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Newt Gingrich: Republicans Today Would Be ‘Incapable of Competing’ Against Hillary Clinton in 2016
The Blaze/NBC Repost ^ | 12/9/2012 | Madeleine Morgenstern

Posted on 12/09/2012 1:01:03 PM PST by sheikdetailfeather

Former House Speaker and Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich said the current GOP would be “incapable of competing” against Hillary Clinton should she run in 2016.

Gingrich on NBC’s “Meet the Press” called Clinton a “very formidable” person who is married to “the most popular Democrat in the country.”

“If [the Republicans'] competitor in ’16 is going to be Hillary Clinton, supported by Bill Clinton and presumably, a still relatively popular President Barack Obama, trying to win that will be truly the Super Bowl. And the Republican Party today is incapable of competing at that level,” Gingrich said.

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


TOPICS: News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: 2016; brilliant; campaign; elections; gingrich; hillary; hillarycare; incapable; lamebraingop; newt; newtgingrich; obama; obamacare; permanentwar; republicans; win
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To: Tau Food

I don’t think so. Romney may have gotten strategically thinking conservative votes (like mine) but he didn’t get the “silent base,” which doesn’t analyze the election and doesn’t even turn out to work for the candidate, but does manage to get out and vote for him.

When I worked the phones for the McCain campaign those people did turn out, but in addition to having an even worse candidate this time, we were way, way behind the times in GOTV and everything else and needed to gear up. Sadly, we didn’t improve much in this election...which we would have won just barely, but enough, if the people who had voted for McCain had turned out.

So this means that every liberal they nominate gets fewer votes and less enthusiasm.

Also, a lot of these old GOP buzzards are getting to the lying on the beach and sipping coco locos age.


61 posted on 12/09/2012 2:10:01 PM PST by livius
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To: Tau Food
I'm afraid that Romney probably got enough conservative votes to lead elitists in the GOP to conclude that they should nominate another liberal in 2016.

Romney ran ahead of some GOP Senate candidates and behind others. It did not seem to matter whether they were conservative or not(Missouri, Indiana). Some states that went for Romney went for Senate Democrats too (MT, ND). Nevada was an exception, barely. It was a very strange election for Romney to be stuck at 47%, Republicans lost ground in the Senate, but held the House decisively (233 - 201), 53% - 47%, almost the inverse of the national presidential vote.

62 posted on 12/09/2012 2:10:13 PM PST by af_vet_1981 (The bus came by and I got on, That's when it all began,)
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To: livius

It’s at the point where the Democrats pretty much win by default.


63 posted on 12/09/2012 2:10:20 PM PST by dfwgator
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To: muawiyah

Well, I think you are right. It is not automatic. I get my military pension, and soon social security, and I would never vote for the rats, but many others will.


64 posted on 12/09/2012 2:11:28 PM PST by Mark17 (California, where English is a foreign language)
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To: Mark17

So: Bring back American jobs.

Stop exporting jobs, and bring them back to the USA.

(duh)

Because jobs is where we are losing now.

It is time to reverse course dramatically.

Now.


65 posted on 12/09/2012 2:12:42 PM PST by Cringing Negativism Network
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To: mountn man
She could if she got adequate support from her own party. However, the Repubs who rant and rail about "purists" will do the dirty work for the democrats to defeat her. Apparently these Repubs won't tolerate any other "purists" but themselves. The height of hypocrisy is liberalism.
66 posted on 12/09/2012 2:14:44 PM PST by Moorings
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To: sheikdetailfeather

Sadly, I couldn’t agree more. NOW is the time to start a 3rd Party, when the GOP is not competitive. Don’t wait until it is, i.e. 2024 ... if then.

Waiting on starting a Third Party merely prolongs the pain.


67 posted on 12/09/2012 2:15:27 PM PST by RIghtwardHo
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To: sheikdetailfeather

They would be and are incapable of competing against her or anyone else for that matter.


68 posted on 12/09/2012 2:17:40 PM PST by chris37 (Heartless.)
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To: dfwgator

Numerically, there are more registered Dems. But even so we could win if we had (a) a good candidate who actually believed in conservative principles and (b) a modernized voter outreach program.

I keep pointing out that Obama got elected because the media made him a celebrity, and that this fact and Democrat voter registration and bribery of his inner-city base managed to get these normally lackadaisical voters out for him. We actually could probably have gotten some of these voters...except that we had written them off (because of the myth that Romney was going to get white males, who somehow were going to able to swamp everybody else in the country) and Romney didn’t even let Ryan or anybody else go and speak to them.

But in terms of our next candidate, he’s got to have a touch of celebrity. The media won’t give it to him (or her), so it’s got to be genuine, some kind of earned celebrity. I can’t imagine right now what it could be, but now that we have gotten to the age of the celebrity presidency, we’ve got to rise to the challenge.


69 posted on 12/09/2012 2:18:35 PM PST by livius
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To: sheikdetailfeather

Only because right now they are afraid of playing hardball.

I think the public infighting going on between Republicans right now causes great joy in the camp of Team Obamugabe.


