment quaking in their boots, even willing to go nuclear on him during the Iowa caucuses, for gosh sakes, to try to knock him out early. Looks like that strategery just served to piss him off, though.
“Newt even used that evil phrase, “means test”, a few times... Mention SS and “means testing” in the same sentence and an awful lot of people who are Conservative go weak in the knees and slide toward RINO in a heartbeat”
Great point again, and you just know the media will be trying to draw Gingrich into their web on that issue before it’s all over. I hope he can avoid that trap.
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