RNC’s delegate count shows Gingrich ahead of Santorum (Stand down, Rick!)

WashTimes ^ | 3-8-12 | Dinan

[VinL]

Rick Santorum may have won more primaries but the Republican National Committee's current delegate count shows former House Speaker Newt Gingrich has more bound delegates than Mr. Santorum in the race for the party's presidential nomination.

Frontrunner Mitt Romney has earned 339 delegates to the August nominating convention in Tampa, Fla., or more than the rest of the field combined, according to a chart the RNC sent to its members on Thursday.

Mr. Gingrich is second with 107 delegates, topping Mr. Santorum's 95 delegates and the 22 delegates pledged to Rep. Ron Paul of Texas.

Winning the nomination will take 1,144 delegates.

Press reports have put Mr. Santorum in second place based on projections about how delegates will be allocated in some of the caucus states where voters have cast their ballots, but where the actual delegates won't be decided until later, at county, district and state conventions.

Delegates have yet to be fully awarded in Iowa, Colorado, North Dakota, Minnesota, Maine and Washington. Mr. Santorum won the first four of those contests, while Mr. Romney won the other two.

Mr. Santorum and Mr. Gingrich are battling to be the conservative alternative to Mr. Romney in the race, and Mr. Santorum says his victories in seven primaries and caucuses gives him a leg up.

Mr. Gingrich, meanwhile, has won just two primaries — Georgia and South Carolina. But both those states bind nearly all their delegates to support the Primary winner.

Meanwhile Mr. Santorum has notched close wins in places such as Oklahoma, where he collected 14 delegates for his victory. But the Sooner State awards its delegates proportionately and so Mr. Romney and Mr. Gingrich earned 13 delegates each, making Mr. Santorum's victory gains him almost no ground on his rivals.

[VinL]

Don’t think so- they bought have to stay in- if not, Romney and the Gop-e steam rolls them one on one.

[Kenny]

I still don’t think he can articulate his positions, and when he’d have to fight against Obama, what would he do?

I sincerely believe Rick could win against Obama. He was just on CNN and did a great job of articulating his positions and of using the opportunity to expose Romney's lies on Obamacare. I can't see the future and we've certainly had our heads pushed back under the water every time we try to come up for air but I think Rick's the real deal.

[Christie at the beach]

I want a floor fight at the convention.

I will be there/fighting for my conservative.

[RFEngineer]

“is that what’s good for the goose is good for the gander”

Newt’s goose is cooked. The poster was making excuses for Newt because “he didn’t campaign” - no excuses were being made for Santorum in that regard, therefore the precedent in the groundbreaking case of Goose v. Gander does not apply.

[GeronL]

I can consider an entitlement any time the government is said to “owe” people or organizations and can’t be undone. Everything from government bureaucratic positions, NPR/Pbs funding, corporate welfare, agricultural subsidies (redundant in most cases with corporate welfare), all funding of NGO’s, welfare and anyone who gets a check from Uncle Sam that didn’t involve doing any work in that pay period. (BTW, Medicare, Medicaid and SS are entitlements when you have gotten more out than you paid in).

At the point you want others to pay for your stuff, its an entitlement (heck most government JOBS could be called entitlements under my definition, lol)

[kaki]

I have one question for you, Would you vote for either Mitt or Rick, if they were the nominee?? Or would you not vote and give Obama a vote??

[muawiyah]

Hmm ~ your check is no longer in the mail.

[esarlls3]

I think its better if they both stay in.

I agree. If either drops out some of their support will go to Romney. The only hope for an other-than-Romney result is for Gingrich & Santorum to start winning winner-take-all states. Otherwise they will keep falling farther behind. If Gingrich+Santorum > Romney+Paul, then they can make a deal. Otherwise, I think it's Romney's game.

[LibsRJerks]

Where will the family value voters go if Rick exits???

**

If this is a serious question, I find it hard to believe.

