Posted on 01/29/2012 8:01:41 AM PST by TBBT
Five weeks ago, this might have been a game changer. Is this a case of too little, too late?
Atlanta businessman and former presidential candidate Herman Cain endorsed Newt Gingrich Saturday night at a West Palm Beach Country Republican gathering after two months of wavering on whether he would offer his support to a fellow candidate.
The endorsement comes just three days before the crucial Florida primary, by far the largest state to vote so far in the GOP sweepstakes, and could help Gingrich energize tea party support. Gingrich campaign has flagged since his upstart, double-digit victory over front-runner Mitt Romney in the South Carolina primary a week ago.
“I had it in my heart and mind a long time ago” to endorse Gingrich, Cain said in a surprise appearance at the dinner. “Speaker Gingrich is a patriot, Speaker Gingrich is not afraid of bold ideas, and I also know that Speaker Gingrich is … going through this sausage grinder. I know what this sausage grinder is all about. I know that he’s going through this sausage grinder because he cares about the future of the United States of America.”
(Excerpt) Read more at hotair.com ...
He also is dull boring totally lacking in charisma and a host of other characteristics that make him unqualified to be President.
Oh yes, I forgot loser.
Yes but I have just read that the RNC could turn around at some point and hand those delegates back to Fla.
Like maybe at a critical point to put Romney over the top !
I think what the republicans (and I say that loosely) wanted was for a candidate to show fire in his belly and at the last debate, Mitt did. He won it. Bachmann’s debate coach taught him well.
I will vote for conservatives in the other races, I will never vote for Romney. but for now I wish Newt would threaten to go 3rd party (with innuendo at first) unless they stop the attacks, because Romney can’t win the general with a 3rd party for the conservatives.
I will change my registration after this primary season. I am no longer a republican, nor will they ever get my vote again unless it is a true conservative. I will not hold my nose again. They won’t do it for a conservative. If Newt does not get the nomination, and does not go 3rd party or if he endorses Mitt, then I will write in Sarah Palin’s name this election.
You did fine for your first post! May it be the first of many!
I agree, I won’t vote for Romney either.
phooey, I missed that joke
I’m not sure what his game is but Gingrich should offer Santorum the VP spot in exchange for Rick dropping out.
I don’t think Santorum could do Newt any damage but he might help conservatives feel more comfortable with Newt heading the GOP ticket.
Excellent analysis! My only disagreement is re Romeny v Obama. What we have witnessed is the typical pattern for the GOP establishment. Namely, to aggressively - even viciously - go after Tea Party conservatives but be timid whimpering puppies when it comes to the general election race against the Dems. Witness McCain: he refused to enter the fray vs Obama, yet was a vicious attack dog in his AZ reelection primary. Same thing will happen this time. In fact, GOP establishment has already telegraphed this - remember a month or 2 ago when the mavens of the stupid party released their advice that Obama should not “be criticized” because he was personally “too popular”!
So, what we’ll have, if Romney prevails, is a NE liberal republican (think Susan Collins with a bank account) who has - in his single only tenure as a government official - a record not too dissimilar from Obama going up against a seasoned, effective, $1B funded Dem political attack machine. I don’t believe that Axelrod et al will have the organizational ineptitude that Newt has shown in responding to Romney’s many deathbed political conversions. They’ll throw up his pro-Abortion, pro-gun control, pro-union, pro-govt-mandated-health care record ad nauseum so that the public will not buy into Mitt’s claims that he’s “changed”. They will effectively and repeatedly remind us that Romney gleefully claimed (as a candidate for MA sen) that he was not supportive of the Reagan-Bush agenda/era, that he had distanced himself from them, and that he considered himself a “progressive”.
So, when Romney tries to run against Obama, what is he going to tout? He cannot claim the mantle of Reagan, conservatives and the Tea Party. Obamacare? How is Romney going to really differentiate his signature program (which he has never criticized or debunked) from O? Sure, he’ll try to split hairs, but Obama’s a much better and vicious campaign opponent than Newt and, with the inherent and enthusiastic support of the MSM, Obama will very easily and successfully convince the American people that Romney’s plan was, in fact, the progenitor of his plan. Therefore, nominating Romney immediately neuters 2 of conservatives’ most significant campaign themes: (1) govt-mandated-and-controlled health care and (2) reintroducing a true Reagan conservative governance philosophy.
Furthermore, there are 2 other Romney vulnerabilities, major areas that simply have not (maybe they really could not effectively) been brought up during this GOP primary. First, consider the overall environment of the last 18 months. The #1 liberal thrust to push their agenda against the mountain of bad governing data over the last 3 years has been the OWS movement. “1% vs 99%” “big banks & Wall St screwing the average American”. In the bowels of the DNC HQ and Obama reelect war room, could the Dems themselves have picked a better candidate to run an OWS-themed campaign against than Romney? $42M in investments from Wall St in just 2 years! Cayman Is and Swiss Bank accounts! Mind you, nothing wrong with these, but - in this climate (in which the OWSers have been elevated to near sainthood by the MSM), Romney is a true target-rich-enviornment!! He and the GOP will spend the entire election season defending his corporate largesse, corporate raiding, “obscene” profiteering, etc. In fact, many (including me) believe that the OWS movement was concocted by Axelrod, the unions, et al with Romney as the eventual GOP opponent in mind. Think about it: they know they can’t run on Obama’s record, so they have created a cultural movement that would be the absolute antithesis of everything the putative GOP nominee would stand for and would greatly enable them to negatively pummel the GOPer for an eventual Obama reelection (which is what they desperately need to cement in the true socialist/Marxist agenda). I noted that, on many occasions this week, Rush brought up just this scenario.
