"Wish I may, wish I might, make Newt Gingrich win tonight!"
Posted on 03/12/2012 9:36:23 PM PDT by red flanker
BIRMINGHAM, Alabama ---Republican presidential primary candidates Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich, vying for the image of the most conservative candidate, spoke to a packed audience in downtown Birmingham tonight.
The candidates, speaking at a forum at the Alabama Theatre sponsored by the Alabama GOP, both heavily criticized President Barack Obama while also critiquing the other candidates, even if it wasn't always by name.
"You need to look to a leader that believes in you, and that's where I lie," Santorum said.
The crowd was friendly to both candidates but seemed most warm to Gingrich, as was apparent by multiple cheers of "Newt, Newt, Newt."
(Excerpt) Read more at blog.al.com ...
Now for some SUBSTANCE!
“Democrats created the last $5 TRILLION in new debt since 2006 (after Santorum left office, btw)
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If we want to vet Santorum for real and not just throw talking points … let’s go to the record. The record will show that Santorum was and is a solid, mainstream conservative Congressman and Senator. In the 1990s, Santorum was a part of the Gingrich-led Congress that balanced the budget. And in 2002 to 2006 the budget deficit went to $250 billion – high but nothing like the level under Obama, Reid and Pelosi. Claims that Santorum is a big-government conservative are simply contrary to his full record and his conservative agenda as a candidate for President, where he wants to repeal Obamacare, cap spending at 18% and follow the Ryan roadmap and pass the BBA.
snip
Club for Growth notes he deviations and issues on big-spending ticket items under Bush, including No Child Left Behind and Medicare Part D, which Bush got most Congressional Republicans to support. They note his solid support for school choice, for Social Security entitlement reform, and some ‘mixed bag’ items in regulations: He voted NO on the oppressive McCain-Feingold bill in 2002. They also note with interest this:
One of those exceptions came in 2009, in the special election for Congress in New York’s 23rd district. Santorum was the second high profile potential presidential candidate (Sarah Palin was the first) to endorse Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman over liberal Republican Dede Scozzafava. This showed leadership for the limited government cause because of the timing of the endorsement, coming before establishment Republicans had figured out that Scozzafava was a losing candidate.
This is interesting because Newt Gingrich went a different way and endorsed the non-conservative Scozzafava. Club for Growth summarizes thusly
snip
While Gingrich criticized the Ryan roadmap, Santorum embraced it. Newt supported Medicare Part D, supported at one time healthcare mandates, and supported all the Bush programs that conservatives object to in Santorum’s voting record. Romney has gone further of course, embracing not just TARP, but healthcare mandates and failing to even fully criticize the Obama stimulus spending. Only Gingrich or Santorum will wage a campaign that fully challenges Obama’s whole agenda and actually works to repeal it. Newt has pegged Mitt Romney rightly as a Massachusetts moderate, but Newt is not without flys in his ointment either, from global warming to embracing Hillary, Pelosi and Al Sharpton (!) at various times in attempts to ‘reach across’ bipartisanly.
The bottom line is that between Newt, Santorum, and Romney .. Santorum is the one who is most fiscally conservative and who will have the most fiscally conservative administration as President.
For the rest of us without that fine a filter, yes, Rick Santorum is a ‘true conservative’. Conservatives will be happy with his SCOTUS picks, his support of our military, his support for life, his tax reform and entitlement reforms, his pro-energy policies, his economic growth agenda, his fiscally responsible budgets, and his appeal to get America working again”
http://www.redstate.com/wosg/2012/01/06/rick-santorum-yes-he-is-a-true-conservative/
This is a FAIR article, and criticizes, as well as compliments.
Just look at those pictures! Isn’t Newt with a bunch of people you really like and respect? What does that say for the man? To me, it says a lot. We all could look forward to seeing more of ALL these people if Newt were the One.
I decided I hated Dick Morris tonight when after saying he wouldn’t endorse, he did just that...and endorsed MITT. Told everyone not to vote for anyone else or we won’t be able to beat Obama in November.
Its interesting that you mentioned researching candidates, because that is exactly what I’ve urging people to do.
I know volumes about Romney and Gingrich, came up on the anti-semitism of Ron Paul and stopped right there; I didn’t need to go any further, that was all I needed to know about him.
Six weeks ago I knew almost nothing about Rick Santorum. Today, I know enough not to vote for him.
I have always thought that Dick Morris was a snake in the grass. I purposely avoided the threads here on FR where he was touted as a Conservative because I didn't wish to be argumentative. As for his political smarts...well, not very is putting it kindly. He's an opportunist (not that there's anything necessarily wrong with that, everyone needs to make a buck) and has fooled a lot of people with his faux Conservatism of Convenience.
Dick Morris? He's just another James Carville (with the latter having the trait of occasionally being funny).
Okay. But that is really not too bad a thing to say. I mean, the first thing I noticed about Santorum when he took the podium, was how much he was sweating. And I thought to myself, I hope the AC is on, because I was worried about Newt, he is a little :) overweight, you know. So I don't think that's really ugly or anything... because he did look bad with the sweating..
but you are right, there are some bad things said about Santorum here, and I don't think I have said them, but I may have said something you would find offensive.
