“In every way in the last two weeks, Romney has signaled he won’t fight for the base. He looks like a lost child when trying to answer the taxes issue. He couldn’t stand up to Santorum in the debate. He sounds every bit like Gordon Gekko, not Milton Friedman, when he talks Bain and free markets.
Basically, today’s vote is about Republican grassroots giving the Washington Republican establishment the finger. The base is angry, and right now, only Newt is left to fight for them, as imperfect as he is. We may still end up with Romney, but voters aren’t going to let him have it easily.
Party leaders who have invested so much in Mitt Romney might want now to ride on to a brokered convention and find someone acceptable to everyone. Because this most divisive and bitter primary in years is going to wipe out the GOP’s chances to win in November. And while few of the Romney advocates of the past four years will admit it, it is because they have tried to foist onto the base a milquetoast moderate from Massachusetts as energizing to conservatives as a dead battery.”
Newt is a genius with humanity, including the flaws and foibles that implies. I think it’s a magical combination for a politician. We want someone we can relate to but also someone who can achieve great things. Newt is a conservative not because it’s been programmed into him as an ideology, but because he’s smart enough to know that conservatism works. Conservatism is the pragmatic choice. It gets the best results. A person can be great without being perfect. If the doubters of Newt can wrap their heads around that last concept then hopefully we can unite behind him and make his momentum unstoppable all the way through November.