Newt is a Vessel: He Won South Carolina Because He Articulated Conservatism

RUSH: Let me just tell you something, again, going against the conventional wisdom. Everybody is out there thinking the reason Newt triumphed is because of his media smackdown. That's not it. Everybody wants to credit Juan Williams and John King and the media for throwing softballs inadvertently setting Newt up for these answers. It's important, there's no question about it. It was great, but it's not about that. It's not even about Newt's great debate skills. You notice now the establishment is not saying, "That isn't gonna matter." They're trying to say that everything that's got Newt where he's got is not important. In fact, it's going to hurt us in the general.

Let me tell you why Newt Gingrich won South Carolina. Let me tell you why he's coming on. It is 'cause he is able to articulate conservatism, nothing more. John King, Juan Williams, could have asked any other Republican the same questions they asked
and they would have shriveled away in abject fear and defensiveness. If any of the Republican candidates had the same life story as Newt, or had said the same things about food stamp president and all that, Juan Williams' question to Romney wouldn'ta helped Romney. John King setting up Romney, if Romney had three ex-wives and one of them was saying he wanted an open marriage, would not have mattered. It wasn't those questions. It was that they asked somebody who can articulate conservatism.

To those of you in the Republican base, this isn't complicated. Newt is winning. He is on a momentum roll here because he can articulate conservatism, that and he's willing to take it to Obama. I have said for the longest time that whoever does that, whoever articulates conservatism with passion, with love, cause that's love of country, with good cheer. Conservatism is inclusive. Somebody who can articulate it happily, proudly, with good cheer cannot be beat. Where's the outrage in the news media's open marriage with the Democrat Party? You talk about an open marriage, hell, that's not a marriage, that's prostitution, for crying out loud. Where's the complaint? Who are the prostitutes in that relationship, the media or the Democrat Party?

I'm just telling you, Juan Williams, John King could have asked the same questions to any other Republican and it woulda sunk 'em, because none of them are willing to articulate conservative. Maybe not Santorum. Santorum probably coulda hung in there. Now, this presents a huge stumbling block potential for Newt. He is vulnerable on the very thing he can do better than anybody else. He had better fully embrace his conservatism and not make it a part-time thing. The days of being able to keep this momentum going by ripping on the media are over. The standing ovations for taking on the media are over, or they have a very short life span. He can't live on that anymore. Been there, done that. It's gonna get old and it's gonna look like it's been set up. There's not gonna be any drama to it, therefore there's not gonna be all that spontaneous "way to go" standing O stuff, unless it's just outrageous. You only go to the well so many times on this stuff.

Now, Newt keeps pushing off any questions on his anti-conservative statements. And he better not. I think Newt is just as vulnerable on his anti-conservatism as Romney is on Romneycare. "What do you mean by that, Rush?" Very simple. Newt has made it plain two or three times that he's very open to the concept of manmade global warming. He can blow this by sitting on the couch with Pelosi again or something that is equivalent. Newt has in the past had some unflattering things to say about capitalism. His time at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is a vulnerability. Saying that FDR is the best president, his favorite president, that doesn't jibe with being a conservative. His open support for single payer health insurance with a mandate. I'm just telling you, Newt's not out of the woods here. And Newt and his crew had better understand that he's where he is not just because of a media smackdown, not just because of debates. He's articulating conservatism when he does this stuff, and if he stops doing that or if he waters it down or if he gets caught in an example where people can be convinced he doesn't really believe this stuff...

Newt wrote a book about climate change. He was gonna have a chapter in his new book about manmade global warming until we found out about it and he pulled the chapter. So let a long campaign happen. Let a long, drawn-out campaign happen, let's flush 'em out here. Let Santorum stay in this thing. Let's see if Romney can figure out a way to move to the right and mean it. Let's see if Romney can learn to connect with people, rather than just utter platitudes and his love of country and all this other stuff. No, I'm not afraid. I think this is good. We are running against the most pathetic president we've had since Jimmy Carter. I am not afraid. I do not live in a world of fear. I refuse to. For crying out loud, it's still January. The election's not 'til November. The base was told this was over last November. The establishment wanted this over, the media wanted this over last November. They did everything they could to have this over.

I trust the Republican base. That's who I trust. I trust the Republican voters. I'm totally confident with them. They are the people in this audience. Why wouldn't I trust them? They'll figure this out. They're not a bunch of brain-dead, mind-numbed robots. This is how democracy works. It's how representative Republicanism works. It's what we're trying to hold onto, for crying out loud. You know, only a little more than 1% of the population's voted so far. The delegate count right now, Romney 31, Gingrich 32, Paul ten, Santorum eight, there are 1,144 delegates needed to win. We're nowhere near being over here. I don't subscribe to conventional wisdom, and neither should you.

RUSH: Hilton Head, South Carolina. Casey, great to have you sir. Thank you for waiting and hello.

CALLER: Thank you, Rush. I never called before. Now that I'm on I'm really nervous, my hand's even shaking. But glad you're out there. We love you to death.

CALLER: Listen, my comment, my wife and I even talked about this Saturday before we voted, and you're the only one that I hear say it and you're exactly right, it is exactly a message that we're trying to send. We're Romney supporters. She may have actually voted for Romney, I'm not exactly sure, but we kind of decided to vote for Newt and it was specifically because of what he did in the debates and taking the media to task and actually just making us feel good about that. We're so sick and tired of every single time we watch the news or anything in the media the feeling we get, the sick feeling we get every story they tell almost. You can almost say it's 100% of the time that it's like that. And actually we really want Romney to hear that message, though, this message that we just sent by voting for Newt.