You know, when I first started defending and posting for Newt here, I actually cried a few times because of mean things people said to me, mostly in my mailbox, but I don't do that much anymore. And I am trying to not get too personal anymore, but I do have my nights when I can't stand the sight or the thought of Santorum, and I am sure you feel that way about Newt sometimes... I still think Free Republic has the most wonderful and informed posters of anywhere I've ever been. I mean, here's the thing, when I see a link by a freeper recommending something, like alternatives to carbonite, just to name the most recent, I totally trust them and go there. I don't do that many places, so I think this is a true oasis here, truly. And I got so overwhelmed with love the other day I posted a really stupid post saying how much I loved everybody on Free Republic, everybody probably thought I was drunk, but I wasn't.
It will be a tragedy if either Newt or Romney win the primaries tomorrow. A vote for Newt is a vote for Romney. There is NO WAY that Newt can win the nomination now, under any circumstances, and I don’t believe that there is a single person here who doesn’t know that in their hearts. If Newt wins, celebrate at Romney HQ tomorrow night. Bob
An article from early January? Guess the vetting hadn't yet turned up this ad where Santorum praised his bipartisan efforts with Hillary, Boxer and Lieberman:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCyU5I43_Hc
This article didn't mention Santorum's pro-union voting history. That alone ranks him as less fiscally conservative than Newt.
Yes, if tonight was my first night at FR, I’d think that it was a pro-Romney site. The goofy things that people believe about Santorum are right out of the Soros playbook.
Final thing tonight: Rick’ pro-labor rating is 13%. Newt’s is 9%. What the hell are people talking about here??
Santorum has no direct path to the nomination either. He or Newt can only win it in a convention floor fight. And debatably, they can’t get enough delegates to do that unless one of them drops out soon to give the other the advantage in the 14 out of 27 upcoming states that have various winner-take-all rules. Romney’s direct path to the nomination is more of a 50/50 chance now if all the candidates stay in the race. But if he falls short under the current trajectory, it would be by a small amount, enough for Ron Paul to hand him if they make a deal.
Like I said, Newt’s more conservative than Rick on unions. ;)
I’m for a Newt/Rick ticket. I like both guys. I don’t think they’re that far off from each other and their different campaigning styles complement each other nicely. One is more from the heart, the other more from the head. If we continue this nomination process battling it out between them, Romney will win. Someone needs to lock the two of them in a room, get them to has out a deal to be on the same ticket, and double-team Romney in a mano-a-mano race. They need to deny Romney a plurality in winner-take-all/direct delegate election states and try to have one of them get over 50% in the states where that turns them into winner-take-all states.
“And I got so overwhelmed with love the other day I posted a really stupid post saying how much I loved everybody on Free Republic, ..”
I believe you do love us, and you seem like a REALLY nice person.
Actually I like Newt, and he’s my 2nd choice, but I LOVE Santorum, because he is a really good man, and get things DONE.
For example:
“On abortion, he is one of many senators who vote pro-life. The difference is that he is personally responsible for making sure a lot of these votes occur in the first place: He was an architect of the effort to ban partial-birth abortion, a strategy that energized the pro-life movement and allowed it to go on the political offensive.”
http://www.heymiller.com/2010/08/the-fate-of-rick/
Rick Santorum gets things done, because he is a FIGHTER!!!!
So if you anti-Rick people say something that happened pre-”early January,” that would not be fair, according to your logic.
btw, I can’d do You-Tube with my dial up.
Funny, I find myself having to stop myself from saying really, really mean things I want to say out of respect for Jim’s rules. Otherwise, I can be quite...expressive.
No, I don’t have moments when I hate Newt. I’d rather have Sarah Palin, but I’ve settled that Newt is the adult who can handle Obama in any situation handily. And he’s said things that I like. Santorum was my senator here. He did not impress me. Especially with his campaigning ability. He was weak.
“Yes, if tonight was my first night at FR, I’d think that it was a pro-Romney site. The goofy things that people believe about Santorum are right out of the Soros playbook.”
If Romney, Soros and Obama read some of these posts, they’d be happier than a puppy with a shoe to tear up.
These people, including the pundit with foot fungus in his teeth, dick Morris, think Romney can beat Obama only because mitt is a numb moderate. But mitt will not save our constitution nor our way of life, our national pride, our culture. He might help the economy... But it will be only temporary. He doesn’t see this country the way we conservatives do.
Santo and Willard are owned by the Unions..
OH!... and the Obamaoid as well..
Most republicans Understanding what that means may be HOPELESS..
They love playing the PollyAnna “GLAD” game..
That was really nice of you to admit and say. I feel bad when newt supporters are insulted too. Both Santorum and newt are strong conservatives. They both have glaring faults. But there are no other conservatives in the race. We are lucky to have them both still in it. Imagine if we only had Romney and Paul, like last time - Romney and McCain. We had to focus on the veep.
May the best man win. I’m ok either way though I have my strong preference. let’s realize we all do.
“But mitt will not save our constitution nor our way of life, our national pride, our culture. He might help the economy...”
I don’t even think Mitt would be so great with the economy. Just because a wealthy person is good with their own money/business, doesn’t mean they will be good with the peoples’ money. He was one of the least favorite governors for a reason.
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