Posted on 02/19/2012 3:36:10 PM PST by VinL
Just after the South Carolina primary, Newt Gingrich--or his minions--put considerable public pressure upon Rick Santorum to stand down, to get out, to leave the race.
Santorum's response was simple. If he began to come in last in any series of races, he would do so. Santorum went on to explain that he had won as many states as Newt had at that point, so there was no need to go anywhere.
That was five states, 3 Santorum victories, and several instances of bottoming out by the Gingrich campaign ago.
The Gingrich people will not like what I have to say next, but it is resolutely true, and there is no argument against it, so here goes...
"If Newt Gingrich believes Mitt Romney is a worse choice for nominee than a real conservative would be, then he must leave the race now. Staying in the race until Super Tuesday hurts the conservative cause, aids Romney, and ultimately will re-elect Barack Obama."
There, it is said. It had to be. It is all true.
This week Billionaire Casino Magnate Sheldon Adelson announced his intentions to continue to sink money into the Gingrich SuperPAC "Winning Our Future." This newest round of $10,000,000 would roughly match the $11,000,000 that allowed Gingrich his one state win in South Carolina. But even that is money poorly spent.
Gingrich had the chance to build on his win, but was unable to capitalize in Florida, and his absolute stubbornness in refusing to organize for the three state caucus strike-out that catapulted Santorum to front-runner status demonstrated some old inclinations about the former speaker that had been voiced by many former colleagues. Newt is flagging in polls nationally, ranking behind Ron Paul at times, and does not show a path to victory even if he were to break through on Super Tuesday using massive SuperPAC money to land somewhat mediocre media presence. (After all $10,000,000 across seven states won't even begin to touch a fourth of the penetration rate he had with $11,000,000 in South Carolina.)
Debates are now being universally panned, and the free media will not add up to give Newt new opportunities to "un-re-define" himself from himself.
I asked a few columns back if Gingrich was Churchill, for 2012, the answer seems to be "no!"
But that doesn't render him insignificant.
If Gingrich were to leave, and especially if he were to endorse Santorum, Mitt Romney's campaign would truly be on the death's door. Romney is trailing in Michigan, where he couldn't seem to connect with voters even before Santorum's sweep, and according to Rasmussen--the most accurate pollster in the past six cycles--he trails Santorum by 12 nationally, and by nearly 20 in the swing state of Ohio. Despite what her "right-to-be-wrongness" Ann Coulter says about Mitt's inevitability, Republicans--if they are smart--should always elect the man for nomination who wins Ohio. Because in the general election, it is the best indicator of who will be President.
Santorum has thicker skin than Newt and Mitt combined, and next to Newt, he's the best debater left in the bunch. But most importantly he is the sharpest contrast to Obama--in nearly every imaginable category.
Newt is steadily polling at 14% in the polls. Santorum has exploded in Michigan and Ohio, is nearly within the margin of error to Romney in Arizona, and almost the same within Gingrich in Georgia. Meanwhile in some states Gingrich finishes last, Santorum never does. But if you add 2/3's of Newt's total to Santorum's, Rick Rollin' would become the new GOP past time.
If Gingrich is a man of principal, he will allow the consolidation and much-more-baggage-free candidacy of Rick Santorum to zoom into an even further all-out lead nationally. If Gingrich stays in, it is obvious his feelings about Romney's danger and likely losing proposition as nominee will come true. And the former speaker would have only himself to blame.
If Romney is the nominee, Obama will be President for a second term. (His inability to take Obama on--on his biggest weaknesses, the target of his faith's racially questionable history and the twisted way the mainstream media will exploit that, his inability to not say things from an entirely silver spoon perspective, and his lack of distinction from Obama on many social issues--like subsidizing abortion, and creating "gay" marriage.)
The GOP's job at the moment is to pick the best candidate they can to beat Obama, and the one who is most-different-than him presents the best possibility.
Especially if that candidate wins Ohio.
Newt should not drop out simply because he Is a man of Principle. He can see the the other two candidates are in this race for reasons other than any deep conviction that they can make a differnce in our country.
The one person in the race with Solid Plans should not clear the field for two Hollow, Self Serving ZEROS that have no Plan for accomplishing anything positive for our country.
Rick has said that he stayed in because he thought Newt would implode. Well, lets give Rick enough rope now that he’s the frontrunner and see what happens.
Newt will fight on!
Once again, let the voters decide.
Newt or neutered.
Don’t take such speculation too seriously. There’s also talk of a Mitt/Rick deal behind the scenes, and a Ron Paul/Mitt deal.
We won’t really know for awhile, or, more likely, ever.
Just vote for the person you think is the best candidate.
