Free Republic

Newt Gingrich better hope voters who lapped up his delicious hits on the “elite media” and liberals don’t read the Drudge Report this morning. Or the National Review. Or the American Spectator. Or Ann Coulter. If they do, Gingrich comes off looking like a dangerous, anti-Reagan, Clintonian fraud. It’s as if the conservative media over the past 24 hours decided Gingrich is for real, and they need to come clean about the man they really know before it’s too late.

COLUMBIA, S.C. — A new surrogate for Mitt Romney warned Saturday night that if Newt Gingrich is the nominee he could give Democrats united control of Congress. Henry Barbour, a top Rick Perry fundraiser who endorsed Mitt Romney after the Texas governor dropped out, said Gingrich could not beat President Obama and would cost Republicans many House and Senate seats. Barbour told The Hill that endorsing Romney and coming to his South Carolina rally was a "very easy decision" because of Gingrich, who he said would turn the presidential race from a referendum on Obama into "the adventures of Newt...

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Don't be conned into nominating Mitt Romney.

Mitt Romney edged Rick Santorum by a mere 8 votes in Tuesday's caucuses - a margin that amounted to a tie in the crucial opening act in the 2012 presidential race and propelled the newly reshaped contest to New Hampshire and beyond... The final count, as reported by Iowa GOP chairman Matt Strawn showed Romney winning 30,015 votes to Santorum's 30,007 votes, or 24.6 percent to 24.5 percent. Paul finished with 21.4 percent.

Dear Iowa Caucus participants, You have been told for the better part of year now who it is that you must choose. Beltway insiders have insisted upon thrusting establishment candidates upon you. Libertarian anarchists have swopped into your state shouting that you must support Ron Paul, while toking on the marijuana they soon believe President Paul will make legal. You've been openly mocked by Governor John Huntsman from Utah--who ironically seeks your support. Ann Coulter has defied every conservative principal she's ever espoused by trying to brainwash you into thinking that Mitt Romney is the best that you have to...

And they're pulling out all the stops to prevent it... Even in the wake of a really unprecedented series of attacks on Newt Gingrich from Team Mittens, the GOP Beltway suits, and allied media types, the Georgia doughboy stands up a couple points nationally... while the upcoming primary slate still seems to heavily favor a Gingrich nomination. You scoff? OK, assume worse-case for Newt in Iowa (although one fresh poll still has him right at the top, with many undecideds expected to break back Gingrich's way).  Then -say- Newt scores a second or third in NH... he won't be doing any...

Less than two weeks before Iowa Republicans make their crucial caucus choices on the night of Jan. 3, George H.W. Bush offered words of support, if not an official endorsement, to an old friend, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, according to a story today in the Houston Chronicle. “I think Romney is the best choice for us,” former President Bush told the newspaper. “I like Perry, but he doesn’t seem to be going anywhere; he’s not surging forward.” The former president’s choice is a blow to native son Rick Perry, the Texas governor who has had a long-standing feud with...

I had a friend once who amused herself thinking up bumper stickers for states. The one she made up for California was brilliant. "California: It's All True." It is so vast and sprawling a place, so rich and various, that whatever you've heard about its wildness, weirdness and wonders, it's true. That's the problem with Newt Gingrich: It's all true. It's part of the reason so many of those who know him are anxious about the thought of his becoming president. It's also why people are looking at him, thinking about him, considering him as president. Ethically dubious? True. Intelligent...

Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) said Sunday that he cannot support GOP presidential frontrunner Newt Gingrich because the former House speaker lacks leadership skills. “I am not inclined to be a supporter of Newt Gingrich’s having served under him for four years and experienced his leadership. Because I found it lacking often times,” Coburn said on Fox News Sunday. The Oklahoma senator served in the House of Representatives from 1995 to 2001. “There’s all kind of leaders, leaders that instill confidence and leaders that are somewhat abrupt, leaders that have one standard for the people that they are leading and a...

