Free Republic

No Newt, no thanks. He's fun to listen to in a debate, but he doesn't belong on the ballot or in the Oval Office. Because a brilliant bad man is still a bad man, and Newt Gingrich is a bad man. He is not good for the Republican Party, and he is not good for the United States. And his popularity in the polls is both troublesome and inexplicable. A big-government career politician, an only sporadic conservative, he has somehow caught the attention and affection of just enough Republicans to be the top contender for the party's presidential nomination. That...

Dean Borg: After serving 20 years in the U.S. House of Representatives, Newt Gingrich resigned in 1998 but during that time, the 1994 election to be exact, engineering republicans gaining 54 seats ending 40 years of democratic control of the House. Now he is asking republicans to nominate him as the party's candidate to run against President Obama. Speaker Gingrich, welcome back to Iowa Press. Newt Gingrich: Good to be here, good to be with you. Borg: And across the table Associated Press Senior Political Writer Mike Glover and Radio Iowa News Director Kay Henderson. Glover: Mr. Speaker, most polls...

The best sparring partner is a madman who goes all out. —Bruce Lee Every presidential election is a heavyweight fight. It is big, bloody and long. An incumbent president is always favored to win. No matter what the numbers say, running against a sitting president, you generally are overmatched from day one. See the Kerry and Dole campaigns. Now comes Mitt Romney. Is he a contender? That eternal 25% ceiling on him says no, not yet. For months, Mitt has been The Front-Runner, whatever the polls said. It's hard to say that after last Saturday's GOP debate. About a third...

Despite the country's recent troubles, Newt Gingrich thinks that America's role as "the leading symbol of how humans can work together" isn't going anywhere.

Go Newt. He Filets the MSNBC Reporter on Sarah's behalf. Newt needs to WIN and then select Sarah Palin as his VP !!!

Gingrich has been a ubiquitous analyst on the war — ubiquity being one of the tireless, outsized former House speaker’s favorite qualities. In between appearances in his role as a commentator for the Fox News Channel, Gingrich announced on Meet the Press that we are in the midst of World War III. A few days later, Hezbollah declared that it welcomed World War III, nicely capturing the moment: Simultaneous with its shooting war with Israel, Hezbollah is in a war of words with Newt Gingrich. The old conventional wisdom about Gingrich was that we wouldn’t have him to kick around...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Well, here it is Thursday, ladies and gentlemen, and another Republican debate tonight. The establishment Republicans are dumping all over Newt Gingrich all over the place. National Review posted an editorial, Mr. Buckley's magazine, it used to be conservative, and they had an editorial last night. They didn't really recommend anybody, they just said not Newt. No way Newt. No way Newt. (interruption) They didn't say. They implied Romney, of course. And then they kinda ruled out Perry, doesn't have a chance, Santorum and Bachmann, maybe get a second look. But it was just anti-Newt. Now, you've...

It has been a terrible week for Newt, a very good week for Mitt, and a week of surprising momentum for the two Ricks. The Washington Examiner, the center-right alternative to the Washington Post and Politico which is staffed by the best of center-right journalists and pundits, endorsed Mitt Romney. About Newt the editors said "[H]e is like an exploding cigar, waiting to be lit." The National Review narrowed the field to Romney, Santorum or Huntsman. (Santorum's "moneybomb" had a good first day for the "little engine that could" among the campaigns.") About Newt, the NR editors opined: "We fear...

One wonders what Ron Paul thinks MSNBC will do to him in a general election against Obama. Sure, Gingrich may have attacked Paul Ryan's plan to reform entitlements. But even Newt apologized afterwards. However, Ron Paul actually voted against the Paul Ryan plan as a member of Congress. Deeming such entitlements to be unconstitutional, Ron Paul seems to lack the common sense needed to understand that Ryan-like reform is needed. Regardless of what one thinks of social security, these programs passed in a House and Senate. They were signed into law by a President. They were further upheld by the...

Newt Gingrich’s campaign released a list of 55 supporters in Iowa today, but the announcement is filled with errors and inaccuracies. Along with several misspellings, the campaign claims State Senator David Johnson from Osceola County is one of 14 elected officials who endorsed Gingrich. “That’s not correct,” Johnson tells TheIowaRepublican.com. “I have not endorsed Speaker Gingrich. I think there is confusion on that campaign.” The Gingrich campaign press release also misspelled Osceola County as “Osceloa County”. Johnson says the Gingrich campaign reached out to him, but he made it clear his allegiance lies with Texas governor Rick Perry. “It’s interesting...

