Posted on 01/21/2012 10:53:47 PM PST by gogogodzilla
I can confirm tonight from multiple sources that phone calls are in fact occurring between Republicans in Washington and among evangelical leaders to raise money for Rick Santorum rapidly.
The sources tell me that this is not for a Santorum win, though the evangelicals I spoke to continue to hope it is possible. This is to stop Newt Gingrich. One evangelical leader I spoke to said, If Newt wins, we wont be able to make family values an issue in the general. One lobbyist I spoke to said, They [the GOP leaders in DC] are really nervous about Gingrich and they think hed be a disaster. The best way to shut him down is to prop up Rick.
Florida is going to get interesting.
It looks like Santorum is playing spoiler because evangelicals want social issues to be the top priority.
Which is dumb. You can play the morality game all day long while you’re starving to death.
They want to shut this down?
http://www.newt.org/solutions/protecting-life-and-religious-liberty
It’s the economy, stupid!
(gogododzilla, stupid not directed at you :)
This sure can’t be all Evangelicals, because Evangelicals right now are Newt’s strength, and Romney’s weakness.
80 percent of South Carolina GOP voters identified themselves as Protestants. Their vote breakdown was:
* 42% Gingrich;
* 27% Romney;
* 17% Santorum;
* 12% Paul.
13 percent of South Carolina voters identified themselves as Roman Catholic. Their vote breakdown was:
* 37% Gingrich;
* 29% Romney;
* 15% Santorum;
* 10% Paul.
When you split out the Evangelicals/born agains within the Protestant vote, they voted:
* 44% Gingrich;
* 22% Romney;
* 21% Santorum;
* 13% Paul.
Let’s wait and see. What you are saying doesn’t make sense. I am a Santorum fan but right now, Newt is running as a conservative, mentioning his family all the time. I don’t think hurting Newt at this point will help conservatism or family values.
Some insiders might know other shoes to drop against Gingrich, but Newt has weathered the attacks very well so far.
Let the race continue fair and square. I’m glad Santorum did well. Let them campaign. No one is “closer to Gd than thee” so let’s not have a religious war between them.
If it was just about the economy then we would have no problem voting for the business guy who supports gay pride and taxpayer supported abortions.
It looks like the RINOs in Washington want to use their cocktail party and country club money to try to blunt Mitt’s main competition. It would not matter whether they were social conservatives or fiscal conservatives. Who ever can help Mitt by taking out his main competition (Gingrich) will be flooded with money.
The elites are afraid of Newt. But they know Romney is too weak a candidate to fight him off alone.
You would think that evangelicals would know better than to take the blood money.
You would think the elites would realize how weak this makes Mitt look.
Exactly. Family values take care of themselves, especially in a good economy.
This is from RedState and Eric Erickson. He’s got an inside line into GOP politics.
Well, that’s just nuts. Newt is a Christian. He’s confessed his sins, repented, asked for forgiveness and seeks redemption. I have full faith in his sincerity. Torpedoing Newt at this time will deliver the nomination to Romney and the election to Obama. How great can that be?
FURS
Santorum won Iowa and came in only 10 points behind Romney in South Carolina. After what happened to Bachmann, then Perry, then Cain...it might be good to have one more parachute on hand in case Newt is next to stumble.
Any Evangelical who thinks family issues is going to be the driving force behind this election is an idiot.
It’s going to be jobs, debt, economic performance, and the military.
All strong points with Newt.
We need to win over the santorum voters that can be won over and marginalize those that can not which means Rick Santorum needs to be mitigated, not eliminated. I want Santorum to stay in for a while. It gives us the opportunity to win over as many of his supporters as possible without immediately offending all of them and sending them teary eyed and angry into the Romney camp.
I agree but they shouldn’t try to bring Newt down in order to help Santorum. They both agree on the same social conservative issues. The only reason why Newt would be a ‘problem’ for social conservatives is if his personal history was brought up in a destructive way, not because of his positions.
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