Gingrich: Ryan endorsement 'a great achievement' for Romney ("I think he will probably get 1,144" )

TheHill ^ | 3-30-12 | Strauss

[VinL]

Newt Gingrich called House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan's (R-Wis.) endorsement of Mitt Romney a big win for the former Massachusetts governor.

"It's a great achievement for Mitt Romney," Gingrich said Friday on Charlie Sykes's radio show. "Paul Ryan is one of the rising stars in the Republican Party."

Gingrich said both the endorsement from Ryan and from Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) earlier in the week were big gets for Romney. Absent from the entire interview was any criticism by Gingrich toward Romney or Rick Santorum, both of whom have maintained much stronger leads over the former House Speaker in recent polls.

The lack of any criticism is part of Gingrich's revamped campaign strategy: a spokesman for Gingrich recently announced that he would refrain from criticizing his primary opponents and instead focus on making it to the Republican National Convention.

Additionally, Gingrich said in the interview that although Romney isn't the inevitable 2012 Republican presidential nominee, if he does get the 1,144 delegates needed to clinch the nomination, he and the rest of the Republican presidential field would rally around Romney.

"I have no doubt that once he gets 1,144 delegates we will all unify and support him," Gingrich added. "I think Mitt Romney is clearly the frontrunner. I think he will probably get 1,144 but I think he has to earn it."

Gingrich's comments came a few days after he and Romney had a private meeting ahead of the Louisiana primary on Saturday...Gingrich said he had also recently met with Santorum and that all three candidates "talk regularly" about defeating President Obama.

[PSYCHO-FREEP]

So, gathering from what you wrote, if we don’t vote for Saint Rick, we are all going to burn in Hell and GOD will smite the crap out of all us evil Heathen non believers.

OK,...........Isn’t that special!

[SupplySider]

I think Romney has made a calculation to avoid the fight "tax cuts for the rich". He may see himself, a rich man, as vulnerable on the issue.

I'd rather see him go over the heads of the media and make a principled case for Reaganomics. But that is a matter of tactics.

Romney is in favor of cutting taxes, cutting spending, and cutting regulations. I think he genuinely supports the Ryan plan, a free market solution to the entitlement mess.

Newt is more conversant with these issues, but he has a negative image. Many conservatives like him, but they're voting Republican in any case. Santorum's focus on social issues is, I think, also a deal breaker for too many independents, women, and youth. He's also too negative. Romney is genial, and he can win.

When it comes to past hypocrisy on issues, well, Romney survived in left-wing Mass., and Newt and Santorum have even worse outrages to explain, in my estimation.

I don't think he has anything in common with the criminal reprobate Democrat Corzine, or stock picker extraordinaire economic ignoramus Buffet. He's not blue collar. He's rich. I have no problem with that. And I respect private capital firms.