Posted on 12/26/2011 10:01:00 PM PST by Steelfish
DECEMBER 27, 2011 Gingrich Applauded Romney's Health Plan
BY BRODY MULLINS AND JANET ADAMY
Newt Gingrich voiced enthusiasm for Mitt Romney's Massachusetts health-care law when it was passed five years ago, the same plan he has been denouncing over the past few months as he campaigned for the Republican presidential nomination.
"The health bill that Governor Romney signed into law this month has tremendous potential to effect major change in the American health system," said an April 2006 newsletter published by Mr. Gingrich's former consulting company, the Center for Health Transformation.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Romney has changed his position on a LOT of fundamental issues, usually carefully timed with his running for a new election.
Health care and climate change were not easy issues where there was a fundamental conservative or Judeo-Christian basis for how to approach them going years back. Newt is a thinker, and a lot of his writings on these issues over the years while he’s been out of office don’t appear to present solid positions, but moreso thinking out loud and considering various potential solutions. Also keep in mind he worked for think tanks. His job was to pontificate on these things and try to come up with solutions.
There are bigger differences between Romney and Newt on their current campaign proposals, not just their past statements. Newt is offering a much broader tax overhaul while Romney’s takes the same tax-the-rich-more approach that Obama does.
Oh yeah? Well Rick Santorum is a zillion times more conservative than Gingrich, and anyone who says otherwise is a liberal-loving Newtbot.
(Paging Captain Hyperbole. Please pick up the white courtesy phone . . .)
Unfortunately in election sound bites nuance is lost. Ads will portray a million times over the WSJ headline. Perception often times defines reality in politics. Don’t get me wrong. I like much of what Gingrich says and stands for but with this kind of baggage to explain away coupled with his lack of telegenic appeal he is as close as you can get to being unelectable. The likely remaining prospects are now Perry and Santorum. That’s the reality. Gingrich is of course not done. He is leading in S. Carolina, Florida, and Ohio. But as in Iowa we have a fickle primary electorate. These leads are ephemeral and is no true indicator on how all this would pan out.
Really? Only Newt or Willard? No one else to choose from, eh? Give me a break.
Support Newt or Willard at your own peril. I'll support a conservative instead.
On Jan 3rd night, you’ll see the light.
Exactly.
The Constitution would have been the reason I never would have supported it from the start. Obviously, Newt Gingrich does not value the Constitution the same way that I do.
for gawd sakes, most republicans are socialists. We’re doomed
Will you? When Gingrich places third or lower in Iowa, will you still be singing the same song? Or will we then have your permission to support a conservative candidate instead?
your right Santorum is. But he is also unelectable because people just don’t like him.
The choices are Romney or Gingrich, it’s that simple.
Voting for telegenic candidates is what got us Obama. I think good looks are much less a factor than the ability to communicate, which Newt has and which was really Obama’s most electable asset.
The reality is the individual mandate is far from the biggest problem with that 2,000 page bill. It’s received somewhat unwarranted attention because it’s virtually the only piece that anyone could conceive of posing a court challenge on, other than some of the Medicaid stuff which no one understands. There is plenty more for our candidates to campaign against in that bill.
The issue of Newt approving of the mandate has already come up in the debates so this isn’t new. At worst Romney, Newt and Obama are “tied” on that issue. I would think Romney having actually passed it vs. Newt just talking about it makes him more vulnerable on it. The only other candidate who has an outside chance at the nomination is Perry, who has serious deficiencies on the communication side of things and a lot of potential negatives in his record that have not been examined yet.
If Romney and Gingrich are the only choices, Obama’s campaign ads (yup, $1 billion of it) will be like shooting fish in a barrel.
When Gingrich places third or fourth in Iowa, will the choices still only be Romney or Gingrich?
It’s a two man race period, I don’t care what happens in Iowa, it will still be a two man race.
If Gingrich is the candidate, Obama will only need to spend half a billion.
Newt said he would have executed the mandate in a different way than Obamacare did. He always had an option for people to get out of buying insurance if they didn’t want to. I know he had mentioned having people post a bond. I don’t know if his idea was different enough to pass constitutional muster or not, but then until the Supreme Court rules, we don’t know where the court is going to fall on that one.
This time 4-years ago Giuliani was leading, Huckabee was in second and Juan McCain was in third place over 5 percentage points behind. I would imagine some at that time were saying the race was between Giuliani and Huckabee. Clearly, that was not true just as it is not true now that our choices are limited to Gingrich and Romney.
1. Mitt Romney cannot win the GOP nomination.
2. Newt Gingrich cannot beat Baraq Obama.
The sooner you accept the truth of #1, the sooner you can do something about #2. If there is no one else in this race besides McNewt or Mitt, then we are guaranteed four more years of Obama.
Oh no! Being telegenic is a big plus. Remember Reagan? JFK v. Nixon? And a tie on health care won’t do. This was Obama’s signature domestic issue. Romney and, by extension if Gingrich supported RomneyCare- the prototype for ObamaCare, then that’s a huge minus for our side. Flip flops by any candidate against an incumbent who goes into the election who already has the big states like NY, CA, MA, IL, WA, in the bag and $1B to throw is going into this fight with a severe handicap.
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