Posted on 03/02/2012 12:21:24 PM PST by Marguerite
It's time to stop dilly-dallying. Super Tuesday is upon us and with that, the nomination race could be all but over unless conservatives and libertarians finally unite behind one candidate, a candidate who can beat both Romney AND Obama. That candidate needs to be Newt.
Among the not-Romney's he is the only one who can unite the party. Economic conservatives like him because he balanced the budget and reformed welfare. Defense hawks like him because he is the most hawkish of the lot. Social conservatives, when they can get past his personal life, like him for his strong record on issues like abortion. And libertarians, like the Libertarian Party's nominee in 2008, Bob Barr, like him because he is economically libertarian and not over the top on social issues.
Can anyone honestly say the same thing about Santorum? He goes out of his way to attack individual freedom and libertarianism and completely blew his chance to be the nominee by focusing on social issues instead of the economy (probably because his economic policy record isn't really that great). Who attacks prenatal diagnostics? Or the idea of contraception? Or says he wants to vomit over a rather non-controversial (and somewhat revered) JFK speech? He has proven himself to be quite a bit more gaffe prone and offensive than Newt, despite the fact that people thought he was a "safer" option. Even I was offended by some of the stuff he said and I am a Pro-Life registered Republican. It's really not surprising that his support is crumbling like it is. See the latest tracking data from Gallup (Santorum's popularity is in dark green, Romney's is black [matches his soul], Newt's is orange and Ron Paul's is light green):
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-6fJcVRLI29c/T1DpfdF2LHI/AAAAAAAAAOw/cPiYo7Hcnk4/s400/gallup.png
Santorum is just not ready for prime time. He is simply too divisive, offending gays, women, parents, protestants and libertarians (in total about 80-90% of the electorate). Unfortunately, he retains enough support to possibly give Romney a majority of the states on Super Tuesday. His conservative backers need to wake up quickly, bite the bullet and go with Newt.
As the brilliant Thomas Sowell wrote:
"Newt Gingrich is the only candidate still in the field who can clearly take on Barack Obama in one-on-one debate and cut through the Obama rhetoric and mystique with hard facts and plain logic.
Nor is this just a matter of having a gift of gab. Gingrich has a far deeper grasp of both the policies and the politics than the other Republican candidates."
Can anyone really argue with that?
I think Ron Paul supporters (the historically Republican ones, not the liberals who are just visiting the GOP for this election in order to support Paul) need to wake up as well. They are not furthering libertarianism at all by supporting Paul any more. He's made his point and has shown that he is a force to be reckoned with but supporting Paul on Tuesday just increases the chances that the most statist candidate, Mitt Romney, is nominated. Do you really want to be responsible for nominating the only Governor, Republican or Democrat, to enact a socialist universal healthcare system in their states? Newt isn't a libertarian but he is the man who did the most to wound the leviathan in the last 30 years. Why not vote for him and give this country a chance? It clearly won't with either Romney or Obama.
Finally, Newt is simply the most electable candidate in the race right now. As I mentioned earlier, he can unite the party, has a great grasp of both politics and logic and can actually explain conservatism in a way that others can understand and agree with. Santorum and Paul are both to extreme to get almost any independents over into the fold.
Sure he has baggage but I think most of it will go away. Freddie Mac? Let's see Obama bring that up when he received over $126,000 in bribes, err I mean donations, from Fannie and Freddie while he was in or seeking office (he was the #2 largest recipient in Congress, #1 was the notoriously corrupt Chris Dodd). Nancy Pelosi? Let's see Obama make an issue out of that one or Newt's opposition to cramming down the Ryan plan.
It's time for believers in small government and personal liberty to unite behind Newt, otherwise we will once again have a Nixon vs. McGovern sort of choice in the fall. And the stakes are just too high this election for that.
Newt's strong points are his experience in Congress, and he does well in debates. His weakness is his past, which we'll constantly be defending. But, I agree that we need to unite the conservative vote NOW. If Newt is the choice, I'm in.
“I wonder if it would do any good for several of us to contact Rick S. and ask him to give it up and send his support to Newt, because he can’t win the primary and Romney can’t win the election?”
Of course we CAN and we should.
I propose that each of us write a message on his Facebook wall:
http://www.facebook.com/RickSantorum?sk=wall
No vote in your life has ever been so important.
** President Newt Gingrich-”Our beloved republic deserves nothing less.”
I don’t agree.
Vote Newt EVERYWHERE.
Rick, it's time for you to realize that you are not going to win the primary and Romney is not going to win the presidency. Please give it up and help Newt take Romney down. Newt is the only person who has the wisdom and fighting spirit to win and turn this country around. You are standing in the way of our "Churchill". History will not be kind to you for that. Sometimes we have to realize that we are not destined to get what we want.
Now I’m going to tell Sarah to get off her perch and get with the program. NOW!
Excellent.
I wrote: “It’s a lost cause, Mr.Santorum. You can’t beat Romney, and you’ll be responsible for the defeat of the conservative movement. STEP DOWN NOW AND ENDORSE NEWT GINGRICH, LIKE HERMAN CAIN, SARAH PALIN, RICK PERRY, MICHAEL REAGAN, FRED THOMPSON, MICHELE BACHMANN, ARTHUR LAFFER, THOMAS SOWELL DID. DO THE RIGHT THING, NOW.”
But this flawed genius has proven to me that he now has the substance and the stability in life to be the leader the nation needs
Added to that he has deep, detailed solutions for every major issue and threat facing this republic
Without equivocation, the Speaker has my full support--Godspeed Newt!
The Speaker’s leadership record makes the other candidates look like dwarves. They are not in his league
“Vote Newt on March 6”
I am so angry that I won’t be able to do that, since I’m in Virginia. I HATE it. The best I can do is cast a vote for Paul to deny Romney our delegates, but it’s not the same. I can’t vote for the candidate of my choice, and that is simply not right.
There is no write-in in Virginia?
Maybe if thousands voters wrote Newt’s name on the ballot ... the local Reps could notice they made a huge mistake.
They verified only Perry and Newt’s signatures, but not Romney’s. Bloody double standard.
Newt SHOULD be on the ballot in his home state.
IF Newt's weakness is his past...Santorum and Romney's weakness are in the present...they lack the true conservative spine...we can't afford to take anymore for the team aka as the gop establiment and Newt won't!
I agree.
No write-in for primaries here, unfortunately. The whole mess stinks.
We don't need elections, we've got polls.
Right?
LOL. Do you reckon we will get a nasty reply? I don’t care, I’m in the Andrew Brietbart mode now. We’ve tried to hard to be nice. Time’s up. We are losing our country and it’s time to fight and fight hard.
I think that some Virginians should have banded together and sued the GOP for denying their right to vote.
If a state has proportional rep and not winner take all, that’s just wrong.
Newt could receive delegates without winning or second place.
And there’s the psychological barrier of people thinking Newt can’t win so they don’t vote for him even if they want to, and he drops even lower in people’s estimations.
I vote for Newt, period.
He’s the BEST we have.
That’s how he comes back...if people will vote on that basis, he’s back!
I will never read Ann Coulter’s column again.
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