Posted on 01/23/2012 2:38:27 PM PST by TexasFreeper2009
All four remaining GOP candidates have been confirmed for tonight's debate sponsored by NBC News, the Tampa Bay Times, The National Journal and the Florida Council of 100. The debate will take place at the University of South Florida in Tampa. This will be the first of 2 debates this week focusing on the Florida GOP primary on Tuesday, January 31st. Note the air times on the east and west coast.
Television Air Time: Monday, January 23rd at 9pm ET, 8pm CT and 9pm PT on NBC
Live Streams: (airing 9pm ET) NBCPolitics.com, National Journal, and TampaBay.com
Participants: Gingrich, Romney, Santorum, Paul
(Excerpt) Read more at 2012presidentialelectionnews.com ...
Brian Williams made everyone sit down and shut up just to protect us from any Mitt Standing O’s.
Thanks lonevoice, you added some very important background. Looking back on that time, Dick Armey also paid the price for his disloyalty. It is very interesting to see how Armey in his current position as a Tea Party leader will respond to Newt. He was on Fox this morning and presents the TP as a group of individuals with common values but not as a group who will collectively endorse one candidate. Peeling the onion, Armey did acknowledge that Romney has a difficult time connecting with TP where Newt is a much more natural fit.
This whole Newt story is a real all-American one. It would make a great movie. I am sure the Hollywood moviemakers would rank it way high, almost in the league of Milk, and The American President. /s
You know, it would make a fantastic movie! I'd pay a lot of money to see that one. It's actually a shame we'll never get to see it, but maybe someone will write a book about it someday.
YES, and YOU should write the script!
You're the best articulator of all things Newt on this whole forum.
When is the next Florida debate?
You are too kind! I do a lot of writing in my job. It is more business and high-tech than political. I have been on FR for many years and usually lurk and read. There are so many smart people on this forum that I owe a lot of what I know about the world from what I read here.
This election cycle is just so critical that I can’t sit silent. I have 4 sons (God granted daughters to someone else) and I really do think of them when I write about this stuff. I talk about this a lot with my oldest, who works in DC and I owe my boys the truth about how our country got into this mess, who got us there, and how do we get out of this. I just can’t sit quiet and let the truth about the candidates, the congress, the president and the courts go without being spoken. So we have to keep speaking the truth. Thanks for the kind words, b9.
That’s great info. I imagine the elites would be afraid of just his convention acceptance speech alone, let alone what he would do as President. His greatest power might come in 2014 when he could work with the Tea Party and try to engineer a fresh takeover of the Congress with grassroots conservatives.
This article explains Newt’s showdown with the Bush Sr. administration over the “no new taxes” flap:
http://www.unionleader.com/article/20111227/NEWS0605/712279989&source=RSS
It’s interesting that he was still able to get elected Speaker even after this showdown with Bush and friends.
Yes, FR has many good writers. It’s awe-inspiring, this forum.
Lucky, lucky sons you have there!
I am supporting the only guy in the race that I trust and respect. Santorum. Not that I think he is the second coming of Reagan. But I trust him not to tilt at windmills and do the right thing most of the time.
I’ve pretty much thrown my hands up. Even if I wanted to support Santorum, or Gingrich, I can’t vote for them in Virginia. There was a brief time, about 8 hours, when I was ready to go all-in for Newt simply because Perry had just been knocked out of the Virginia primary but Gingrich hadn’t.
It’s not that I dislike Newt, or even don’t trust him. I’m sure if he is elected President, in 4 years most of FR will be cursing him and wondering how anybody was stupid enough to support him — much like what happened with George Bush.
I’m told that in 2000, things are FR were much the same with the “powers” throwing behind George Bush, casting what others thought were more conservative candidates aside. I don’t know, I wasn’t here until 2004.
Frankly, in the few places I don’t toe what conservatives here at FR CLAIM is the party line, I’m more in sync with Newt than they are. At one point I realized that I could probably get ZOTTED out of here if I actually expressed opinions that matched what Gingrich believed — although I also realize that his biggest supporters would simply deny what Gingrich was saying.
My fear of Newt is that he is unelectable. If I’m wrong, I’ll be happy. I certainly am not upset that this stops Romney, because I didn’t particularly see Romney as electable either. The Newt-worship rubs me the wrong way, the argument that he really is a true conservative, mostly because the arguments are much like what I was vilified for in 2008.
In short, and they aren’t wrong, looking at Gingrich’s campaign platform, it is a good conservative platform. I believe the last Freepathon thread makes that point. But, and I’m not saying this to support Romney, or defend him, but in 2007 I regularly answered critics by posting the actual list of issues from Romney’s campaign website, and nobody could point out one that wasn’t a good conservative plank.
My point being that Romney CLAIMED he’d be conservative, and whether you supported him would hinge on whether you trusted what he was saying or not. And those of us who reluctantly decided that the trust issue was less risky than picking people who promised to do the WRONG things, ended up being attacked for supporting a liberal. OK. But now I see conservatives getting attacked for NOT supporting a guy who had clearly non-conservative policies, simply because he has a conservative platform.
Again, the issue is do you trust Newt Gingrich. Sure, moreso than Romney. If Gingrich had been in the 2008 race, I’d have been supporting him before Romney (just as I supported Fred Thompson, another flawed conservative, moreso than Romney).
So now I’m cautiously optomistic. It appears we have beaten Romney. And if the “establishment” foisted Mitch Daniels on us, and HE ended up winning the presidency, that would be an excellent outcome in my view. And if Gingrich ended up President, that would be a fine outcome as well. I’m not worried about him as President, I’m worried he’ll never get close to being President.
And while I’m not that pessimistic, the fact that so many conservatives who I do trust, and who I believe know a lot more about politics than I do, are backing Romney because they don’t believe Gingrich is electable, it does give me pause. I am not one to simply reject every person who has led the fight for years because suddenly they don’t agree with my preconceptions.
I honor your choice of Santorum. I don’t buy the worst of the “big-government” charges made against him — he’s not Rick Perry, but he’s a good man and I think our nation would be blessed if he could be President.
“His greatest power might come in 2014 when he could work with the Tea Party...”
Yes, Jedi, the evolution and reformation will take several election cycles. It is very difficult to root out deeply entrenched forces who offer nothing but a parasitic dependency on big government. I am talking here about the elected class of elites and their powerful lobbying interests. The 2012 election is just the start, but can give us great momentum, provided we pick the right candidate. I pray we don’t pick another McCain. Romney lost to the guy who lost to Obama. This is one of Newt’s lines and it is very true.
“By the way, the one remaining ethics charge was proven invalid.”
Yes, and wasn’t that the one that the IRS took TWO YEARS to clear him on? Also, as I’ve heard several times, the $300k he paid was NOT a fine and Newt got screwed because of his lawyer’s erroneous wording in a letter that he didn’t proofread.
I really wish Newt would just give the excellent explanation you did (maybe in an ad) to educate the public and dispel all the rumors and misinformation floating around out there, especially because of the lies Mittens is spreading in both his smear ads & speeches.
There was no admission of wrongdoing by Newt. It wasn’t a fine. He agreed to pay the cost of the investigation.
I should add that as of Saturday Romney was still claiming Newt was fined even though he knows it is a lie.
I know - now, to just get these facts out to the voters!!!
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