RUSH: Newt is a vessel. The heads of your party, you want the people that run the party that you're a member of to get the message, stop making fun of you, stop impugning you, stop thinking you're a bunch of hayseed hicks. You just to want save the country. You want somebody that's gonna have fire and brimstone to go out and beat Obama. You don't want people that are afraid to campaign. I know exactly what this victory in South Carolina was all about. The Republican primary voters are this audience. I know exactly what's going on here. I've known probably longer than 25 years. But the people who make this country work are sick and tired of being blamed, falsely accused, attacked, called bigots and racists and sexists and homophobes and all these other horrible, rotten things, selfish, greedy.

They're seeing their futures robbed. Their party doesn't seem to have the guts to do anything to stop it. They see their party leaders wanting to get themselves in charge of it all. This guy, if I'd-a let him go on, he'd say, "We don't care if Newt were married ten times right now. We don't care if Newt had married a horse right now. The message is what we want sent." We want this party to figure out how to represent us. We think we know how to beat Obama, and it's not with McCain. It's not by going after the independents. It's not by saying we want to compromise and cross the aisle and work with those people who are destroying this country as it was founded.

We don't want to work with those people. Those people have been laughing at us and making fun of us and impugning us, and we don't want you being friends with them. They are taxing us. They are preventing our attempt to acquire wealth. They are spending our children's future away. Why do you want to make nice with them? Why do you want to work with them? Why do you want to compromise with them? Why don't you want to beat them? That's what we want. Ergo, somebody comes along and shows how it could be done, and they go, "Yeah, right on, mama, keep it coming." That's all Saturday was. And it was a result of a couple big days prior to Saturday in the wake of South Carolina.

RUSH: To Plymouth, Michigan. This is Myron, and it's great to have you on the program, sir. Hello.

CALLER: Oh, thanks, Rush. First-time caller and a little nervous, but I'm a retired golf community developer here in Michigan.

RUSH: You know what I saw the other day? I saw just the other morning there's a story about the whole business of golf resorts and communities. If you're retired it's probably a good time. Something like one out of every four houses for sale in Palm Springs is on a golf course. People don't have the money to pay the big initiation fees to join the clubs. It was a story that really made the industry out to be in pain.

CALLER: Oh, you're absolutely right. (chuckles) You can't believe how many offers I've had to take over golf courses.

CALLER: But I retired about seven years ago just in the nick of time. But I wanted to talk to you about Newt Gingrich and Romney thing, and (sigh) I know you won't be, but I'm a little concerned that maybe the populace might be getting conned by Gingrich's "spiel," if you want to call it; and, you know, (sigh) I was sort of on the fence with everybody. Personally, I like Sarah Palin but she's not running, and I do want to see a conservative person running. But when Gingrich made that comment about anti-capitalism, that sort of lit my fire.

CALLER: He didn't call it "vulture capitalism," I know Perry did, but he was basically saying the same thing.

CALLER: You know, (sigh) I hired a lot of people in my time, and my golf course architect, I had a very good one, and I hired him, you know, based on what he could do, but I also hired him based on his character. So I went to do a little research because I hadn't really checked into the candidates all that much, and so I just started Googling, and I was just astounded of what I found out both about Gingrich and Romney -- and, you know, it comes down to me: "What's the question? Do we want to hire a successful manager to run this country, or do we want to hire another narcissistic orator?"

RUSH: It's not about either of those right now. That's what I'm trying to say. Those are backbench issues right now. That's not what's going on here. What's going on here is the conservative base trying to send a message to the Republican establishment: "You're gonna have to have somebody who's legitimately conservative. That's the only way we're gonna be passionately behind our nominee, and that's the only way we're gonna beat Obama." This is something really big. This is not the voters saying, "We love Newt! Newt's the only guy!" That's not what's going on here. Newt's a vessel right now, and Newt would be wise to understand that, too.

Newt does articulate Conservatism and he is passionate about it. When he answers a question he does it with substance and does not drift off on another topic. That said, GO LEROY GO!

Newt has the right stuff to go all the way to POTUS. However, he must be allowd to be himself...even the gaffs and poorly timed comments. He is not perfect....that is a fact I have accepted since I decided to go with him. However, I recognized he was the best overall choice. I really wish Santorum - someone I greatly admire - would drop out and back Newt. With that I wished Newt would pick Santorum as his running mate. I think the two would be a awesome team. And in 8 years Santorum could take the helm.

Radio news just now

New Rasmussen poll

Newt leads Romney by 9 points in FL..

Limbaugh hit a home run on this. There is plenty not to like about Newt. But he clearly and forcefully pushes back against all the leftists and pressies delighting to call me a bigoted violent racist.

Newt will stand up and fight for me. There is NOTHING to convince me that Romney will. In fact, he pooh-poohs the idea that there is press bias against conservatives, which makes me think HE’s NOT ALL THAT BRIGHT!

We had George Bush refuse to defend himself, and thereby refuse to defend CONSERVATIVES. We ARE NOT going to repeat that and watch the press clobber Willard while he sits there with a silly grin on his face.

The best way to avoid that is to not nominate Willard in the first place. We need a pugilist with sharp brass knuckles and Cuddles Mitt ain’t that guy.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.