I don’t agree. The chronology involved is wrong. The anti-capitalist events happened after all the attack ads against Newt in Iowa and before the South Carolina primary. If Newt was going to be hurt by that, it would have been in South Carolina. But he won that primary. So I don’t think that statement from Rush had anything to do with Newt’s problems.
After losing South Carolina, Romney killed Newt in Florida. He spent 17 million dollars in ads lying about Newt day and night. Those lies, plus people’s memory of Newt’s past behavior, have caused his problems. Newt talking about humanely helping illegals also did not help here in our state.
So I don’t believe you can blame Newt’s problems on Rush. Can Newt come back? I hope so. I hope both he and Santorum can take votes away from Romney. I hope they both can come to an agreement on a strategy that can defeat Romney.
The anti-capitalist stuff started right around the time of SC and just afterwards. It was too soon to affect SC.
I live in Florida, and this theme was broadcast day and night, quoting Rush and also appearing in national papers, such as the Romney-supporting Wall Street Journal. And they all cited Rush. It was a stupid off-the-top-of-his-head remark, and Rush did back down and say several days later that maybe it was an overstatement and not quite accurate, but the damage was done.
I think Rush’s performance as a whole has declined since his latest wife (#4, I believe). Maybe it’s not fair to blame her, since I don’t know a thing about her. But I have noticed a definite difference in the last few years. He has become more careless in what he says, more of a shock-jock, and also much more sloppy in his research. Maybe this will be good for Rush, just the way the drug thing was, and will be a wake-up call that will make him focus again.