On Friday, I suggested that Republicans “could pull a name out of a hat and find a more consistent and personally stable conservative” than Newt Gingrich. Many smart conservatives seem to agree. (VictorDavisHanson points out that with Gingrich as the nominee the GOP would forfeit the “crony capitalism” issue; No one has been a bigger crony than he.) The latest and perhaps brightest warning flare to the right is sent up by GeorgeWill. There are too many delicious lines in his column from which to choose a favorite. (e.g.,“There is almost artistic vulgarity in Gingrich’s unrepented role as a hired...

For Mitt Romney this is like the good old days at Bain Capital, except this time his takeover involves not another company but the Republican Party. In fact, Romney is seeking a hostile takeover of the conservative movement, methodically moving to take over Michele Bachmann, Herman Cain, Rick Perry, Ron Paul, Rick Santorum and finally Newt Gingrich. Conservatives might remember what Romney did after he took over companies. You did not want to be a worker in a firm Romney took over. He liked layoffs. I now expect Romney to move fast to the right for a few weeks while...

Mitt Romney doesn’t generate enthusiasm from the conservative base, according to one GOP insider, but he’ll still take the upcoming Iowa caucus. The big winner, though, is Fox News. “It’s gonna be Romney, and the party is miserable,” observed a Republican agent just back from the presidential contest in Iowa. “One day Bachmann, the next day Perry, then another day Cain, now Newt. The flavor of the day will pass. Why do many Fox contributors become candidates? It gets you in the debates and polls. But it doesn’t stick. Iowa is about paying an organization to show up. They are...

Is there anyone sane left in the GOP establishment? Does plain old common sense and gut instinct no longer matter to those who purport to speak for the party? Have conservative principles and traditional values become nothing more than meaningless rhetoric to those so desperate to hang on to imagined power? As the Republican establishment lines up like lemmings behind Mitt Romney, it would be illuminating and in fact critical to look at the news for just the last couple of days with regard to this untethered and pliable candidate. A good place to start would be Romney refusing to...

As a guest on Glamour magazine's recent panel for 20-somethings at Barnard College, Meghan McCain said, “I think the idea of a Romney president, as much as it will probably piss off everyone in this room, is a lot more feasible than you think with Obama’s numbers right now. But the thing about politics is it’s not over till it’s over, but I don’t think Michele Bachmann is going to be the nominee.”

Ann Coulter + Laura Ingraham = two Ivy League BA holding women w/ law school degrees who at some point in their life, likely dreamt of holding high political office (Coulter almost ran for Congress in Connecticut!)--but neither had the courage to challenge the old boy establishments of which they hail from, so they instead "followed the rules of the system" (as ivy leaguers are trained to do) and settled for the sole outlets by which feminist-minded women (the conformist breed of feminist) can gain the kind of stature they were desiring: This meant settling for something "easier" and less...

Texas Gov. Rick Perry may be surging in polls of Republican primary voters, but his party's Insiders aren't convinced he'd be the best general election candidate. More than two-thirds of Republican Insiders say Mitt Romney has a better chance than Perry of defeating President Obama in 2012, according to this week's National Journal Political Insiders Poll.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry may be surging in polls of Republican primary voters, but his party's Insiders aren't convinced he'd be the best general election candidate. More than two-thirds of Republican Insiders say Mitt Romney has a better chance than Perry of defeating President Obama in 2012, according to this week's National Journal Political Insiders Poll. Many Republican Insiders acknowledged Perry's appeal to conservatives but questioned his ability to win over independent voters. "Perry can fire up the base, but this election will be won in the middle, not on the fringes," said one. Said another, "Having trouble ID-ing a...

A large group of 2008 Barack Obama supporters are now banking on Mitt Romney for the upcoming presidential election. That’s according to a report from Fox News that says a shift in Wall Street support could mean as much as a $150,000 boost for Romney’s campaign. “I think Romney could at least split Wall Street with Obama, which is something McCain really didn’t do,” said Charlie Gasparino, a reporter for Fox Business News. None of the expected bank presidents showed up to a recent fundraiser for President Obama, he added.

Rick Perry who just announced his candidacy received more votes than Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich. How much longer can Palin just drive around the country not doing much of anything and still expect to run for POTUS? A potential candidate without the organization to even manage 100 write in votes looks really really bad.