Just as I loathed Clinton’s sexcapades, I feel the same way about Newt. Especially cause Newt was doing the same thing Clinton was doing, all the while trashing Clinton. It’s the hypocrisy. Santorum has the conservative pov and the personal principles.
You’re a little short on facts but then you’re a noob. Why do any research?
You are wrong. Read much?
Really? How can you be more wrong?
I agree, and plan to vote for Santorum in the Missouri primary and probably the caucuses if he's still in the running then — and I fully understand he may not be. I don't really have much other choice in the primary since Gingrich isn't on the Missouri ballot.
However, I think Gingrich really does “get it” about the importance of social conservatives. If he becomes president I think we'll get a seat at the table (actually quite a few seats). Gingrich knows he can't win without the base, and he needs to make very clear to social conservatives that he'll listen to us or he'll lose just as badly as McCain lost due to his history of attacking evangelicals.
But I'm really, really unhappy about the idea of having to try to explain to fellow church members why they should vote for a multiple adulterer who got President Clinton impeached while doing basically the same things himself.
I'm not sure it will work, and while I believe a Romney nomination will wreck the Republican Party, I'm seriously concerned about what will happen if Gingrich can't placate the social conservatives, or worse yet, if his supporters start publicly attacking social conservatives. Some of the recent anti-evangelical stuff on Free Republic is a scary preview of what I hope we don't see coming from Gingrich himself.
The leading elder in my local church is quietly backing Ron Paul, as are several other members of my local church. A longtime friend pastoring an Iowa church publicly endorsed Ron Paul. The parliamentarian of my denomination, who carries significant influence and respect in his church and community circles as a hard-right Christian conservative, is aggressively backing Ron Paul. I think they're all making a horrible mistake, but if the people I'm talking to represent anyone other than themselves — and they definitely do — my discussions with them show we have some serious problems ahead since they'd rather back a dangerous nut-case like Paul than a serial adulterer.
Folks, we have to deal with reality. Newt Gingrich as the Republican nominee will be a very, very hard sell to many of our people. I'm not convinced it can't be done, and he's definitely better than McCain, Romney or Obama, but this is not going to be easy to convince evangelical Protestants, who have a history of low turnout when they're not excited about a candidate, to aggressively work for Gingrich's election.
President Obama will almost certainly mobilize his inner-city blacks to get to the polls, and I can't blame them for voting for a man who personifies the ability of people to beat racism. Obama and the Democrats are definitely right when they say they changed the composition of the 2008 electorate. Despite the continued collapse of the American economy, there's a good chance he'll do that again. If we don't have a candidate who can convince low-turnout evangelical voters to vote Republican, we have a big problem this fall.