Posted on 01/22/2012 11:27:35 AM PST by Steelfish
What Gingrich's S.C. Romney-Stomping Means For FL's 'Battle Royale' Gingrich crushed once-mighty Mitt Romney in South Carolina’s first-in-the-South primary, in a victory that transformed Florida’s upcoming vote from a snoozer into a dogfight.
“This sets the stage for a battle royale in the Sunshine State,” said Nelson Warfield, a political consultant for former Rick Perry’s recently ended campaign who’s also a member of Florida Gov. Rick Scott’s inner political circle.
“Newt Gingrich changed the narrative of this race,” Warfield said. “Before South Carolina, Romney was the slow, inevitable candidate. And Florida was going to be his coronation. Now Romney has to fight.”
Romney has already been waging a low-key battle in Florida, spending about $2.5 million on TV ads and roughly $1 million on mail to target the early and absentee Republican voters who have already cast almost 200,000 ballots in Florida — about 10 percent of the expected vote Jan. 31.
Early-voting precincts opened statewide in Florida on Saturday as South Carolina voters went to the polls.
Out-raised, out-spent and out-organized, Gingrich has done relatively little. But his win will reverberate throughout the nation, and especially Florida, where voters are like voters everywhere — they like a winner.
Gingrich won big time in South Carolina, gaining 41 percent of the vote to Romney's 27 percent. Rick Santorum won 17 percent and Ron Paul 13 percent.
In his victory speech, Gingrich lauded his opponents and condemned President Barack Obama, the news media and the “elites” in New York and Washington.
(snip)
Romney and his campaign started tearing into Gingrich for his ethics problems when he was House Speaker and for his role in advising Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The attack on Gingrich’s consulting for the lenders could be particularly potent in Florida, ground-zero of the mortgage and housing meltdown.
(Excerpt) Read more at miamiherald.typepad.com ...
Florida is a winner-take-all state and is a must win for Gingrich before NV, Utah, and Michigan that are all likely to go to Romney. A close second gets you zero delegates.
We all know that Freddie Mac is a “model organization”, all companies and agencies should be more like Freddie Mac right?
lol.
/sarcasm
Steelfish,
I am not so sure with yesterday’s drubbing of Romney in SC that the next several states (even Michigan) are safe for him. The situation is fluid to put it mildly. Gingrich is on the upswing in a major way. The surge in SC was beyond spectacular; it was an amazing thing in retrospect.
Don’t discount the idea that American’s are looking for a winner and would rather go with a Gingrich than a smooth talking non-personality in Mitt Romney. So. Carolinians overlooked Newt’s personal foibles to say they wanted strong and articulate leadership.
America is looking for a FORCEFUL leader and there is only one that I can think of that has proven his ability to organize and lead forcefully. I forked-over $50 this afternoon to his campaign and the campaign’s name didn’t begin with the name Mitt or end with Romney.
3 out of 4 GOP voters rejected Romney
again
At least he has a consistent track record over 6 years of running for president. About 25% of the people in his own party think enough of him to vote for him. That’s gonna beat obama?
He is a weak man. He can’t proudly defend his own work and wealth accumulation from the snipes of the predatory marxists, so how is he gonna defend mine?
No personality, no core values (aside from his church beliefs) no trials by fire in his privilged life.
Hurray, we have our very own GOP version of the Algor candidate. meh. Pass the magic underwear to Newt or Rick.
I am tired of the idiots who seem to confuse "lobbying" with consulting and use their ignorance to attack Newt.
Mostly I don't want to see the Newt-bashers turn this into something like Romney's tax return debacle, an unforced error of Romney's imo, which he could have defused long ago.
Florida is a winner-take-all state and is a must win for Gingrich before NV, Utah, and Michigan that are all likely to go to Romney. A close second gets you zero delegates.
The problem I see for Newt in Florida it is a state that has that stupid early voting. So if they voted before the SC Trouncing of Mitt and the Florida debates they could have voted for Mitt. Which I hope they didn’t. Newt could win this state and the whole south. Newt is a great candidate cause he doesn’t take any guff off of the elites in the party and the MSM...
Tallyhoe,
I looked at the FL Sec of State’s site earlier and it says that early voting begins 10 days prior to the actual election date. That would mean that early voting would start on the 22nd? Today? Absentees would be included in this 10 day window. Maybe one of our FL freepers can clarify. And if that IS the case then absentees for Romney wouldn’t be as much a problem as feared based on the Gingrich rout in SC.
“Never give in. Never give in. Never, never, never, never—in nothing, great or small, large or petty—never give in. Never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.”
Winston Churchill
Is Florida’s primary a CLOSED primary, and only Pubbies can vote?
Newt gave an open explanation of his F/F involvement today on CBS.
Yep.
I was not a lobbyist, I was never a lobbyist, I never did any lobbying. Don't try to mix these things up. The fact is I was an adviser strategically and if you look at the only thing ever published by Freddie Mac I said, "You need more regulations." If you look at the only article ever written about my talking to the Congress it was in The New York Times in July of 2008 and I said, "Do not give them any money." Now I opposed giving money to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. I think they both should be broken up into four or five much smaller companies. And I've long felt that. And so I think that to jump from one to the other is simply wrong.
Yup, americans are looking for a pit bull not a chiwawa. And that is how I describe it to anyone who tells me Romney is more electable. He is not, and by far.....
Newt personally only made $35,000 from Freddie/Fannie consulting. He has repeatedly stated that his business contract explicitly states he cannot lobby and both he and the client have to sign the contract. I hope he gets the chance to explain this again at one of the Fl debates.
No, we only started early voting after that date. And probably most of the people who voted early voted for Ron Paul anyway.
Everything is okay. Floridians started after the date (absentees can send their ballots earlier, but don’t get counted until the start of early voting, which is today). Early voting really is not a bad thing and I often do it because I usually work the polls on election day.
Thx livius.
No, we only started early voting after that date. And probably most of the people who voted early voted for Ron Paul anyway.
All Righty then!!
All Righty Then! Newt will have a chance to win i Florida. If he wins there it is over for the Mittman!
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