Posted on 04/10/2012 5:42:31 PM PDT by Red Steel
RALEIGH, N.C. — Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich’s campaign Monday began morphing into less of a pursuit of the presidency and more into an effort to shape the Republican platform and to influence the discussion in the fall elections.
Campaigning in Raleigh, Gingrich said he planned to battle front-runner Mitt Romney in North Carolina’s May 8 primary and all the way to the GOP convention in Tampa, Fla., but conceded the prospects of overtaking the former Massachusetts governor were not bright.
But he said Republicans still face serious choices at the convention and into the fall — whether the GOP will be a "conservative, dynamic movement" or whether it will move more to the center. Gingrich said he hoped his candidacy would help influence that debate.
"There is no reason to concede anything," Gingrich said at a news conference. "Every vote we can get in North Carolina is a vote for a more conservative platform — every vote we can get in Delaware, or we can get in Arkansas or we can get in Texas, that is a very useful thing to be doing. If there is a major mistake or a major flaw, the race is wide open again."
Meeting earlier with a group put together by black conservatives, Gingrich elaborated on his theme, saying he wanted Republicans up and down the ticket this fall to run on a conservative platform, which he said was not only the principled choice but also the best way to win.
"That’s why I am continuing to campaign," Gingrich said, "trying to send a signal."
Gingrich’s campaign has taken on a different tone in North Carolina. He hardly mentioned, let alone criticized, his primary rivals: Romney, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum and U.S. Rep. Ron Paul of Texas.
Romney has two fundraisers planned April 18, but Santorum has no appearances planned in the state with the primary just a month away. Santorum is focusing on the GOP primary in his home state of Pennsylvania on April 24.
That means that Gingrich has North Carolina nearly to himself, and he spent Monday campaigning in Raleigh, meeting with a community group, holding a news conference, having lunch at Caffe Luna and addressing students at Broughton High School. On Tuesday, he will campaign in New Bern and he will return to the state Saturday to attend a "tea party" rally in Greensboro.
While Gingrich is actively campaigning here, he is doing so without any advertising budget that would allow him to reach a broad number of voters.
Gingrich called the state’s GOP primary "very competitive." A survey of Tar Heel voters conducted late last month by Public Policy Polling found Romney and Santorum tied at 30 percent, Gingrich at 19 percent and Paul at 13 percent.
The difficulty Gingrich faces was evident at a meeting with community leaders at the Shanahan Law Group, when one person asked Gingrich whether he thought conservatives might mount a primary challenge to a President Romney in 2016.
Earlier in the campaign, Gingrich might have used such a question to challenge Romney’s conservative bona fides. Instead, Gingrich talked about the need to make the GOP adopt a conservative platform in Tampa.
Gingrich said he hoped the new phase of his campaign would enable him to push some of his ideas — something he said he often found difficult to do during the hectic give and take earlier in the campaign.
He said the country needed bold ideas because economic conditions were much worse than people realize — that unemployment was far worse than the numbers indicate, college kids can’t find jobs, that the national debt was growing, and that many of the social programs such as Medicare and Social Security faced financial challenges.
So...what happens with Santorum’s delegates?
If he throws them to Romney, then it really is all over. If they go to Newt, then conservatives actually have a fighting chance to win this thing within the GOP, rather than having to go outside the party.
Newt has to keep his message out there. He is running against all odds since the lame media wants Romney, the liberal. It is so difficult to watch the republican party put this man up as the leader. This decision will really change the conservative message/make it moderate version, I guess. I seldom watch TV news. Tonight, they are acting like Rick never mattered and never has Newt. They are beyond disgusting and continue to show how they drive the people in what to think. We need a protest against the media then we may have a chance to get control back of reform. ( Keep fighting on, Mr. Speaker for patriots who love our country)
THIS WHOLE THING IS ABOUT DELEGATES
While Newt was speaking about Santorum suspending his effort with Hannity and his glorous plans to block Mitt Newt’s check for a filing fee in the Utah GOP primary bounced.
As far as ;’m concerned this is going to be an unncesssary cliff hanger election with Mitt as the nominee.If you live in “Tar heel country” and the ballot has only delegates for Newt but not Santorum give Newt your vote. If Rick has a delegate give him your vote
Yes, this is what I remember happening then. She’s only hinted it many ways and in various media, but I think this is what Palin believes.
Well, now's a golden opportunity to see if Santorum's supporters are really as conservative as they claim to be.
Utah’s winner-take-all. It’s not worth $5 let alone $500 to bother campaigning to a state full of Mormon bigots who have shown to be backing Romney 98% or more.
Well, if he's merely suspending his campaign, Santorum won't release them until the convention. And if Santorum is serious about Mitten's helping him retire campaign debt, they're not going to Gingrich.
If Mittens doesn't need Santorum's delegates to get over on the first ballot, then all the delegates will likely stay aligned with their current candidate. Or the RNC may choose to proclaim a unanimity voice vote, whatever.
Probably not, but weird things have happened already just south of North Carolina. Maybe the pollsters...maybe..perhaps...are wrong.
Anyway, let’s just see.
Touché. Maybe I’ll give Newt a little something to get him started.
I expect more of a 9 to 1 switchover to Newt. Romney’s not winning North Carolina. Number one, the polls showing where support would move have been nationwide, not within a state. North Carolina voters are backing Newt and Santorum because of conservatism, not anything else that might benefit Mitt.
F___ you Boston Hearld!
.
Every Newt supporter should be pointing out that Romney is dodging debating Newt. Paul supporters should do the same.
In fact, the rest of the state GOP parties who have yet to vote have set up debates, such as 155 delegate Texas, and Gingrich, Paul, and Santorum accepted, while Romney chickened out.
Why are the other states not allowed to have a say?
The remaining states left to vote have 1,053 delegates.
States with 1,233 delegates have voted so far.
This race ain’t over. If Romney wasn’t inevitable, his people wouldn’t still be spending millions in ads trying to destroy his opponents.
I’m just glad to have the chance, as a NC resident, to actually be able to vote in a primary and have it actually mean something.
In 2008, McCain had already been installed as the GOP alcalde by the time our primary rolled around, and I didn’t even have the option to write in Fred Thompson.
Considering most (60-40%) Newt supporters chose Santorum second, I expect you would see somewhere around that for the other direction. Of course, that is not enough, even in North Carolina, but it is almost enough in Texas.
“Go Newt. I’ll vote for you.”
I certainly would also!
But why do I feel that lately, drudgereport.com is almost like reading DU? What’s going on? Hmmmm....
http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/politics/53886982-90/utah-romney-gingrich-campaign.html.csp
And doesn’t “winner take all” states help Newt? Go Newt!
It’s tough to tell right now until we see new polling with Santorum taken out of the running. There really aren’t that many winner-take-all states coming up. Only 2 that are winner-take-all, Delaware and Utah. But, trust me, as long as people don’t buy into Romney being inevitable this change could really shake up the race. I wouldn’t be surprised if this was coordinated between Rick and Newt as a strategy to take down Romney. It is reminiscent of when Rick bowed out of Florida to give Newt a one-on-one chance there. Problem is they really needed to do this at least before Illinois to tip the scales of likelihood in their favor. But there is a better chance of defeating Romney now than there was yesterday when 2 conservatives were splitting the vote.
Uh...Santorum will direct his delegates to support a pro-homo, pro-abortion candidate? Are you sure about that?
He’s got my vote- May 8! Striking a blow against communism (Obama) and socialism (Romney).
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.