Posted on 01/16/2012 8:15:21 AM PST by Bigtigermike
The latest Insider Advantage / Newsmax poll of likely South Carolina voters, taken on Sunday, shows Mitt Romney opening up a commanding 11-point lead… and that was before Jon Huntsman dropped out of the race and endorsed Romney. Hell, Huntsman’s still a point ahead of Rick Perry in this poll.
Mitt Romney - 32
Newt Gingrich - 21
Ron Paul - 14
Rick Santorum – 13
Jon Huntsman – 6
Rick Perry – 5
Strangely, according to the poll breakdown, Newt Gingrich scored exactly zero among the youngest cohort of voters, ages 18-29. Ron Paul and Rick Santorum were tied among that group, with 27 percent each.
This poll has a fairly small sample of 720 respondents, but they’re “likely voters,” generally the most reliable group. If the results are accurate, it looks as if that “tightening race” in South Carolina has loosened back up, and undecided voters are starting to break for Romney. If Huntsman’s endorsement sends some of his supporters Romney’s way, and he holds the enormous 22-point lead Rasmussen found for him in Florida last week, Romney could end up taking both states in a walk.
(Excerpt) Read more at humanevents.com ...
It’s not about where Newt is placing in the polls or in Iowa or New Hampshire. That’s my point. People are supporting/voting for candidates who can’t (a) win, and (b) do the job once they are in office.
Does anyone honestly think Santorum is going to earn the respect (or fear) of Democrats when in office? He’s a kid who needs more life experience before he attempts to lead the United States of America.
Does anyone honestly think Perry, who wants to put Congress on half-time hours will get the work done that needs to be done? We need those Congress-critters to work overtime to fix all the problems, not go home for more “recess” time. Children in school get “recess” — Congress needs to knuckle down and get to work. Gingrich would make them do the hard work, immediately.
Gingrich wouldn’t be polling or performing so low if, as my original post indicated, people would pull their heads out of their butts and vote for someone who can DO THE JOB we need them to do. Santorum can’t do it, and Perry can’t do it, and those who support those guys - while I admire their loyalty - are dividing the vote and will give the win to Romney.
I was a Cain supporter, but I would be saying the same thing now if Cain was still in and if Cain was only pulling 5-15% and causing a split vote like these other guys are. We have a situation where 75% of the GOP are going to be unhappy with the winner, which will be Romney. And it’s all because people are too stubborn to go for their second choice. Better to win with one’s second choice, than to lose with one’s first choice.
Get behind Gingrich. And pass it on.
Frankly, I wouldn’t throw myself on the sword for Newt, Mitt, or any of them.
Just give me a candidate And I will vote for them, as long as it isn’t Obama.
When I mentioned that having resigned myself to an inevitable Romney Nomination, I could probably hold my nose and pull for him over Hussein, a Friend sent this link and suggestion:
> http://www.cuttingedge.org/
>
> SEARCH : MITT Romney
To which I replied:
What’s the point?
Do we have anyone to support who ISN’T a 33rd degree Mason, CFR, Knight of Malta, Knight Templar (Crusader) etc.... (Newt and Santorum are both Roman Catholics; Romney a Mormon - which bothers some folks) or member of some (at least one) nefarious conspiratorial secret society ?
Oh; wait.... There’s Ron Paul, isn’t there?
I like most of what he’s for, but some things about him still concern me a little.
For one thing, Islam does not seem to worry him nearly as much as it does me.
At the very least, I don’t hear anyone accusing Paul of being a “Globalist”, and I take that to be a strong positive.
When all is said and done, Ron PAUL might, I suppose, be considered to be the least of the worst.
Did you get my metaphorical diatribe on the box of Chinese chocolates?
(which I e mailed out earlier and would probably get me zotted if I posted it here)
It’s probably moot, since in the unlikely event Ron Paul gets too close to the presidency something terrible will happen to him - i just about guarantee it.
