I have noticed the Newt supporters seem to have disappeared around here. I think Newt’s candidacy was designed to create division among conservatives. His flakiness and his inconsistent behavior was such that he never had a chance of winning. However, with a billionaire donor and some believers he was able to last in the primaries much longer than some of the better, but not so great either, choices.
That being said, I still preferred him over Romney.
Damn tough call, for sure. On one hand, Newt had the more conservative record in public office, that's for sure. On the other, he also had the more conservative constituency.
Romney did not seem to take a special delight in poking conservatives in the eye with a sharp stick on issues such as open borders, endorsing obvious RINOs over conservatives and the like as Newt did.
Personally, I backed Santorum and feel that Rick might have at least had an uphill chance to win if Newtie had gracefully bowed out after losing two of three neighboring states to Georgia.
Newtie basically played the Judas Goat role for Romney in 2012 just as Mike Huckabee played the Judas Goat role for McCain in 2008. With comparable disastrous results.