Posted on 03/16/2012 2:20:05 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
It was unbelievable: After Newt Gingrich failed to win both Alabama and Mississippi in the GOP race for president, most members of the mainstream media and political strategists with whom I talked readily admitted, off the record, that he was the most qualified among the Republican candidates to serve as president.
Now these are objective pros that have been around presidential politics for years. I have no doubt they were telling me the truth because these folks only tell you this stuff when it is relatively clear that the candidate is no longer a viable alternative.
Best on foreign policy The Gingrich campaign is pushing the concept that, by staying in the contest, Gingrich could help take away enough delegates to deprive Mitt Romney the numbers needed to have the GOP nomination locked up by the time the candidates reach the convention in Tampa.
Obviously, as a friend of Gingrich’s, I am not going to argue with their decision to press forward. Their frustration is that their candidate knows more about foreign policy and defense matters in his little finger than the other two leading candidates know in their entire body.
It is likely they find it incredible that a man who could out-debate Barack Obama is now in this predicament.
But the reality is that no camp agrees with any other camp’s delegate math.
Romney, who has spent a fortune to amass his delegates, believes the numbers suggest that he will have no problem locking the nomination up by or before the last contested state.
The fact that Romney continues to gather delegates in areas he himself considers “away games” suggests that his staying power might just deliver a requisite number of delegates before the convention.
As for Santorum, his camp believes their best chance is for Gingrich to exit stage left and allow there to become a consolidation of “conservative” voters who, by their calculations, would leave Romney pulling his usual 35 percent in most states and give Santorum huge wins in critical upcoming contests.
That sounds great for Santorum, but it might not work out as planned. Unless Santorum received an outright endorsement from Gingrich, a portion of Newt’s votes might stray to Romney.
The truth is no one knows what will happen. But for my friend Newt there are certain things I hope will take place.
First, I hope that if the money starts to truly disappear, he will scale his efforts back appropriately. That does not necessarily mean leaving the race, but it does mean picking and choosing battles and making sure that the end result of those battles will not be disastrous.
The second thing I hope he will do is start to put aside any personal feelings he might have toward any of his fellow candidates. It appears he is well on his way as to Santorum. But it is also clear that the path toward a relationship with Romney seems rocky.
What Romney should do And really, who has the responsibility to repair that relationship? The answer is Romney.
If Romney’s math is right and he does get the GOP nomination, he is insane to believe that followers of Gingrich or Santorum will flock to the polls to support him. He would need Gingrich, Santorum, Rick Perry, Herman Cain and Michele Bachmann on his team to have a prayer of not repeating a “John McCain, Part Two.”
Oh, and add to that Sarah Palin, whose voice has only been made stronger in recent weeks.
No, I would not ask Newt to leave the race. I have seen his seemingly impossible schemes work too many times. But what I would ask of the other two major GOP candidates would be to show this man some respect.
He has earned it, and they will need him in November ... if not sooner.
The ruling class is scared of Newt holding the Bully Pulpit.
[3:00] Michele Bachmann profusely praising Newt in this 2008 townhall introduction …”This is real! We love you here. We love you!”
That’s fine.
Change the subject to a Newt diatribe.
The fact is, the interviewer at the link was not thinking of Michele Bachmann when he said to O, “your opponents say...” about the gasoline price.
And you know that.
And everyone reading this knows that.
And that was the point.
Newt’s age and experience is a plus.
If some are too stupid to know that, America’s loss.
See, I can call names too.
Like the other red herring, though, that’s neither here nor there.
You are right. And a lot of folks are not old enough to remember when we didn’t vote in the primaries. Every election cycle the nominee was chosen at the convention. A brokered convention is not the end of the world. In fact it may be that we need a little bloodletting at the convention to clear the air. I hope Newt has the fortitude to stay in it.
Here is one place.
Matthew 26:53 Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels?