It’s not like Newt is some sort of devil worshiper! The man is now happily married and attends church. He is a sinner. So are those family values folks. No one is above anyone in the SIN department. Real, honest, living the life Christians know all about it. Real and honest people stumble, fall, and then seek repentance.

Newt is not FOR anything that values voters would be against. He’s pro-life, pro-marriage, and pro-family. He wants a strong America which will enable families and religious institutions to survive. One of his main planks is to stop the persecution of Judeo-Christian heritage and values.

What else do people want? Newt is real, flawed, and brilliant. Would MUCH rather have such a person in the WH, as he understands hard times and might just have a bit of humility built into HIS character!!

[muawiyah]

In reality, with no Conservative candidates in the race, Romney was beaten down to getting 1/10 the number of votes he should have been able to expect in a normal process.

Sure, he gets the delegates, but who wants to be a Romney delegate after such a debacle.

Virginia's primary proved conclusively that Mitt's support is remarkably thin, and not enough to get out the vote in a real election.

Money isn't all you need to run. You need peeps and he hasn't got any.

[red flanker]

Seriously? How’d Newt do in those states?

Newt had to encounter what establishment Rick never did: a week of false smears from the likes of Eliott Abrams and other GOP-E insiders. Those smears were carried throughout the media and in effect, a free multi-million dollar negative ad campaign. Even with those hurricane forces against him, Newt finished second in Florida and turnout in counties he won were up sharply as in South Carolina.

Newt arrived in Nevada days after Rick and Ron Paul and was expected to lose both to Mitt and Ron. Instead Newt finished second in Nevada, but the press played up Mitt winning (with a 90% Mormon vote) instead of Newt overtaking Ron Paul and beating expectations. Nevada was a case where Ron and Rick spent more time than Newt and came in third and fourth respectively.

[RitaOK]

” Newt can’t beat Romney one on one- neither can Rick. Romney has too much money and institutional power. “ ——

Vin, I’m glad you lay the truth out there. It is a fact.

I have known this also for weeks, but clung to hope, which led to prayer, and that somehow this cycle was so very different that the truly daunting events and the present facts could be reversed, that Republican voters would wake up and see the machine fix in place.

What is left is to pray that ALL three candidates can mess with Romney long enough to GET US TO CONVENTION, so that we will have earned a hearing of our complaints there, a seat at the table, and be in a position to offer up the delegate war as our bono fidis!

THE DELEGATES, OF ALL THREE, ARE OUR FINAL AND ONLY WEAPON
TO HAVE A VOICE OF OPPOSITION TO THE RINOS OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY.

Alone, none of these candidates against Romney have a prayer, and We The People, the instance one drops out, are silenced and dismissed, left with nothing but theater.

The Establishment is in no real panic and that is quite telling, but for Barbara Bush, of course. But the Establishment knows exactly how this ends because we have failed to unite in time to overwhelm.

Santorum will NEVER be the nominee, one on one.
Newt will NEVER be the nominee, one on one, maybe period.
Ron Paul will certainly NEVER be the nominee by any math.

IMHO, Rick and Newt are unlikely to allign because Rick is so naieve, but as you said, to have a prayer they MUST together get radical and present a united front against Romney at all costs, for us to have a prayer to change the party apparatus, agenda and defeatism of RINO leadership.

I am certain Newt knows this and has tried with smoke signals to confer with Santorum, but Rick is small picture and mostly for Rick, and runs on just enough grandiosity and battle drama to blind him to any need for unity. This is not a sign of wisdom.

We can not be demoralized but instead must push for a united front, and in a serious rebellion against the Establishment, rather than push for one to get out.

Now, the truth is out there.

[Mariner]

"It will be 1968's Doppelganger. "

How cool would that be?

A million-armed-man march on Tampa, FLA.

Metaphorically, of course.

[VinL]

Excellent Rita, you’re quite a gifted writer.

[Mariner]

"The RNC is a disease with MYTH ROMNEY as its main symptom."

