Posted on 02/01/2012 10:48:52 AM PST by Red Steel
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP)-- Trounced in Florida, presidential candidate Newt Gingrich on Tuesday used the defeat to declare that he alone is the conservative alternative to GOP front-runner Mitt Romney.
Gingrich ignored the fact that the other two candidates in the race -- Ron Paul and Rick Santorum -- chose not to run aggressive campaigns in the state.
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Gingrich's defiant pledge to continue on against Romney sets the stage for a bitter brawl for the Republican nomination that could last for months. Gingrich supporters Tuesday night hoisted signs that read "46 States to Go."
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"I just want to reassure everyone, we are going to contest every place and we are going to win and we will be in Tampa as the nominee in August," he said.
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Gingrich now heads to Nevada, which is set to hold caucuses Saturday. Romney won Nevada when he sought the GOP nomination in 2008 and has had a campaign team there for months.
Gingrich's fortunes could rest on Santorum, the former Pennsylvania senator who remains in the race despite weak showings in South Carolina and now Florida. He was a distant third in both contests. Santorum continues to pull conservative and evangelical support that would likely move to Gingrich if he left the race. Tuesday's results could increase the pressure on Santorum to drop out.
(Excerpt) Read more at aikenstandard.com ...
He could make a conservative coalition to join Newt. Their goal should be to stop Romney. Explain that, Rick.
This “everybody else should drop out now ‘cause he won” BS is just the same as Florida being called early by the media when the whole State hadn’t even finished voting due to the two time zones.
Agreed. Don’t get me wrong, I would have loved to see a Gingrich win in Florida, but he garnered more votes than the 3rd and 4th candidates combined. That’s an awfully strong second place.
“Where’s his daughter and where is he?”
yeah that bugs me too
dont get me wrong i am not enamored with the guy he campaigned/endorsed Arlen Specter back in 2004 when Toomey was running against him in the primary so i kind of got annoyed with him then. he also lost his race by something like 17 points in 2006 - not a stellar performance.
all that being said i was kind of looking at it from his point of view. he probably doesnt see any reason to drop out now especially since it may be only a matter of time before Newt implodes again
Newt and Rick votes are by the same type of people...
Willard (Ron) gets the ditz vote, must be a lot of them in Florida..
Santorum has the charisma of a pencil eraser and is pretty much a milquetoast. Obama would clean his clock. If he had “fire in his belly” he would’ve done better last time and this time. But heck, at least if he stays in, the conservative vote is split, we’ll end up with Romney and people will be so mad at Santorum maybe he’ll rethink running next time and find a job he’s more qualified for.
Cindie
“Santorum is running interference for Romney. I have lost all respect for him. He also has less delegates than Gingrich. He’s acting as a spoiler and is without honor. Where’s his daughter and where is he? Hm? That and the mud slinging tells me all I need to know about him.”
Santorums idiot supporters don’t give damn.
They are cheering for Romney to keep winning. They think that we are all just going to run into the embrace of Santorum by default.
I was trying to come up with their rational. I’m actually they simply used “trounced” because it fit their meme.
“all that being said i was kind of looking at it from his point of view. he probably doesnt see any reason to drop out now especially since it may be only a matter of time before Newt implodes again”
Implodes? Is that the strategy of this fool?
Newt was under millions of dollars in dishonest attack ads!
What does Rick think he would do? Show up with a sweater vest, Bible, and really white teeth?
He is so full of himself. He got bounced out of his Senate seat badly, but thinks he is some superstar.
[ He made reference to Santorum “playing with the dead child” with disdain. ]
That was the MSM Narritive and your neighbor parroted it verbatim.
Sure beats taking our ball and going home, having no input at all into the process. As long as there's an acceptable nominee to vote for (and Gingrich is, at the least, acceptable), I prefer to fight than to go off and play "pretend politics".
I agree about the brokered convention. The best way for that to happen is for Santorum to stay in and win some delegates in the Midwest, Gingrich win the South and Texas, and Paul to win Virginia and some of the caucus states like Maine, Colorado, and Nevada.
Romney is going to win the big winner take all states of California, NY, and NJ so the best way to keep him from getting a majority is to keep his share in the proportional states lower and let Santorum and Paul win contests that Newt can’t win, but Romney is stil vulnerable.
Newt has a solid 2nd place with 46 more states to go. Word is that Santorum is running ads identical to Romney against Newt. That tells me all I need to know about Santorum. Romney bought the Fla AG, Bondi, too.
Someone said that last night Santorum stated that his supporters would go to Romney and not Newt. The guy is playing fast and loose and I do not like him. It looks like he has made some sort of deal with Romney. After Specter, I’m not surprised.
“Pick your poison, if you’re still into drinking whatever beverage the formerly grand old party serves up.”
A sincere question: what’s our alternative? Third party? Sit it out? Write-in? Big push at convention for a dark horse?
“Implodes? Is that the strategy of this fool?”
Sad thing is I did read that this was his exact strategy.
Ah well
Newt would have done himself a favor if he didnt look and act like Grumpy old man last night too.
There may be an opening for him yet with Romneys recent flub
again time will tell Newt just better hope that his fundraising doesnt dry up so he can actually compete
That’s funny. People were saying that Newts speech last night was better than anyone elses. Including Magic Underwear Romney.
I can not stand Rick Santorum and I was not surprised he lost in a big fashion in PA. The man is insipid. He is self promoting and I think he is like Huckabee. Stay in long enough get a name for himself and sell lots of books and make millions while in the mean time screw up the primary. He needs a job. With all those kids and his net worth being pathetic he is hoping for a nice payday.
Go home Rick Time to get off the island. He reminds me of the uptight nosey neighbor. Mark Davis and Mark Levine are turning me off by promoting this goofball.
Ditto on the brokered convention.
As for Santorum; I think Newt’s playing that ball all wrong. Newt should phone Rick and say, “Rick, I want to make this clear: I want you to stay in and keep fighting. HARD. Neither of us knows how this is all going to shake out, but if the ball doesn’t break your way, I want to let you know right now that I’d like you with me as VP on my ticket.”
In a brokered convention scenario, I think Santorum would have to admit that he hasn’t got the traction to come out on top, and throwing his support behind Gingrich at the convention would be just the sort of game changer to put Romney on the canvas for good.
As VP, Santorum’s support migrates to Gingrich, Santorum stays in a position to have a voice, but not in a position to do any damage, but he still needs to “do time” on the GOP rockpile for his failure to support Toomey. A four-year conservative re-education tour as VP would fit that bill nicely.
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