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Why a Newt Gingrich Candidacy Would Doom the Tea Party
The Altantic ^ | 120611 | Conor Friedersdorf

Posted on 12/06/2011 7:35:10 PM PST by Fred

Gallup finds that 82 percent of Tea Party affiliated voters deem Newt Gingrich an acceptable Republican presidential nominee in 2012. They don't seem to realize that if he wins the nod their movement is doomed, regardless of how the general election goes. The Tea Party cannot support Gingrich without betraying its core principles. But the movement also cannot disclaim him once he is the Republican nominee.

Tea Partiers with a better instinct for self-preservation would see that none of the Mitt Romney alternatives still running would be as corrosive to their cause as the former Speaker of the House.

Why?

The Tea Party wasn't just a reaction to President Obama or the financial industry bailouts. As Jonah Goldberg puts it, "a major motivating passion of the tea-party movement was a long-delayed backlash against George W. Bush and his big-government conservatism." Support for the War on Terrorism and the invasion of Iraq caused many conservatives to stay loyal to Bush. But that didn't mean they liked No Child Left Behind, Medicare Part D, the attempt at a guest worker program, TARP, or the Harriet Miers nomination. Especially after the defeat of John McCain, many on the right insisted they'd never again support Bush-Rove conservatism.

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


TOPICS: Editorial; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: 0bamavsgingrich; 0romneypost; 0stealthmitt; biggovt; corporatewelfare; eyeofnewt; gingrich; influencepeddler; lobbyist; mandates; newtgingrich; teaparty
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To: GlockThe Vote

Agreed. Also, I think what Newt lacks can be somewhat tempered by a good VP, preferably with executive experience (Bob McDonnell of VA comes to mind), and a conservative GOP majority in both the House and the Senate.


61 posted on 12/06/2011 8:13:01 PM PST by RockinRight (If you're waiting to drink until you find pure water, you're going to die of dehydration.)
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To: doc1019

“A woman having an abortion doesn’t just make her unpregnant, it also makes her the proud mother of a dead baby”

At least vote for a pro life president


62 posted on 12/06/2011 8:15:53 PM PST by make no mistake
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To: heiss

You’re really quite a liar.

Gingrich doesn’t not support obamacare or the unconstitutional mandate.


63 posted on 12/06/2011 8:16:06 PM PST by onyx (PLEASE SUPPORT FREE REPUBLIC:DONATE MONTHLY! Sarah's New Ping List - tell me if you want on it.)
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To: TitansAFC

Ron Paul comes across like your crotchety old man lecturing you on some obscure aspect of the New Deal. In a debate Obama will make Paul look like a bumbling senior citizen on steroids..... as he has already looked like in the GOP debates.


64 posted on 12/06/2011 8:16:11 PM PST by caww
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To: BillyBonebrake

Hey Shallow Billy, just keep taken notes for, about, the next 12 Months.


65 posted on 12/06/2011 8:16:11 PM PST by deweyfrank
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To: heiss

“Seriously, we have actual conservatives running.”

Any that have a rat’s chance at WINNING???


66 posted on 12/06/2011 8:18:21 PM PST by tcrlaf (Election 2012: THE RAPTURE OF THE DEMOCRATS)
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To: grey_whiskers
It's odd, but this election cycle is bringing up more and more FReepers with signupdates which date from pre-2000 to early 2002 (a couple years at least before my signup) -- who, despite everything else, I *never* recall having seen before.

You're not the only one who's noticed that.

67 posted on 12/06/2011 8:19:05 PM PST by Carry_Okie (The RNC would prefer Obama to a conservative nominee.)
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To: onyx

Gets tiring seeing people outright lie. ...that’s what the media does and we have to sift thru their crap to get to the truth. It makes FR unreliable as the good source of information it is known for....which when I was a lurker for some time, was an attraction.


68 posted on 12/06/2011 8:20:11 PM PST by caww
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To: Steelfish

“Newt wins the Republican nomination, and we have an Obama landslide victory. Newt has more baggage”
______________________________________

I know that is what Savage says.
As for myself, I dunno.
I just know that we are in one Hell of a mess,
and I have no clue as to who will save the USA.

