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Good News and Bad News for Gingrich in Florida
The Atlantic ^ | January 30, 2012 | Ronald Brownstein

Posted on 01/30/2012 5:29:41 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet

PLANTATION, Fla. -- With polls showing Mitt Romney on track for a convincing victory in Tuesday's Republican primary in this state, the one silver lining for Newt Gingrich may be the acceleration of a sorting-out process that is driving more prominent conservatives toward the former House speaker as a parade of establishment GOP leaders rally around Romney.

The most powerful dynamic in Florida over the past week has been the Romney campaign's success at blunting the momentum from Gingrich's South Carolina win by seeding a gardenful of personal and political doubts about him. But the sheer ferocity (and success) of that assault, delivered in many cases by pillars of the GOP establishment like former presidential nominees John McCain and Bob Dole, has prompted leading conservative figures like Herman Cain, Sarah Palin, and talk show hosts Rush Limbaugh and Mark Levin to deepen their identification with Gingrich in response.

In that way, the Florida result could both re-establish Romney as the favorite to win the nomination -- and potentially strengthen Gingrich's ability to contest him as the calendar turns toward states with a more conservative Republican electorate than Florida. "It has become much more explicit that Romney is an establishment, status-quo-type candidate," said long-term conservative activist Jeffrey Bell, policy director at the American Principles Project. "Conservatives are being driven toward Gingrich's camp to keep the conversation going."

In the near-term, there's no question Florida appears ready to restore Romney as the race's clear front-runner....

(Excerpt) Read more at theatlantic.com ...


TOPICS: Campaign News; Parties; Polls; State and Local
KEYWORDS: cain; florida; gingrich; limbaugh; newt; palin; romney; talkradio
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Romney IS Obama.

There might be enough RINO’s and Democrats who do not like Obama to elect him to the Presidency, I don’t know.

What I do know is Romney will not get rid of Obamacare, he will continue with the Homosexual agenda, he will try to take our guns, and he will not help to stop Roe V. Wade.

He may stay in the White House a bit more than Obama and give the Air Force One crew a break, but we will still be sliding down the same hill we are sliding down now.


21 posted on 01/30/2012 6:16:27 PM PST by Venturer
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To: MestaMachine

Mesta...they’re going to go after Santorum since he’s claiming he’ll continue.....could be Santorums there to take some of the flack away from Newt for the states ahead? Meanwhile Paul still covering Romney’s butt.


22 posted on 01/30/2012 6:21:08 PM PST by caww
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To: onyx
Damn, Sarah Palin is on fire. Hannity is flipping clueless.
23 posted on 01/30/2012 6:21:21 PM PST by gov_bean_ counter (Yo Mitt - Money can't buy you love...)
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To: RobertClark

I wish I could give $100 or $1,000, but we barely pay our bills these days. And I made multiple six figures back during the Reagan and Bush 41 days!


24 posted on 01/30/2012 6:27:42 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet (You can't invade the US. There'd be a rifle behind every blade of grass.~Admiral Yamamoto)
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To: gov_bean_ counter

Hannity is a Romney Robot in the model of Reagan.

Pray for America


25 posted on 01/30/2012 6:28:54 PM PST by bray (More Batting Practice for the Bambino)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
We're in the same boat, my FRiend. I had to close an office in Houston this month and am down to one location. I'm hanging on by my bloody fingernails trying to avoid having to lay off all of my loyal employees. I need Newt to be elected or I know, with certainty, that I will be out of business before December.

Fight the good fight - it will turn around for all of us.

26 posted on 01/30/2012 6:36:25 PM PST by RobertClark ("Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed")
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

The fools are setting themselves up for a boomerang on the Big Mo for trying to make this look like a blowout. If Newt even loses by less than 5 points, it might as well be a loss for Romney.

Don’t take your eyes off the ball. Watch Romney and his campaign. They’re coming on with the heavy and the Mittens are coming off and showing knives. They’re rattled and they can’t hide it.


27 posted on 01/30/2012 6:39:05 PM PST by Free Vulcan (Election 2012 - America stands or falls. No more excuses. Get involved.)
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To: Mountain Mary
Thank you, we have already counted your vote.
 
Newt Gingrich  40.19%  (9,391 votes) 
 
Mitt Romney  31.91%  (7,457 votes) 
 
Rick Santorum  4.52%  (1,056 votes) 
 
Ron Paul  23.38%  (5,464 votes) 
 

28 posted on 01/30/2012 6:40:31 PM PST by Salvation ("With God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Anyone know who does the “Freep-a-poll” posts? This fox poll needs it’s own post.