He’s crossed a lot of very powerful, dark and sinister entities (such as the Federal Reserve) to be allowed to actually do anything about them. There is a body of evidence to suggest, if not prove, that they have demonstrated the power to dispense with any serious opposition in the past, and there is little assurance that they can’t or won’t do it again if they feel that they need to in order to maintain their monopoly on power and wealth.
A PAUL presidency, as hypothetical a dream as that might be, would be, if nothing else, terribly interesting.
A lot of conservatives seem to fear that he would be a disaster to America.... well, we’re going over the edge of catastrophe now - choose your poison.
I’m beginning to think that PAUL (who I have supported in the past) might be sort of like chemotherapy; granted - he might be sort of toxic to America in some ways.... but we’re already nearing the end stages of terminal cancer, so why not give him a try?
What have we got to lose, besides everything.... which is slipping away fast anyway.
Having said that I still kind of like Santorum, but have no pretenses of him being a panacea or glorious savior of the Republic any more than anyone else... other than Yeshua HaMasshiach, that is. Know who he is? Google him if you don’t... if the ObamaNation hasn’t scrubbed Him off of the internet, that is. Last I checked He was still around.
As far as I know, however, He’s not running in the 2012 elections.
I’m not so sure He’d get elected even if he did.
*************
Another Republican Political Junkie Friend responded:
> So, George; does that mean you’ll vote for Ron Paul in the primaries?
And I replied:
At this point I would probably go for Santorum - but I don’t think that he’ll still be around by the time we get to our primaries. (Maine)
I mainly supported Paul in ‘08 because it was down, as I recall, to him or McLame.
Besides; the party establishment hated Dr. Paul with such a purple passion that I was naturally attracted to him in response.
Yeah; it might be thought by some that he’s a bit of a kook - but all things considered would that be the worst thing to happen to America?
IIRC the X County Caucus elected Ron Paul as it’s Nominee, didn’t we? It came as quite a surprise to me.
Didn’t matter a hill of beans though, did it?
I’m still expecting Maine to fall back to Obama, although perhaps not by the landslide it did in ‘08. Will be very pleasantly surprised it it doesn’t.
(Senator) Snowe will be re-elected, as usual. Even if D’Ambois (Republican primary contender)gets unexpectedly popular, look who she installed as our Secretary of State!
(redacted as it gets a little intense - insider party stuff)
...’Nuff said ‘bout that.
Not to worry though; I don’t think Dr. Paul will be around all that long either.
Mitt is the establishment anointed one, the Tea Party can’t seem to get behind anyone, and I’m essentially resigned to having to choose between the Mormon and the Muslim.
Swell, huh?
Skeptically;
Old George
That's the way I see it too.
It’s uncanny how similar this is to 2008. Establishment “next in line” RINO pick (McCain/Romney) surges after NH despite losing to an upstart social conservative outsider in IA (Huckabee/Santorum). The winner of IA can’t capitalize on momentum because someone who has lots of conservative support is pulling votes away (Gingrich/Thompson) while a libertarian (Paul/Paul) and a persistent candidate who is already done stays in for no discernable reason (Giuliani/Perry).
Ironically, Perry endorsed Giuliani in 2008.
What did the Conservatives do to win though? Sure we can beat up Romney all day long—he stinks. But so do the Conservatives. The one most of us wanted didn’t run (Sarah) and she toyed with the idea for a long time which may have discouraged others from running. I’m not blaming her because others should have ran regardless.
Now we are left with Gingrich, Santorum, and Perry.
Perry didn’t debate well, so we are all scared to go with that pony into a debate with Obama. Gingrich debates extremely well, but isn’t very likable and has had some pretty big faux pas over the years. Santorum isn’t charismatic or a very good leader—not exactly one someone would rally behind as a leader.
So out of our 3 conservatives...which one do we go with? Conservatives can’t decide—if they could rally behind one we could beat the moderate/wishy-washy Mittens, but we can’t. Which 2 of the 3 should drop out?
Heck Huntsman (moderate) dropped out which helps Mittens. It is what it is and the moderates are better able to get their candidate on top. The Conservatives can’t even win the Republican nomination—what makes you think they can win a general election? Until they learn how to fight within the party and WIN then we are stuck with moderates.