The RNC starts at your local precinct and county level. There's a committee in every county in the USA. When was the last time you were at one of the meetings and voted?

It's nearly a perfect direct democracy.

And don't give me that crap about being too busy...gotta work for a living...kids...etc. That's the same for darn near everyone else at the local VFW or County Auditorium.

Oh, they accept donations of both money and time at every stinkin' one of them.

When was the last time any of you showed up at the local meeting?

[exit82]

I have one question for you, Would you vote for either Mitt or Rick, if they were the nominee?? Or would you not vote and give Obama a vote??

Actually that is a minimum of two questions, perhaps three.

I will vote for the GOP nominee, whomever he or she is, on November 6th, because the prime directive is the removal of the Obama Administration, lock, stock and barrel. Period. End of story.

I have no use for those who say "I won't vote for so and so in the general", because the fate of the entire nation is at stake in a very real way on Nov. 6th.

Before the nominee is selected, I will fight for my candidate, which is Newt. After the candidate is selected, I will fight for them and AGAINST Obama, that is how critical this election is.

No one can afford to sit this one out.

Personally, after Nov. 6th, I would love to see a third party arise, like the Tea Party, for conservative values.

But if Obama is re-elected because a bunch of folks who should know better sit the election out, pouting, it will no longer matter--the second American Civil War will follow, as the Marxists in power will be unstoppable, and true patriots will have to respond in a way that has not been necessary since 1861.

[familyop]

"Where will the family value voters go if Rick exits???"

Excerpts from Santorum's voting record.

Voted for taxpayer funding of the National Endowment for the Arts.

Voted against a 10% cut in the budget for National Endowment for the Arts.

Voted for a Schumer amendment to make the debts of pro-life demonstrators not dischargeable in bankruptcy.

Voted for mandatory Federal child care funding

Voted for funding for the legal services corporation.

Voted to give welfare benefits to naturalized citizens without regard to to the earnings of their sponsors.

Voted to strike marriage penalty tax relief and instead provide fines on tobacco companies.

Voted against repealing the Clinton 4.3 cent gas tax increase.

Voted to allow welfare to a minor who had a child out of wedlock and who resided with an adult who was on welfare within the previous two years.

Voted to increase taxes by $9.4 billion to pay for a $9.4 billion increase in student loans.

Voted against food stamp reform

Voted against Medicaid reform

Voted against TANF reform

Voted to increase the Social Services Block Grant from $1 billion to $2 billion

Voted to use HUD funds for the Joslyn Art Museum (NE), the Stand Up for Animals project (RI) and the Seattle Art Museum’s Olympic Sculpture Project (WA)

Voted to increase spending on social programs by $7 billion

Voted to increase community development programs by $2 billion.

Voted to increase spending for the Department of Education by $3.1 billion.

[true believer forever]

oh, my gosh. This is so perfectly summarizing where everything is right now. I have just felt, in all my little contacts and universe, and prayers, that people are deepening at this moment, or trying to, and reaching to understand that we have to deal with reality, even if it hurts. And you are out there in the vanguard.

I want to send this around to my little “troops” tomorrow if that is okay because it is written so simply and so clearly, and I won’t or shouldn’t have to explain anything further. I will gladly credit you, if you tell me how I should name it. thank you for being brilliant at the moment we are all needing brilliance.

[SatinDoll]

That’s sort of the plan. Exit polls after the Ohio primary demonstrated a lot of moderates and liberal Democrats came out to vote for Romney.

I suspect that is what the RNC wants and has promoted Romney: to sway Democrats dissatisfied with BHO2.

[RitaOK]

Just saw Newt on GRETA, and I am pretty sure he said the same thing we are discussing. I would have to catch it on a rewind, but he is definitly convention bound for a purpose, and it includes hoping to short Romney on delegates.

The odds for change rise or fall with holding delegates from Romney.

The man invented how to score big. He knows.

Just hope we don’t fail to get the message.