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Tea Party bides its time in Republican race
ibnlive.in.com ^ | Jan 21, 2008 | By Anna Fifield, Financial Times

Posted on 01/21/2012 4:40:12 AM PST by Jim Robinson

Greenville (South Carolina): The hungry customers at Tommy's Country Ham House in Greenville will not be satisfied with what rightwing critics call the liberal, Obama-like ways of Mitt Romney, frontrunner for the Republican nomination in the presidential race.

"Romney is not a conservative. Romney is just about as moderate as Ted Kennedy," said Jerry Smith, a 64-year-old retiree who ate a breakfast of pancakes and bacon this week at Tommy's, a local Republican stronghold that has been visited by every candidate except Mr Romney.

Mr Smith plans to vote for Newt Gingrich in the South Carolina primary on Saturday, calling him "the most electable conservative candidate".

His friend, Tom Barton, agreed. "He's the only one who can carry the water against Obama," he said.

Polls indicate a close race with Mr Gingrich slightly in front. A win for the former House speaker would inject momentum into his campaign.

Victory for Mr Romney, who is viewed with suspicion in the conservative state partly because of his previously centrist positions, would signal he is competitive even in the south.

The former governor of Massachusetts has concentrated his campaign in the more moderate coastal areas, where he is likely to do well. His presence in the sharply more conservative upstate region around Greenville, an area where the Tea Party movement has been influential, has been negligible.

Authentic conservatism is important here, where voters routinely denigrate Barack Obama, president, for his "European socialist" ways.

All of the candidates have been trying to prove their pro-life, pro-family, budget-cutting credentials to voters like Mr Smith, who voice very conservative opinions on issues such as abortion.

(Excerpt) Read more at ibnlive.in.com ...


TOPICS: Front Page News; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; US: South Carolina
KEYWORDS: elections; gingrich; newt; southcarolina; teaparty; teapartyrebellion

1 posted on 01/21/2012 4:40:23 AM PST by Jim Robinson
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Comment #2 Removed by Moderator

To: Jim Robinson
Notice the Title. "Tea Party Bides its Time". Should be "Tea Parties Bide their Time". There is no one "Tea Party" that decides things like the Dinosaur parties. There are hundred here in Georgia alone.

The Media just doesn't get it. When Obama fiddles with the Constitution, Tea Parties spring up everywhere in response. It is an American Tradition going back to the Revolutionary War.

Obama trampled the Constitution with the Individual Mandate, He has made war on our states that want to defend themselves and just recently, made Recess Appointments while the Congress was in Session.

So it is completely natural for Americans to form Tea Parties in response. And the Press just is so Anti-American that they can't figure it out.

LOLARMAOOTF

3 posted on 01/21/2012 4:54:19 AM PST by sr4402
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To: sr4402
The Media just doesn't get it.

No they don't.

They are going to get a lesson in SC when their polls show them where the Tea Party vote went and how many of those Tea Party folks actually voted. And trust me, they do vote.

4 posted on 01/21/2012 5:09:27 AM PST by InterceptPoint (TIN)
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To: InterceptPoint

Report from SC. Last night (Friday) received 5 or 6 calls from Mitt, Mitt’s Wife and assorted Mitt Pacs....one call was an offer to ask Mitt a question at his phone in Townhall!
Mitt is desperate and it is showing.


5 posted on 01/21/2012 5:44:06 AM PST by iopscusa (El Vaquero. (SC Lowcountry Cowboy))
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To: Jim Robinson

So Romneycare is a “centrist position” according to this dolt writer. LOL.


6 posted on 01/21/2012 5:50:00 AM PST by dools0007world
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7 posted on 01/21/2012 5:54:40 AM PST by musicman (Until I see the REAL Long Form Vault BC, he's just "PRES__ENT" Obama = Without "ID")
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To: iopscusa

How many calls from Newt’s camp?


8 posted on 01/21/2012 6:25:54 AM PST by no dems (I'm more concerned with America's future than I am Newt's past.)
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To: sr4402
There is no one "Tea Party" that decides things like the Dinosaur parties. There are hundred here in Georgia alone.

Yeah, like local militias with ballots instead of bullets!

9 posted on 01/21/2012 6:28:28 AM PST by varon (Allegiance to the Constitution, always. Allegiance to a party, never!)
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To: Jim Robinson

“...call the liberal, Obama-like ways of Mitt Romney, frontrunner for the Republican nomination in the presidential race. ...”

Where the hell do they get off with this continuous “frontrunner” bullcrap?

Romney got NH.

Santorum got Iowa.

Looks like (so far) Newt is going to take SC.

So how does that make Mitt the “frontrunner” in anyone’s mind....?

These mediots are absolute drones...


10 posted on 01/21/2012 8:07:06 AM PST by NFHale (The Second Amendment - By Any Means Necessary.)
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To: Jim Robinson
The Tea Party sentiment is alive and well and will begin to express itself more and more as a nominee emerges who can clearly articulate and contrast the ideas of our Declaration of Independence with those of the redistributor in chief.

As my post on another thread stated today, SC voters are perceptive and do not fit the Obama/MSM image of them. They are representative of voters throughout America who see that it is ideas and the power of the ideas of liberty which will defeat Obama in November. Money and organization can be topped by Soros and others of his philosophy.

Earlier this week, Charles Krauthammer observed, that "he (Romney) simply doesn’t have the capacity to explain with some color and sort of force conservative ideas."

Which is precisely why he has no business going up against an ideologue who does "have the capacity to explain with some color and sort of force" the ideas of redistribution.

Krauthammer has been slow to come to admitting the obvious fact that Romney doesn't "explain" conservative ideas because they are not part of his intellectual DNA, as they are with someone who has immersed himself/herself in the ideas of America's founding history.

Gingrich's quick analysis of opposing ideas, combined with an ability to put them in historical context, didn't just come about by osmosis. They came about through a lifelong study of history. In recent decades, Ronald Reagan is the only American president who was so familiar with our founding ideas that he could weave them into discussions on "issues" of the day; thereby giving clarity to threats to liberty.

By the same token, the Fall 2012 opponent has studied, been mentored in, and well understands the ideology and strategies for presenting his case for redistribution, government planning, and control--all the while masking them in benevolence and "taking care" of those to whom he appeals, even as his policies are enslaving future generations.

His Republican opponent needs to be able to rebut, rebuke, and reveal the cloaked tyranny encased in his appealing message to those who see him as a benevolent leader, not a threat to their posterity's Creator-endowed right to be free.

Gingrich is right.

The goal of the primaries is to determine a candidate who can bring such clarity to the ideas of conservatism that Obama's counterfeit ideas will be defeated. Romney, in the words of Krauthammer, "simply doesn't have the capacity" to do it. At least, he has not shown it to this point; and that "capacity" cannot be coached. It must be a natural outgrowth of understanding.

"It is proper to take alarm at the first experiment on our liberties. We hold this prudent jealousy to be the first duty of citizens and one of the noblest characteristics of the late Revolution. The freemen of America did not wait till usurped power had strengthened itself by exercise and entangled the question in precedents. They saw all the consequences in the principle [usurpation of power], and they avoided the consequences by denying the principle. We revere this lesson too much. . . to forget it." - James Madison

11 posted on 01/21/2012 1:39:45 PM PST by loveliberty2
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