Posted on 03/31/2012 12:43:50 PM PDT by PSYCHO-FREEP
By the time Mitt Romney arrives in Wisconsin Friday – his first campaign stop in the state before its GOP primary on Tuesday – his challenger Rick Santorum will have already become a familiar face. Mr. Santorum has been in Wisconsin since last weekend and has dined, bowled, and played shuffleboard with residents in every pocket of the state. He’s even tossed a football at Lambeau Field, home of the Green Bay Packers.
Santorum’s once-generous lead in Wisconsin is eroding. In February, the former US senator polled at 34 percent among the state’s likely Republican voters, while Mr. Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, trailed far back at 18 percent, according to a Marquette University Law School poll.
Current Wisconsin polling shows Romney leading, 39 percent to Santorum’s 31 percent.
What happened? The easy answer is money. The Romney campaign is armed with seemingly unlimited campaign resources to flood local airwaves and phone banks, resulting in the candidate not necessarily having to step foot in the state until just before its voters head to the booths.
By early this week in Wisconsin, combined spending by the Romney campaign and Restore Our Future, a pro-Romney “super political-action committee,” totaled about $2 million in television advertising, much of it negative. By contrast, Santorum’s campaign had spent under $100,000 by last Sunday, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, and the Red White and Blue Fund, a super PAC backing Santorum, had spent about $300,000.
(Excerpt) Read more at csmonitor.com ...
Yeah...but I remember thinking after Nixon's resignation that we would never, EVER, see a Republican majority in the House in my lifetime. Newt lead that charge. (Though it would not have been possible without Reagan taking the bad taste of Republicans out of the mouths of the brainwashed public, so credit is duly noted)
I have read many of his books (including those with Alvin & Heidi Toffler) and think his ideas exciting. I would have hoped he would have gotten good administrators (like Perry) to come to DC and help him implement them.
I’m still ticked about the way Rick Perry was treated, especially here on Free Republic where we’re supposed to know better.
It was a disgrace. We lost the best candidate.
I won’t be forgiving those nasty disrupters anytime in this century.
I think Perry got creamed for that because it was at the beginning of his national exposure.
What wiped him out was a couple more deer in the headlight debates. I think his medication for back surgery and all that took him out.
I wasn’t much of a Perry fan, but he took a bad situation and handled it with humor and a certain dignity. He was realistic.
Perry had something Newt doesn’t have. Likability.
He was the one we needed.
Circumstances are a damned shame.
Amen. Perry is likeable and can get his points across without seeming whiny or antagonistic. He really wanted to reduce government, get rid of some agencies that make their goal in life to ruin our lives.
He was (and is) pro-life, pro-drill, pro-business and actually had some ideas.
Duh !
Do not rule him out as a VP choice. Even Romney deeply respects him and has seen his ability to handle the Press. He is nothing short of amazing.
We did this already. When polled about their next choice, Gingrich supporters split almost evenly between Mittens and Santorum.
In the long run, debates really mean little. Only the die hards watch them. The debates with Obozo will be crafted to make sure Obama looks good. Why would anyone on our side really expect anything different from the MSM?
People have to somewhat like the person they are supposed to vote for. That person on our side doesn’t need to be an intellectual who talks great. He just has to be a person people can trust to do right by them. I think people are tired of it all and want Obama gone. This election is really nothing other than that. Most are not so ideologically expecting perfection, they just want the communist to go away.
However, because of the circular firing squad, we are going to get exactly who we didn’t want. If you do the math, Milt has it in the bag prior to the convention at this point.
Truth is, many of the most virulent Perry bashers were Palin supporters who viewed his conservative credentials and successful executive experience as a threat to her non-candidacy.
Yes....he was my girl friend's faculty adviser and shared an office with my faculty adviser.
My girlfriend was so impressed she changed her major to History and took four classes under him. I also met him at a few social engagements she was invited to.
In an offbeat way, it was Newt who turned me from being a typical, college educated liberal into a conservative.
You see, Newt's reputation at WGC was that of a bit of a hippie. (and I knew, for a fact, that he would not be able to pass the Douglas Ginsburg test of never having smoked marijuana)
When Newt announced he was running for Congress, that was not a big surprise. But that he was running as a Republican was a shocker. (in many ways...as this was still "The Solid South" and Republicans were as rare as hen's teeth)
But I thought little about it as I was living my life until he started making waves in DC (Minority Whip, IIRC) and came to the attention of the National media.
I had my TV on as background and started to hear things said about Newt that I knew to be untrue. I mean KNEW to be untrue and that he was being reported on falsely by my previously sainted Woodward/Bernstein soaked mindset.
So much so that I thought, "Hmmm...if they are lying to me about this, what ELSE have they been lying to me about?"
I then vowed to read what 'the other side' had to say.
After reading Sowell, Rand, Horowitz, Hayek etc. you can see that they made a compelling case and that I also knew then why Newt ran as a Republican.
That was some time ago. Now, after all the conservative endorsements of Romney from Ryan, Rubio, GHWB, etc, DeMint....Newt's supporters have already started to leave Newt for Romney because the know the increasing importance to get this over with and start gaining a campaign against Obama.
You will find that ratio to be much higher lately. Which is already showing in the polls in Wisconsin. Newt supporters are headed for Romney by as much as 2 to 1
Newt Supporters are Newt supporters for a reason; They are smart enough to figure this out in advance, on their own.
VP is a loser spot.
Kissing babys and going to state funerals.
The only power the VP has is a deciding vote in the senate
The same ones went to Cain and then to Santorum, and they transfered their vile hate for Perry, over to Newt and his supporters.
(That one is as plain as day to figure out.)
The most compelling thing about Newt to me is his understanding of history.
He has a keen eye for the pitfalls of the past, but he is still human and is occasionally blinded.
We don't see that on the outside, but I have looked into the history of it, and the VP is much more involved than most of us will every learn or realize. Dick Cheny made many of Bush's decisions for him. Believe it.
I have no doubt that Cheney was in the inner circle.
GWB did not pick him for electoral votes.
He picked him because he admired him.
lest we forget,
Cheney, Don Rumsfeld and Condi Rice were great patriots.
Yeah, they stepped in a few cow patties, but they are true patriots.
I worked for Cheney and Rumsfeld in some capacity for many years
Hat tip to Dick Cheney.
Split the vote with whom? Paul?
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