Not an Endorsement but a Good Case for Newt Also, some thinking about the social security "entitlement" and other political froufrou The Case for Newt It happened in Delaware, it's full of intriguing politics. Might be interesting only to Sussex Countians from Delaware but I think it's a heckuva story. The Sheriff, The County Councilman, , The Attack, and Finally Some Logical Conclusions From the Swamps of Delaware

The Gallup trendlines don’t lie. That’s Newt in brown and Romney in black:Those are national numbers, not the numbers in all-important Iowa, but sneak a peek at the latest polls there in Pollster.com’s table. From the end of November through the first week of this month, Newt was above 30 percent in three separate surveys; in the three latest polls, he’s stuck between 20 and 22 percent, making the race a toss-up between him, Romney, and Ron Paul. If Perry gets a second look over the next two weeks, which seems increasingly likely, and some Iowans come home to the...

This is really not a place I thought I'd be at. Up until very recently I didn't even think there was a Republican that could be nominated that would keep me home on election day or vote for a 3rd party. I think I have found that candidate and it is Mitt Romney. There are two main reasons for this, the first being that I really have no idea what he actually stands for. I don't think anybody does. And I think that chances are high that he doesn't really stand for much that is different than Obama's current policies....

Ipsos' latest poll carried out on behalf of Thomson Reuters shows a rally for Newt Gingrich among Republicans… but this popularity doesn’t translate into political strength when it comes to the national Presidential race, where Romney fares much better against Obama than Gingrich does. Key findings include: Newt’s back! Since our last head-to-head matchup (October 2011) for the Republican primary, Newt Gingrich has rallied significant support and now leads at 28% among Republicans, 10 points ahead of Romney (18%) Among both Republicans and Independents together (as you know, in some states Independents can vote in the Republican Primaries), Gingrich is...

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich of Georgia is leading former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney in the Republican presidential race by 20 points—41 percent to 21 percent--among self-professed conservatives, according to a new Gallup poll released Thursday. By contrast, Romney is leading Gingrich by 10 points—27 percent to 17 percent—among self-professed liberals and moderates in the poll. The poll, conducted Dec. 5-11, surveyed 1,665 Republicans and Republican-leaning independents who are registered voters. Among all poll respondents, Gingrich led Romney 33 percent to 23 percent, with Rep. Ron Paul of Texas at 9 percent, Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota at 6 percent,...

It’s official: it is no longer acceptable to call the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the fourth largest religious institution in the United States, a church with 7 million members in the US and 14 million members around the world, a “cult.” That’s the message Newt Gingrich sent when he fired his newly-hired Iowa political director Craig Bergman after it was revealed that Bergman had proposed a national crusade against the “cult of Mormon” in an Iowa focus group last week. Last Wednesday,The Iowa Republican reported on the focus group it organized: “There is a national pastor who...

FORT DODGE, IA — Ahead of the last debate before the Iowa caucuses — and an expected barrage of attacks from his rivals on stage — Newt Gingrich said Iowa voters shouldn’t expect him to engage. “They can see the difference between someone trying to help the country and someone running a negative campaign,” Gingrich told a packed room at a meet-and-greet here Thursday. Gingrich pushed that line in his second television advertisement released Thursday morning, saying to the camera, “we want solutions — others seem to be more focused on attacks.” Speaking to Iowa Public Television in the morning,...

If former House Speaker Newt Gingrich manages to win the Republican presidential nomination, he could jeopardize his party’s chances of ousting President Obama next November, according to several new national polls released this week. Surveys from the NBC News and the Wall Street Journal, AP/GfK and Reuters/Ipsos all show former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney running better than Gingrich in general election matchups against Obama. “Electability will come into play for many Republican votes,” said one neutral GOP consultant who preferred to speak anonymously. “It’s going to become problematic. I think you’re starting to signs of it.” The NBC/WSJ and AP/GfK...

Casino magnate Sheldon Adelson is planning to direct $20 million to an outside group backing Newt Gingrich’s presidential campaign, multiple sources told POLITICO – the first answer to urgent pleas from allies to the former speaker’s long-time billionaire supporters. After leaving Congress, Gingrich cultivated a network of a few dozen uber-wealthy backers who poured tens of millions of dollars into a network of groups that helped him maintain a foothold in politics. Now, operatives supporting his presidential campaign are asking those same donors to write fat checks to a suite of new super PACs they hope can spend big on...

Casino magnate Sheldon Adelson is planning to direct $20 million to an outside group backing Newt Gingrich’s presidential campaign, multiple sources told POLITICO – the first answer to urgent pleas from allies to the former speaker’s long-time billionaire supporters. After leaving Congress, Gingrich cultivated a network of a few dozen uber-wealthy backers who poured tens of millions of dollars into a network of groups that helped him maintain a foothold in politics. Now, operatives supporting his presidential campaign are asking those same donors to write fat checks to a suite of new super PACs they hope can spend big on...