Posted on 01/24/2012 7:03:01 AM PST by Thane_Banquo
When asked about his electability, Newt invoked Ronald Reagan, who was once thought unelectable — his first invocation of Reagan during the debate last night. If Mitt Romney were a yard dog, he might have fired back, “Hey, Newt, whose record are you running on — yours or Ronald Reagan’s?”
Mitt Romney is not a yard dog. But he did a damned good job at the debate anyway, turning in a winning performance after his abysmal one in South Carolina. He laid several gloves on Newt, and Newt — who wore a nasty facial expression most of the night — knew it. There were some good policy moments, but this show was mostly the Newt–Mitt faceoff to try to determine the outcome in Florida.
While Romney couldn’t get by with a line like “pious baloney,” he was nevertheless effective, persistent, and impressive in painting Gingrich as an “unreliable leader” (the theme of Romney’s new ad campaign), twice noting that Gingrich had left the House “in disgrace.” Romney also scored when he pointed out that the just-released contract for one of the years Gingrich was paid by Freddie Mac was negotiated by the lobbying department — and that the word “historian” was nowhere to be found in that document. Romney said that Newt may claim Freddie was paying him for his historical insights, but “I call it influence-peddling.”
When Gingrich, in response to a question about his advocacy of the Medicare prescription-drugs plan, tried to deflect the question by portraying himself as a citizen crusader, Romney punctured him by noting that he was being paid for his citizen’s advocacy by pharmaceutical companies.
“I’m not going to spend this evening chasing down Mr. Romney’s misinformation,” Gingrich said lamely, referring viewers to a website, the default position for trapped politicians. Still, sometimes, it is sheer joy watching Newt take a question, turn it around, and frame an answer. When, for example, NBC’s Brian Williams asked him whether the American people had the stomach for war with Iran, Gingrich replied that the American people hadn’t initially had the stomach for the Second World War, or to go after terrorists who attacked us on 9/11 — but we ended up doing what we had to do.
A reckless, pro-Newt mantra these days is, “But wouldn’t you pay a million dollars to watch Newt debate Obama?” Yeah, you might have a hell of a night, but you wouldn’t like yourself much in the morning.
They establishment are against Newt because he hasn't been perfect in his conservatism. They're for Romney despite the fact that Romney has never done a damn thing that's conservative in his entire political life! It is an absurd position for the establishment to make. The Old Guard engages in strategies like this and then blames conservatives because the establishment loses elections. How damn stupid do they think we are?
National Review - RINOmney central.
Stopped my subscription, don’t give a smelly Obama about their opinions any more.
Mitt: Yes, he can be just like Obama.
Translated: how dare the little people go against us!
I made a comment taking the author to task for her blatant Romney shilling. Obviously it was not approved by the moderators.
The election in 2012 is just one battle in a much longer war. We conservatives must take back control of conservative institutions from the big-government statist northeastern elitist RINOs.
What these RNC liberal republicans don’t get, or don’t care about, is that Newt implemented a massive amount o Reagan’s agenda and ideas in the 90s, essentially grabbing the torch from the Gipper and carrying it forward on cleaner government, lower taxes, and government/entitlement reform.
During both the Reagan/Bush years and the 1994 Revolution, Mitt was on the sidelines, pointing, shaking his head no and saying ‘nope, I am not part of that.’ I have no real hatred for Mitt, but he is not even remotely conservative nor one who pushed the agenda during the 80s or 90s. I don’t agree he’s the same as Obama on policy as others have...he’d be an improvement over the current agenda, but he’s not a conservative nor is he going to change what’s going on in Washington.
One of the most revealing moments about Romney was his gleeful aside that, while he lost his Senate bid to Ted Kennedy, Kennedy was forced to take a mortgage out on his house to pay for the campaign. That’s a a rich guy who measures everything by money and enjoys using his money to buy his way through life and hurting his enemies. It was an ugly remark that revealed his petty, souless interior character.
Mittens: “Vote for me because I am socialist enough to get the communist vote in the general election!”
You are absolutely right. I also picked up on that as he slyly but proudly let that out...the sign of an arrogant,
narcissistic elitist, much like someone else we know.
I noticed that too.
He seemed almost gleeful about it. I thought that was tacky.
Did you ever notice his campaign logo? It reminds me of the Obama logo.
Mitt — YES, he can!!! go away....
It is telling that the same RINOs who gave us McLame in 2008 now want us to nominate Romney. The difference between the two is McLame has, in his political career, actually cast a few votes that could be characterized as conservative.
Romney’s first reason to explain his conservative credentials: “I raised a family.” WTF? Idiot.
Judging by the all-out Romney cheering and Newt bashing on NRO, the northeastern establishment is clearly terrified right now that the guy who went to Harvard—and therefore must be the best guy for the job—is going to lose the nomination to a guy who went to Tulane. I think a lot of this is a sort of sub-conscious anger that the rubes in fly-over country don’t realize the establishment’s own Ivy League degress qualify them to be above questioning and scrutiny. They ARE Romney, and that’s why they’re going nuts.
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