Posted on 03/07/2012 3:03:08 PM PST by red flanker
Rick Santorum’s campaign said it’s not planning for any more GOP primary debates, while Newt Gingrich is calling for one to happen before next Tuesday’s contests.
Gingrich said on Monday he planned to attend an upcoming debate in Portland, Ore., hosted by PBS. He also said he wanted there to be more debates, possibly in Mississippi and Alabama, states with upcoming primaries in which the former House Speaker is hoping to do well.
Mitt Romney’s campaign wouldn’t say if the former Massachusetts governor will attend the Portland debate, and the Santorum campaign wouldn’t commit either.
(Excerpt) Read more at thehill.com ...
"If you want to talk about that, fine! If that’s what you want the Republican Party to be, then be that and go ahead and say that’s what you want, but don’t call it conservatism."
Shameless plug for my Uncle’s Game:
Back in the 80’s my Uncle Created the Game Called “President Elect” which was a General Campaign simulation of the Presidential Contest. Some of you may have played this game. It’s addicting because you got to manage your campaign, take trips, manage your political action points, and strategize how to answer your debate questions.
It can be downloaded here, but I don’t think it works in Windows 7 because the programming is from the 1980’s
http://www.myabandonware.com/game/president-elect-1988-edition-hw#download
Just to illustrate, try to challenge your opponent to a debate when your opponent has a 10%+ lead. Odds are the candidate will refuse to debate.
I’ve beaten every simulated candidate on here in this game in every time period....except Reagan. Everytime I get some kind of lead, even in a bad economy with high unemployment, Reagan takes 1 trip overseas with good press or some other good economic news and I go from 15 up to 10 down. To this day, I still can’t out debate Reagan based on the percentage of how I answer my debate questions. I should just ask my uncle what the default settings are, but where would the fun be in that?
The problem is that debating is not a big strength once you get in office. As long as you are smart and believe in what you are doing, you can handle pressers etc.
That may be all well and good. I’m just interested in nominating the man who can do the best job as President. As someone who showed he can advance good ideas, work tirelessly, reform government, and strongarm Democrats into going along with him, Newt is the best guy to solve our current problems. That’s the only criteria I ask people to look at and not irrelevant campaign or personal life minutiae.
Nothing to worry about there. Newt doesn’t just meet the press, he defeats the press and eats the press alive. And he doesn’t get whiny, petulant, apologetic or marble-mouthed like Rick.
Fair enough and you may be right about Newt being the best choice. But at some point we’re going to have to get real about where the race is before we’re stuck with Romney.
Fair enough and you may be right about Newt being the best choice. But at some point we’re going to have to get real about where the race is before we’re stuck with Romney.
I just think it’s easier for politicians to control speeches, whereas debates force them to take positions. That having been sais MSM debates are horrible! The MSM steers the debate and candidates end up talking about things that aren’t that relevant.
I have no problem voting for Santorum or Newt in the general if they win. I don’t want to vote for Mitt. I think Newt has a better chance to win than Santorum, but Mitt has the worst chance of them all, because he appeals primarily to the same demographics that already make up Obama’s base. The best path to win is obviously to maximize turnout among demographics which already dislike Obama, because it’s easier to turn people out than it is to change their minds. And you need an excited base in order to make the squishy people think there’s anything good about your candidate at all.
I do think that either Rick or Newt needs to drop out sometime this month. I think we need a few more contests to determine which one that should be. Rick has been on a downward spiral and we don’t know if he’s hit bottom yet or not. If everything was proportional delegates, they might need not need to drop out, but with states that are partial or total winner-take-all, they would hand too many delegates to Romney. The fact is though, at this point we almost certainly need a contested convention to stop Romney, and both Newt and Rick need to bank enough delegates to combine at the convention to beat Romney’s count.
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Exactly. Teleprompters are the way to go.
You can't answer those questions yourself?
If you're ahead of another candidate, you don't give them the opportunity to catch up by debating him.
Why isn't Newt offering to debate Ron Paul?
If either were way ahead of Obama, wouldn't it be a good idea not to?
Ron Paul is a joke. Even Santorum supporters must realize that.
If polls show Newt has no realistic chance of winning in Alabama and Mississippi, he should drop out. One would think he'd want to help prevent Romney from winning the nomination under that scenario.
I totally agree with everything you said. It’s time though to take our best shot and I don’t know how long we have before the media succeeds in the “Romney’s the one” crap.
Hopefully another month, hopefully we don’t wait until it’s too late. But do you really think Newt will ever step aside even if it’s strategically our best hope?
True, the MSM has used our debates to destroy candidates. I think if there’s ever another, it needs to be totally out of the media’s hands. Maybe the Heritage Foundation could sponsor them, someplace like that.
Totally! I’ve thought that for a log time! Why should we let left wing moderators steer our debates in a way so as to protect their heroes (Obama), and keep us fighting? We need to develop our own forums.
Heritage did co-sponsor one:
November 22, 2011
Location: DAR Constitution Hall in Washington, DC
Sponsor: CNN, The Heritage Foundation and the American Enterprise Institute
Participants: Bachmann, Cain, Gingrich, Huntsman, Paul, Perry, Romney, Santorum
I believe there could be a point where either Rick or Newt would step aside in exchange for the V.P. slot. They'd need to get something out of it for sure, in order to give up those delegates.
If Newt’s bitter about anything, he’s bitter about Romney, so it’s hard to imagine him not being willing to do whatever it took to take him out, even if it meant dropping out.
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