Gingrich Doubles-Down On Romney In Final Nevada Swing [Romney Leads: "Mormon-Influence" Cited]

Gingrich Doubles-Down On Romney In Final Nevada Swing By Rachel Rose Hartman | The Ticket

LAS VEGAS, Nev.—Against the backdrop of a mechanical bull, cowboy garb and guitars lining the walls, Newt Gingrich sounded very serious on the stump Friday as he implored supporters to help him defeat presumed frontrunner Mitt Romney in Saturday's Nevada caucuses.

"We need your help tomorrow in the caucus and we're very grateful that you're here," the former House Speaker told an audience gathered at Stoney's Rockin' Country bar for an event billed as a "grassroots rally." He later directed the crowd to "go home and Facebook, YouTube, tweet, whatever… speak up for a people's campaign."

Gingrich, who appeared with wife Callista, spent much of his 30-minute speech here deriding Romney, doubling-down on recent efforts to paint the former Massachusetts governor as too moderate for the Republican party. "It isn't good enough for the Republican Party to nominate 'Obama-lite.'

I don't believe the Republican party wants a George Soros-approved candidate," Gingrich said, referencing a new ad he released Friday highlighting a recent interview in which the wealthy Obama donor said he would be comfortable with a Romney presidency.

“So, Mormons will vote for another Mormon, regardless of the candidate’s stance on abortion, gay marriage, etc.? How can they reconcile this with their supposedly, conservative beliefs? Do they vote on religion or issues? Never mind, I know the answer to that.’

Yesterday a friend asked me how Romney could support abortion since Mormons are pro-life. I thought that was a good question, so I did a little research, and I came upon an article at a Catholic website which states that the Mormon church allows their “continuing revelation” philosophy to dictate such matters-—in other words, something is wrong until they decide it’s appropriate to change with the times. Mormon clergy will grant abortions in some circumstances as long as the woman has prayed and received God’s approval (!!!). Their Church Handbook of Instructions states that they take no position, neither for or against, abortion legislation.

So it seems Mormons are not reeeealllly all that pro-life, after all.

I am sorry, I was wrong. I was much too hard on “generic” Mormons, I had them all lumped in with on-line “Rombots” and a very negative experience I had with some Mormons a long time ago. (As a Christian of course, I do have some serious theological issues still but that is a separate matter and not germaine.)

So, I would like to report to you my experience at the Nevada caucus this morning, which really opened my eyes. There were 12 people that showed up for our precinct caucus, 2 Paul supporters, 2 Gingrich supporters, 6 Mormon (Romney) supporters (we all were wearing badges for our candidates.) We had about an hour to talk before the vote, Romney supporters said all the usual negative things about Newt, they sounded like a bunch of on-line “Rombots.” I asked them for a chance to defend Newt, which they graciously agreed and listened respectfully (I was tactful too.)

At the end of my little speech, one of them thanked me and said I did a good job of presenting my case. When the votes were taken at the end of the discussion, the tally was 2 for Ron Paul, 4 for Romney, and SIX for Newt!

Afterward one of the Romney voters thanked me, telling me that she voted for Newt because “she doesn't vote for liars.” I think the other thing that helped was one older Romney supporter, a man about my age, who as I talked about the Young Turks, Jim Wright, the house banking scandal, etc., kept saying “you are right about that, I had forgotten that!”

So Romney support among Mormons is actually mile wide and a fraction of an inch deep. I think if every precinct in every caucus has someone who will speak for Newt, Newt is going to carry this state. I am not a particularly impressive person and if I could do this, who just think what a really great speaker could do!

The Romney people even told me they appreciated the fact that I was frank with them that Mormonism was going to be a big issue in this election — because Obama is black and Mormons have a very bad history in this area. Both Ron Paul and the other Newt supporter backed me up and told them that we all felt that this was a very bad election to run a Mormon, if a white candidate against a white candidate, it probably wouldn't be much of an issue. And you could see that they were thinking about this as an electability issue they had not thought about before.

Romney's Mormon Grass roots constituency are not the same as the horrible on-line Rombots. They are excited about a Mormon presidency and had not heard the negatives, just very pro-Romney campaign rhetoric. In fact, they were very issues oriented and concerned about the economy, and they didn't understand how fractured our party really is because of Romney.

And best of all I was elected a delegate, which actually is not that impressive because our precinct is allowed six delegates; but still, I'm quite pleased with myself and looking forward to our local convention.

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