I agree.
These fools would rather shoot themselves in the foot, give us four more years of Obama rather than stomach someone tolerable with a Senate and House to keep his feet to the fire.
RE: “The GOP can go pound sand!! “
That’s exactly what a bunch of us did back in 2006, and joined the Constitution Party, thinking that a lot of other disenfranchised and disillusioned Republican Conservatives would join us.
Try as we might, we could not get our Nominee, Pastor Chuck Baldwin, on the ballot. A WW-II Veteran Pastor was arrested, handcuffed, and hauled off to jail for trying to gather petition signatures for him on the public sidewalk in front of a post office.
We were doing well if we could get 60 people to show up at a State Convention, and only got one small County Committee, IIRC, together.. for a while.
The expected conservative migration did not materialize.
So we tried a write in campaign. I wrote in Chuck Baldwin for President in the ‘08 elections. He was the ONLY pro Life Candidate running in that election that I recall.
Baldwin got about 4/10 of 1% of the vote - so how did that work out for us?
How did the Ross Perot Revolution work out for us before that?
So yeah; we can still tell the GOP to pound proverbial sand... Been there, done that...
but what are our other options, pray tell?
Are any of them the least bit viable?
Please let us know if you find one - but don’t take it personally if I don’t hold my breath waiting.
W8 4 de-b8s! The numbers will change this week!
Looking forward to tonight. FOX debate 6pm (pacific)
Good point. Let’s quit empowering moderates and liberals within the party. Let’s quit blindly supporting socialist light candidates like Romney just because they have an R behind their name.
He prefers older women now.
This is the Insider Advantage? Another words Inside the Beltway poll? Inside the Republican Party Poll?
Hope Newt is not a V-8 candidate.
When folks have buyer’s remorse, they’ll thump their skulls and say, “What was I thinking? I coulda had a NEWT!!!”
That’s what happened with rino Schwarzenegger in CA. What a nothing-burger.
We coulda had the brilliant Tom McClintock (now in Congress).
1. Note above that this poll claims itself that it is weighted only for age, race, and gender.
a. That means it is not weighted for political party of preference.
2. Note as well that the poll claims for itself that it is for likely voters who are registered in S Carolina. It explains further that it means "likely to vote in the Republican primary."
3. This means that it could ALL be democrats, independents, or 3rd partiers who just happen to want to vote, for whatever reason, in the republican primary. We ALL know that there is no reason for democrats to vote in the democrat primary. Obama is unopposed. It isn't likely that zero republicans are included, but the point is that there was absolutely no effort to ensure any breakdown whatsoever.
Personally, I think this is little different (maybe worse) than the reuters poll that included as many democrats as republicans in their sample.
In this poll we don't have a clue what the breakdown is.
You are correct. I seem to think I say this about every election cycle on here too since FR does tend to be a bit of an echo chamber and I know that’s putting it mildly.
I think the day FR as a site realizes that the majority of the US isn’t as conservative as the website is the day I really do believe FR becomes more effective in getting the message out to people.
Democrats’ vote in “Republican” primaries is simply incredible....But no one cares?
The GOP establishment obviously counts on this
I for one didn’t want Palin to run. Although she’s clearly much more conservative than Romney, she has even bigger issues.
Where some conseravtives will swallow their pride to vote for Romney, the same can’t and won’t be said for some moderate republicans and virtually none of the moderate independents that Romney is getting and that Newt and maybe Santorum could have garnered.
She’s too big (and easy) of a target to be the one at the top of the ticket at this point. That and since she wouldn’t reach 40% (Let’s be realistic here, conservatives only comprise about 35% of the actual electorate that votes, and her presence would galvanize the left) in the general election seems like too big a risk and not enough of a reward factor in something to vitally important.
Essentially the 2012 election sucks already and we’re 15 days in.
Thanks for the links.
If what I think is going to happen within the GOP does happen, then I don’t think you’re going to be happy with it. Here is a link to the Constitution Party website. You might want to check them out.
http://www.constitutionparty.com/
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