(Newt, of course...) :-)
If you want big-government Santorum in your bedroom, for him to check out that you practice “clean” sex, then invite him over.
He must give up his sermons and get the government OUT of our lives, not the contrary. I don’t need no stinkin’ Rick to tell how to live MY OWN life.
Honestly- I believe you’re in error. Newt protects Rick, at this point. If that weren’t the case, Romney and the GOP-E would not be attacking Newt- but instead, they would hope he stayed in the race to split the conservative vote.
Ask them 1 at a time. Thanks Vin
“Bain is to free market capitalism as The Westboro Baptist Church is to Christianity”.
AWESOME POST!
Good night! Where have you been? Santorum does not want to “tell us what religion to embrace and what to do in our bedrooms.” Are you from an alternate universe?
I have heard Rick Santorum myself. He wants Big Government out of our religion and out of our bedrooms. In fact he wants a government that embraces “the Constitution which was created to protect our Bill of Rights.”
This is a myth and lie created by Rick Santorum and perpetuated by the MSM as well as Fox to make Newt look bad
you must not have been on fr that much...every newtie on here was yelling get out ricky
I believe you are purposely taking his statement out of context. Nobody cares what you do in your bedroom. What he is talking about is that people wish to have whatever immoral thing they are doing be accepted by society. That we must accept as okay homosexuality, cheating, abortion, etc.
You can live your life anyway you want, but we, as a society shouldn’t have to accept and embrace it.
“If Gingrich were to leave, and especially if he were to endorse Santorum, Mitt Romney’s campaign would truly be on the death’s door.”
Bingo!
*************
Wrong, my friend. Absolutely, totally wrong. With Newt out, they will go “scorched earth” on Rick; they will intimidate his money people, and/or try to buy him off.
As long as Newt is around, they can’t do that. And that’s why they are desperately trying to get him out.
“Where’s the whining, my friend?”
Read the thread you started....If you aren’t whining then you’re about the only Newt supporter who isn’t.
Maybe people are voting for Santorum because they support him, or think he’s the only one they can support? Call me crazy, but that just might be the case.
Maybe people aren’t voting for Newt because they like someone else?
Whining and conspiracy theories.
So I looked at your ‘in forum’ and you keep insisting Santorum has no economic plan and is a ‘fiscal socialist’.
What evidence do you have for this slur?
“That’s all- no negative comment towards Rick or his genuine supporters. I wish him luck.”
Hi, VinL.
Personally, I think Rick has had more than his fair share of “luck”, as he was the beneficiary of Romney’s smear machine assaults in Iowa and Florida, and the fact that no one (whether deservedly or not), took him seriously.
If he’s going to win, he’ll have to do it on his own merits and ideas, as will Newt.
Romney, of course, thinks he can do it on the basis of his money, and the help of the GOP-E, and the Media—until the general, that is.
Only Newt seems to be willing to run on the basis of his own ideas and efforts.
you think newt can beat obama?....we would get blown off the map..1964 all over again...we would lose women by 20 points
BUMP.
Santorum is a very lucky beneficiary opportunist.
“Why doesn’t Newt have the votes, if he’s so good?”
You tell me, your not an enthusiastic Santorum supporter (only by default you say) but the only thing you have against Newt is his apparent whining?
I’ve seen several of his campaign speeches, several of his interviews and not a few of his extended speeches and lectures at various group meetings and I don’t see this ‘whining’.
You have nothing to argue against the ‘smartest guy in the room’ or ‘best debater’ labels so they must be true at least in your eyes.
It’s clear his ideas are well thought out and not just talking points just look at his solutions page on his website. He has a 54 page paper on getting the judicial under control alone.
He tells us what he intends to do day one and if history is any lesson looking at his accomplishments on his first DAY as Speaker, then we have much to look forward to.
Just a taste:
It’s billed as the longest first day in the history of the house (til 2:00am the next morning).
- Led passage of nine reforms (they said he couldn’t/wouldn’t get any but he got all nine)
- Eliminated three committees.
- Eliminated twenty five subcommittees.
- Eliminated more than six hundred congressional jobs called LSOs and he didn’t pick and choose which ones, he eliminated ALL of them. A savings to the tax payers of nearly 35 million dollars.
To add icing to the cake he hadn’t even started on the Contract With America yet. That was to come later (within 100 days actually) this was just in cleaning up the House.
So why aren’t you for him?
JB
We’ll leave the “Whining” to Ricky.
Newt supporters don’t support Newt because he’s “Not Romeny”.
We support Newt because we know Newt has the Right Stuff to be a Brilliant President!
If you are still annoyed, try an aspirin between your knees.
Well, that is not true in fact. If you don’t pull the lever against Obama you vote for him.
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