29 posted on 01/30/2012 6:56:59 PM PST by Ladysforest
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To: Ladysforest

As of 9:53 p.m. CST:

No Spin Poll
Thank you for voting!

Newt Gingrich
40.14% (9,450 votes)

Mitt Romney
32.05% (7,546 votes)

Rick Santorum
4.53% (1,066 votes)

Ron Paul
23.28% (5,481 votes)

Total Votes: 23,543
Return To PollShare This
Create Your Own Poll


30 posted on 01/30/2012 8:08:47 PM PST by no dems (I'm more concerned with America's future than I am Newt's past.)
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To: Jane Long; All

It looks like Rick Santorum is not getting out. He’s gonna give us Romney like he gave us Specter over Toomey in the U.S. Senate. What we need to do is appeal to his supporters to support Newt. If we can reach half of them...NEWT WINS. Check out this Post:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2839927/posts


31 posted on 01/30/2012 8:22:38 PM PST by no dems (I'm more concerned with America's future than I am Newt's past.)
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To: Jane Long; All

It looks like Rick Santorum is not getting out. He’s gonna give us Romney like he gave us Specter over Toomey in the U.S. Senate. What we need to do is appeal to his supporters to support Newt. If we can reach half of them...NEWT WINS. Check out this Post:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2839927/posts


32 posted on 01/30/2012 8:22:38 PM PST by no dems (I'm more concerned with America's future than I am Newt's past.)
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To: no dems

@ 11:20 Rick S. is still at 4.53%.

He barely even tried in FL. What is his strategy anyway I wonder? Even RP has a somewhat respectable showing in this poll.

Well, LOL, RP usually does better in polls than in actual election votes I guess.


33 posted on 01/30/2012 8:37:22 PM PST by Ladysforest
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To: onyx

Good news and bad news from Maine.

The good news is that Mitt Romney might lose Maine. And that is one of his firewall states. The paulistas are challenging him for both the straw poll caucus results and the delegates. (Looks like ronPaul won all 5 of the caucuses thus far. The party is not announcing any results and I believe have sealed the ballots without counting them. Maybe.)

The bad news is that NEWT + Santorum < 10%. Maybe.

When caucus goers show up and see that it is a 2-man race between MR and RP, they are very likely to choose between those 2, the main contenders.


34 posted on 01/30/2012 8:43:45 PM PST by campaignPete R-CT (and I will go to southern Maine to campaign.)
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To: caww

Santorum has always been a vanity run. He’s not about to step aside.


35 posted on 01/30/2012 8:53:42 PM PST by onyx
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To: campaignPete R-CT

Newt Gingrich really needs help in Maine.
I guess he can’t be everywhere.
Romney has been running for 6 years.
He and the GOP can GTH together.


36 posted on 01/30/2012 8:55:51 PM PST by onyx
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To: onyx

I think the story of Maine is all about ronPaul. If you consider the amount of time and effort it would take to phone bank maine just to get another 5% for NEWT ... I can see why they are directing the phoning elsewhere.

Phone calls to an area where the candidate has little support produce very little return on the effort. I suspect an average caller might be able to identify one Newt per hour ... it is hard to ID supporters when you don’t have any. Better to call NV or CO.

Santorum’s team is in MN now.


37 posted on 01/30/2012 9:06:03 PM PST by campaignPete R-CT (and I will go to southern Maine to campaign.)
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To: onyx

I am thinking back to the only time Romney lost his cool at the media. It was when Stephanopoulos asked him that question about where he would stand if a state wanted to make birth control illegal. Remember that? And Mitt told him it was a silly question, because there were no states that were asking for that. Mitt won that round. And I wondered at the time where Stephanopoulos was going with that.

Now I think he was trying to get a quarrel going between Romney and Santorum, who is the only one who has come out against birth control, and Mitt was having none of it. Not because he’s against quarrels but because he wanted Santorum to stay in the race and not be made to look ridiculous in the debate. In order to prevent Newt from taking over Santorum’s supporters.

Too convoluted maybe, but it was the first time Mitt got mad during the debates. If it was just a silly question, he wouldn’t have lost his cool.


38 posted on 01/30/2012 9:16:22 PM PST by firebrand
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To: MestaMachine

Just ponder.... if Newt can’t win the nomination against Romney/Santorum/Paul, do you really think he can be Obama? And besides, polling shows Satorum’s vote would split 50/50 between Newt and Mitt, so it makes very little difference. Santorum will stay in and gather some delegates as bargaining tools. Paul will stay in because he truly believes in his cause, and he is having way too much fun !


39 posted on 01/30/2012 9:24:12 PM PST by gswilder
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To: firebrand

You know, you might be onto something there.


40 posted on 01/30/2012 10:33:59 PM PST by onyx
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