You still don’t get it. The reason people dislike Newt is not because of things he says. It is his personality and demeanor. If you can’t fix what people don’t like about you, you can’t win.
People say good things all the time. It is talk. Talk is great as long as people trust that you are sincere. Newt hasn’t always done that.
That and coupled with the constant bragging about the wonder of himself is a great big turnoff to many voters. He finishes every interview like that and it spoils what he said before.
He should give his views and allow the people to assign and recognize his wonder instead of always touting it for them.
Like it or not, he is no Reagan in the personality and likability department.
We all see this every day in our lives. We see it on FR with RS supporters too.
Yes, indeed. Even common sense informs us that there is a battle between good and evil.
Describe please. I hope you're not one of those, "everyone has won and all must have prizes and no valedictorians please" kind of person....
No, YOU still don’t get it. I understand some people don’t like Newt because small unintelligent unaccomplished insecure non-confident people always resent those who are intelligent, accomplished, confident and even arrogant. I get that.
The problem with your breathtakingly shallow analysis is that such sins are always forgiven in difficult times. Winston Churchill was all of those things. In fact, those traits are required for difficult times.
Santorum is equally un likeable, and you cannot ever fix piousness, self righteousness, sanctimoniousness. And never ever will people forgive those sins. Those traits are NEVER EVER liked.
Another HOME RUN by Newt!
First of all, Cincinatus' Wife, I, and I'm quite sure others, greatly appreciate your aggressive research, posting, and continued support of other Conservative candidates even though your preferred choice, Rick Perry, didn't make it into the finals. Thank you! Now .... on to my quote and my point.
As for myself, I try to deal in facts and documented evidence. None of the decisiveness of this type occurred in this election, or the 2008 one, until it appeared to Mitt Romney that he was losing and then started with his vile, lying and underhanded tactics. These are the documented facts. Also becoming apparent from facts now known is that early on, he was and is now directly involved in the undermining Sarah Palin with smears, he has undermined the other candidates the same way, and he has done the same thing to Newt. Who uses these type of tactics? The Democrats! Who should this remind people of? Start connecting the dots ....... It's Obama, Harry Reid and the Democrats!
My point is that Romney was never a conservative and may just barely Republican, a far left leaning one at that. Unfortunately, what comes to mind is that we've got our very own "Obama and Harry Reid moderate type" infiltrating and contaminating our party and people are so misinformed, willfully or otherwise, that he may succeed in conning enough people into thinking he's a Republican. Just investigate and look at how he governed in Massachusetts ..... that alone should wake people up!
No matter what anyone else thinks or does, I will not bring myself to vote for this man. His election would set back the Conservative movement at least eight years, or more, because he would become the head of the Republican party and influence all appointments. Think about that! My position now is "Let'r Rip."
LOL
Your insult was well taken, and back at ya. But you see, I am right because Newt can't win races and there is a reason for it.
As long as the obvious is ignored, he will continue to lose.
Did you see how deftly Gingrich handled Charlie Rose on CBS Morning Show today? Contrast the performance with the way Rose dominated Santorum a couple of weeks ago on the show.
Some supposed Freepers are not worth engaging because they are being willfully ignorant. Whatever truths you post cause them to respond in a manner that is more like an Obama or Romney supporter than that of a true conservative.
Newt V Mitt/Rick
humility V hubris
self-esteem V selfish steam
There IS enough time for the truth to be seen and heard.
http://campaign2012.washingtonexaminer.com/article/what-really-happened-gingrich-ethics-case/336051
I don't know if it MUST go all the way to Tampa, but it sure wouldn't hurt the pubbie eventual nominee.
The demonRAT-luven msm, keeps telling us, that for our own good, we need to end this primary, and we know from experience that they have our best interests at heart.
The average American voter doesn't really start paying close attention to the candidates until after Labor Day, the early stuff is for political junkies.
I'm with you on this one wifey, let the convention begin, can you imagine the news coverage on this event.
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