The final area that will be used against Romney in the general is his Mormonism. It won’t be “fair”, but O/Axelrod/Alinsky never play fair - the ends always justify the means. Most Americans know very little about the Mormon church. In the “popular culture” it will be easy fodder for skepticism and ridicule - witness the infamous South Park Mormon episode and the “Book of Mormon” on Bway. The pop-culture mavens of the MSM will only be all too willing to skewer Romney by bringing up questions about the “peculiarities” of his religion. The rumored peculiarities pertaining to the Romney family have already been quietly raised by the MSM. Namely, that his family fled to Mexico in order to establish a polygamy compound and also that they crossed illegally many times from Mexico into the US.
So, we have a candidate in Mitt Romney who has no governmental accomplishments, save those that are decidedly liberal/progressive and certainly cannot give him significant experiential grounds to use against Obama. His candidacy immediately neuters the single issue that drove the Tea Party and the GOP in 2010, namely Obamacare. His governmental record and his public pronouncements when running for office in MA jibe more with the DNC political platform and Axelrod will quickly cement in that fact with the public. They will not allow him to get away with claiming that, since leaving MA office, he’s done a complete 180 on all these critical issues. Romney is perhaps the best caricature of the bogeyman created by the OWS movement and he will be immediately and very easily painted into this picture. And, Axelrod will certainly have Obama’s acolytes in the MSM running piece after piece after piece about Mormonism and the Mormon Romney family history.
All in all, in 2012, I could not think of a single worse candidate for the GOP to put up against Obama than Mitt Romney. And, with no governmental record to run on, with his personal business success becoming the poster child for the OWS dartboard, with his publicly proclaimed past embracing of progressive/liberal programs and philosophies, all Romney could do in an Obama election would be to run heavy negative. Now, this has certainly worked against Newt and the other conservatives. But, he won’t have the MSM supporting his attacks (as they do now against other GOPers) and the GOP poohbahs have already nixed that approach. Guess they don’t call them the “stupid party” for nothing!!
(sorry about the long post, but I had to vent out all my frustrations that have built up in this primary season)
Don't know how this is going to work out regarding the eventual Republican candidate, but I do not in any way think that we can't beat Obama, irrespective of who the eventual candidate is. I have never been a Romney fan, and repealing Obamacare is an important issue for me, but on a bad day he is still immensely better than having Obama back.
Romney has done nothing for the last four years (since his 2008) run but spend his personal fortune in trying to buy the nomination. I must say, he seems to be succeeding, but that’s hardly something to praise.
And judging a candidate on the basis of his weight or physical charms is just plain silly.
I've seen older people who were die hard Republicans back in the day. About 30 years ago one of them told me "if the democrats ever get control of this country for a long period of time they will destroy the country".
Well, this person is 75 years old now. Living on social security and to my surprise voted for Obama because of his health care plan. Even today that person worries he may lose his healthcare if Obama loses.
Some people (many of them) and now due to the economy many more of them may have a tendency to vote for BIG government for their own reasons.
Obama's loving it everyday he sees the unemployment numbers go up. He sees it as his ticket to a second term.
It is what Clark Gable said after the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor.
I didn’t think it was “fire in his belly,” but personal spite and bitterness that Romney showed, as well as a willingness to lie ruthlessly even when he was called on it by the moderator. It could be that some people like that, on the other hand, because despite Gingrich’s attempts to return this to the issues, what people want to see is a afternoon-show style catfight (the fact that they were playing that kind of “Fight Club” music at the debate shows you how they view it).
I’ll take substance over charisma any time and he is just as qualified as any of the others still in the race. Also, he is sure as hell more qualified than the current occupant of the WH.
The last debate revealed that Santorum is the best informed on the issues and the most conservative. He served two terms in the House and two in the Senate. He is far from being a loser. And he can beat Obama.
Actually, Newt outperformed the polls by 7 points in South Carolina.
The only thing Santorum has in his favor is less baggage though he does have some here and there.
His actual voting record is slightly less conservative than Newt's if you look it up.
I mentioned the ACU ratings months ago and Rick folks parse that by saying "well he was in PA and had to be more moderate"
...same argument Romney is now using..."he was in Massacusetts..he had to"
I like Rick...were the poll positions reversed and he the main challenger to Mitt, I'd want Newt to drop out
Santorum may have a future...he is young.
I’ll tell you who, PAUL RYAN. The Paul Ryan Newt accused of right wing social engineering when Ryan presented his plan to get us out of this mess we are in. Newt is not known to play well with others.
If Santorum gets out, it will be interesting to see if he will endorse anyone. Based on the debates, he seems more upset with Romney on issues, especially Romneycare, and more upset with Newt personally based on serving with him.
I do not in any way intend to promote the GOP 'pink mafia' and party of TARP. They really are no different than mold that can only survive by attaching to a living host. Romney's 'fire' was liberalism on display, lies. These people are hypocrites chanting 'ethically challenged' while they spew LIES. 'RICH' liberals buy protection every campaign season, then itch whine and moan about not paying enough taxes. Obama's rich and poor are going to pummel old 1% romney like a drum. But 'stupid is as stupid does ..... egos on parade, claiming they can 'socialize' better.
Newt doesn’t believe in slashing government spending, so that’s why he doesn’t talk about it.
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