The good people have all gone home.


69 posted on 12/06/2011 8:20:44 PM PST by AlexW
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To: caww
However, he reluctantly supported a scaled-down plan AFTER Paulson told the country that the world financial system was going to collapse without this emergency support......and so did many others who intitially would not support it.

They were all wrong, just like Newt. Funny, Michele Bachmann wasn't sucked in by Paulsons BS, she opposed TARP from the start. Of course, she must have been wrong because everyone knows Newt is the smartest one in the room...

70 posted on 12/06/2011 8:20:44 PM PST by Prokopton
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To: Fred

Yes, of course, and the navel-gazing, nonsense blathering flaming liberal publication known as the Atlantic really, really knows.


71 posted on 12/06/2011 8:21:18 PM PST by Attention Surplus Disorder (Madoff screwed the rich. Bernanke screwed us all.)
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To: onyx

He openly supported federal individual mandate and specifically said it is constitutional. On every tv talk show.

Anyway, amnesty is the mortal threat to this country. Newt is pushing it openly already. Just wait when he gets to WH. We must stop amnesty, now that we still can.


72 posted on 12/06/2011 8:21:47 PM PST by heiss (heartless and inhumane (radical rightwinger))
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To: make no mistake

Gee, thanks for quoting me. LOL! And If I choose to vote, it will be for a pro-life candidate.


73 posted on 12/06/2011 8:22:11 PM PST by doc1019 (Romney will never get my vote)
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To: muawiyah

“Sure wouldn’t check the Atlantic to know what I ought to think about Republican politicians.”

Articles like this I have been seeing for the last couple of days confirms something for me.

The left and the Obama Journo-list media are TERRIFIED of having to run against Gingrich. They have NOTHING to run on, other than hate, and Gingrich can communicate his ideas, wether or not we like all of them.

And he keeps repeating something over and over that I really wish some here would get.

For all the big ideas anyone has, you can only do what is POLITICALLY POSSIBLE.


74 posted on 12/06/2011 8:24:38 PM PST by tcrlaf (Election 2012: THE RAPTURE OF THE DEMOCRATS)
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To: TitansAFC

BTW...all the Gun issues flooding the net about Newt now is from Ron Paul...was interesting discovering that along the way...but all too obvious as I went along.

Paulites are like fleas on a dog!


75 posted on 12/06/2011 8:24:47 PM PST by caww
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To: heiss

No, you’re wrong and you’re lying. He has addressed this matter ad nauseum.

THEE Heritage Foundation looked into mandates when it was trying to stop Hillarycare.

Gingrich is not pushing amnesty either.

You’re hysterical.


76 posted on 12/06/2011 8:25:06 PM PST by onyx (PLEASE SUPPORT FREE REPUBLIC:DONATE MONTHLY! Sarah's New Ping List - tell me if you want on it.)
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To: doc1019

Good to hear. ;) Hope you vote...We don’t want Obama


77 posted on 12/06/2011 8:27:24 PM PST by make no mistake
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To: Fred

Leader of the pack that balanced the budget in the ‘90s, but he’s bad for the Tea Party. Sure he is.


78 posted on 12/06/2011 8:27:49 PM PST by Lady Lucky
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To: Fred

I always get my conservative political marching orders from the radical Lefties at The Atlantic — NOT! You really must be desperate in your hateful, ill-informed anti-Newt crusade to pay a minute’s attention to this Marxist magazine’s spew. It shows me how gullible you really are.


79 posted on 12/06/2011 8:28:08 PM PST by Bernard Marx
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To: All; Fred

Call me suspicious, but I can’t help but wonder if some of these pollsters are spinning the polls to push their own agenda.

While Newt isn’t the worst, he’s not the most conservative either, and it’s hard for me to believe that many Tea Partiers support him.


80 posted on 12/06/2011 8:28:07 PM PST by Sun (Pray that God sends us good leaders. Please say a prayer now.)
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