Newt Gingrich: Walking dead out of Alabama, Mississippi

The Washington Times ^ | March 14, 2012 | Jim Picht

[Cincinatus' Wife]

NATCHITOCHES, La., March 14, 2012—It was a good night for Rick Santorum. It was not a good night for Mitt Romney. Newt Gingrich is a zombie.

President Obama might want to celebrate tonight’s election results in the morning with a nice bowl of grits for breakfast.

Gingrich’s southern strategy is dead, and so is his campaign. The only southerner in the race, he’s said all along that the South would help him to the nomination. ... He came in a close second in both, results that would be respectable if he had more wins to his credit. But he doesn’t. There’s no way Gingrich can spin the night’s results into victory.

Nor can Romney, but his campaign remains very much alive. The mathematics of the delegate race didn’t demand that he win – if he and Santorum traded results, the effect would be a gain of only seven delegates for Romney – but a victory in either state would have been a definite boost. He won some delegates, and if he wins Hawaii and American Samoa, as is widely expected, his delegate lead will grow, but the losses still hurt, and they illustrate a serious weakness.

Romney could have won in Mississippi, and even Alabama wasn’t out of reach. He had sufficient support on paper to win, and the spread between him and Santorum was actually quite narrow. Between him and Gingrich the gap was even narrower, and second-place would have been just fine. But his supporters weren’t sufficiently supportive to actually go out and vote. He showed, if anyone needed showing, that his support is a mile wide and an inch deep. His supporters preferred to stay home and watch CSI, and so Romney came in third.

[Happy Rain]

We will see, and when Newt drains enough conservative votes that allow Mitt to win you will accept responsibility when Mitt loses to Obama and America dies, right?

...course, won't matter then will it?

[sodpoodle]

The media has controlled the GOP primaries from the beginning - pushing ‘front runner’ Romney. After each candidate gained some traction the media pummelled them into obscurity. Reflect on Bachmann, Cain, Huntsman and Perry. Romney was supposed to be the last man standing, but Newt would not drift away - so the media pushed a ‘surge’ for Santorum.

The voters have been had!!!!

[Jim Noble]

Have never quite figured out the strategy of this

Become the obvious choice without enduring fifteen months of LSM destruction?

"All warfare is based on deception. Hence, when able to attack, we must seem unable; when using our forces, we must seem inactive; when we are near, we must make the enemy believe we are far away; when far away, we must make him believe we are near. Hold out baits to entice the enemy. Feign disorder, and crush him." - Sun Tzu, the Art of War

[Above My Pay Grade]

You either want Romney or Obama to be POTUS for the next 4 years. I was fine with either Newt or Rick, but now it is clear that Newt can’t win.

Either Obama, Romney or Santorum will be elected. Which one do you want?

[Cincinatus' Wife]

........It goes without saying the GOP E don’t get it.

But it's beginning to sink in!

[arasina]

Sarah Palin, who wants all of the candidates to stay in up to the convention.

Have never quite figured out the strategy of this?

There are plenty of explanations here at FR and all over the internet.

One reason I like the thought that all of the candidates will be in the race is that I won't be disenfranchised as I was in 2000. The Republican presidential candidate essentially had already been chosen by the time I got to vote in my state's primary.

[dforest]

The voters haven’t been had. The voters are voting for who they wanted to vote for.

The media tries to steer it for Romney, but the media also doesn’t care for Rick or Newt.

If you have a problem, blame the people who decided to stay home rather than vote.

[ncalburt]

Romney is the weakest option who will be crushed in a general election .
The Dems need Obamacare to be a non issue in 2012 and Mittens guarantees that .
Mittens is pro abortion ,pro global warming ,pro cap and trade , and pro
Govt .
The base will stay home thanks to his fire bombing of the other primary options .
He ran the most destructive hate filled primary campaign in my lifetime .
This guy hates the GOP voters .
He is John McCain part ii without the military story

[Cincinatus' Wife]

If it were a two man race all the conservative support and money would go to Rick Santorum and he would stomp Romney into mush.

You're dreaming if you think this is reality.

[MuttTheHoople]

Gingrich has lost—he fought well but he came up short—now he must choose between his ego and the United States.

Good luck on that. The most dangerous place in America is no longer between Chucky Schumer and a camera....it's between Newt Gingrich and his ego.

[PreciousLiberty]

"You’re a Santorum supporter (not that that’s a bad thing) ... so I’ll ask you.

The economy is positioned to crash ... with or without Obama in the White House. What is Santorum’s plan to deal with this? Specifically.

I really would like to know."

First off, you might want to read firsthand about Santorum's various positions at Rick's issues page.

That said, I personally agree with you that the (world) economy is looking pretty grim going forward. The next President, regardless of who it is, is going to have a tough row to hoe.

Santorum's stated approach is to improve the tax code with a ten percent flat tax except for the top bracket, which he will peg at 28%. That is the same as Reagan's top bracket. He would eliminate the AMT and estate tax, and cut capital gains to 12%. He will cut corporate income tax by 50%, and provide additional benefits to manufacturing companies to boost the American manufacturing base. He would increase the R&D tax credit from 14% to 20% and make it permanent. He would repeal 0care. There is much more here.

I think the main thing to help the American economy is for businesses to know there is a strong pro-business president in charge. I believe President Santorum would fill that need nicely.

Santorum also has an aggressive plan to reverse 0's course on American energy production.

I feel he has an excellent platform, and I believe he can learn from his mistaken opinions in the past on personal privacy, freedom and so on. His recent rhetoric is certainly more in line with core conservative values and the Tea Party.

[arasina]

We will see, and when Newt drains enough conservative votes that allow Mitt to win you will accept responsibility when Mitt loses to Obama and America dies, right? ...course, won't matter then will it?

Are you sure your name isn't Sad Rain? "loses...dies...won't matter" Those are sad words.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

............True patriots can’t fire guns at the opposition but they sure as hell can fire donations to the Gingrich campaign.

Newt draws the bright line of contrast with Obama! Mitt never will, never intended to. Even the GOP-e has said it's about the moderates-independents. Mitt never intended to run a primary race to secure the base. He's run a scorched Earth primary race to silence the base.

[Right_in_Virginia]

Thank you for your thoughtful reply.

Maybe now I can feel badly when Santorum loses in November.

Thanks again.

[WalterSkinner]

..was disappointed that the Deep South states couldn't see what was going on

Gingrich was double-teamed by his competitors in AL and MS with Romney money

I do not sense defeat in Newt, but determination to keep the debate focused on the real issues, because the republic is in peril--and someone has to sound the alarm...

[ncalburt]

No offense to you .
Neet help create there’s we are in right now.
He passed tax reform which now has 50 % of the us public not paying any federal taxes .
He passed motor voter act which had created massive voter fraud for the Dems.
He help prop up Fannie and Freddie which help create this mess .
Newt is a DC insider and big govt sponge like the rest .
Newt had huge baggage that turns off the base voters .

[Cincinatus' Wife]

.....I do not sense defeat in Newt, but determination to keep the debate focused on the real issues, because the republic is in peril--and someone has to sound the alarm...

Newt Gingrich: Rick Perry's book "almost came too late" [Forward to "Fed Up!"]

I wish this book had never needed to be written.

It almost came too late.

America is recklessly accelerating toward economic disaster. Fed Up! may be the last warning sign to the danger that lies ahead.

Rick Perry, Texas governor for the past decade, is uniquely qualified to offer a firsthand perspective on why the United States—the most successful civilization in human history—is being threatened with economic collapse.

First Principles

Faith, freedom, and free enterprise are the pillars of a strong, safe, prosperous society. Rick knows that when these principles are protected, America succeeds, and when they are undermined, America fails. But the Left has a different belief. The Left believes that most people are not capable of pursuing happiness and that a strong centralized government is best able to provide for them. While claiming compassion for humanity, the Left's policies are destructive to the human beings subject to them—as we have had to learn painfully again and again.

The Left's self-serving solution to every crisis, economic or otherwise, and many of their own doing, is always the same: inflict higher taxes on Americans to create more government programs with more rules and regulations that result in less freedom, less innovation, less safety, and less prosperity.

The problem with the Left’s one solution, as Rick forcefully explains in the pages that follow, is that it doesn't work. It's never worked, and it never will work. The record shows it.

But what the record also shows is that when power and freedom are returned to the people, when people are rewarded for work, and when government holds the line on spending, individuals and opportunity thrive. We have seen that result most spectacularly recently in Texas, and in the mid-1990s with the Contract with America Congress, when I served as Speaker of the House."...............

[PreciousLiberty]

"Thank you for your thoughtful reply.

Maybe now I can feel badly when Santorum loses in November.

Thanks again."

If you give in to defeatism and despair, the other side has won. I will fight to the last breath, as best I can, for America.

This election cycle is realistically do or die for America as we've known her, since the next president will very likely nominate at least two more Supreme Court justices.

Rick Santorum has a great chance to beat 0, if he can win the nomination. We need to follow Buckley's advice, and support the most conservative candidate who can win.

[Christie at the beach]

Thank you for doing all of this great work.

I hope that you can reach some undecided voters.

[Right_in_Virginia]

Oh, please. Tell the truth or go away.

Really. You’re tiresome.

Thanks.