70 posted on 12/09/2012 2:20:13 PM PST by SoFloFreeper
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To: sheikdetailfeather

2016, there probably won’t be much left of the GOP, economy, or the country. Elections will be complete farcical frauds.


71 posted on 12/09/2012 2:20:34 PM PST by grumpygresh (Democrats delenda est; zero sera dans l'enfer bientot)
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To: sheikdetailfeather

Tell us something we don’t know Newt.


72 posted on 12/09/2012 2:25:04 PM PST by Georgia Girl 2 (The only purpose of a pistol is to fight your way back to the rifle you should never have dropped.)
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To: Bryanw92

We have all encountered automation, mechanization, computerization, robotics and improved work methods and overcome them. Certainly we can continue to do that if the Democrats will get out the way!


73 posted on 12/09/2012 2:26:50 PM PST by muawiyah
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To: Bryanw92

“Works at what? There are no jobs.”

Slap a 30% tariff on imported goods and you’ll see low skill assembly jobs return to this country. Twenty years ago people sewed clothing in the rural south and assembled furniture. Until 1987 Mattel was producing toys in the United States. The end of tariffs and quotas resulted in these and many other low skill jobs going offshore. Walk through a Wal-Mart store and look at the products with “made in China” labels. At least 80% of those products would be made in American for the American market if we returned tariffs to the levels in effect during the 1950’s, 1960’s, and 1970’s when American manufacturing was at its peak.

In order to have a viable Republican form of government, we need a vibrant middle class. To have a vibrant middle class with a stake in the economy and respect for individual freedom we need both high skill and low skill jobs. If our choice is to give free access to our markets to every third world country, we then choose to export low skill jobs and have a permanent underclass of unemployable people dependent on government who will vote as a block for ever increasing benefits. The experience with “free” trade of the past 20 years proves this.

The US government at the end of the Revolutionary War was broke and hopelessly in debt. Alexander Hamilton put in place a plan to eliminate the debt. High tariffs allowed the young nation to erase its war debt and put its currency on a sound footing. It also kept the cost of European manufactured goods high resulting in the young nation attracting investment capital from Europe and building its own manufacturing infrastructure. Until the early 20th century high tariffs also provided most of the funding for the federal government.

Just as with global warming, facts are facts. The US built its industrial infrastructure when it had high tariffs. The low and high skill manufacturing jobs sustained a large middle class as agriculture became mechanized and people moved off the farm to more urban areas. Over the last 20 years we removed tariffs and trade quotas. Manufacturing jobs fled overseas and we now have a large population of jobless low skill workers who are dependent on government and vote to preserve their benefits.

Looking at our nation’s history, prosperity is associated with high tariffs. Declining average household incomes and reduction in middle class jobs is associated with the elimination of tariffs and trade barriers. Is it worth paying more for manufactured goods if it means more middle class manufacturing jobs and less welfare dependency? I say yes. If we don’t bring back the low skill manufacturing jobs we will create a permanent government dependent underclass that will vote itself an ever increasing share of the national income until the economy collapses and we transition into another third world hell hole dictatorship.


74 posted on 12/09/2012 2:26:58 PM PST by Soul of the South
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To: sheikdetailfeather

I think ANY Democrat, even Al Sharpton, would win easily in 2016 given the state of the current Republican party, the American Press, and declining intellect of the American public. I think America is in trouble and we have lost our ability to do anything about it.


75 posted on 12/09/2012 2:30:36 PM PST by Reddon
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To: sheikdetailfeather

Hillary has more balls than Mitt, Jeb, or any other GOPe RINO. It would be a landslide for the Hildabeast.


76 posted on 12/09/2012 2:38:13 PM PST by aMorePerfectUnion (Gone rogue, gone Galt, gone international. Gone.)
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To: Soul of the South
Well, you see, the only problem with your little plan, is that the same people who would enact, administer, and enforce these tariffs you speak of are the same idiots currently in power.

Do you think they're screwing things up by accident?

77 posted on 12/09/2012 2:39:02 PM PST by Trailerpark Badass (So?)
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To: muawiyah

>>We have all encountered automation, mechanization, computerization, robotics and improved work methods and overcome them.

No, we haven’t. I have, because I design and program industrial automation. But the number of industrial workers necessary to make any product is just a small fraction of what it was when I started in 1990.

All those things you listed (except mechanization) are less than 50 years old. There is no real historical precedent because the early mechanization that replaced the blacksmith/craftsman with machine tools and assembly lines was accompanied by a huge rise in demand for those products to offset the improvements in manufacturing methods.

The rise of consumer credit in the 1980’s has carried our economy through downsizing, rightsizing, and outsourcing for 30 years, but we are now at the point where we just don’t need the labor anymore.


78 posted on 12/09/2012 2:40:27 PM PST by Bryanw92 (Sic semper tyrannis)
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To: aMorePerfectUnion

The Republicans are nothing more than what the Washington Generals are to the Harlem Globetrotters.


79 posted on 12/09/2012 2:42:44 PM PST by dfwgator
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To: livius
I think he’s wrong on this one. Hillary is popular with some older women

I think Newt is thinking of the massive criminal enterprise behind Hillary. I believe it will take decades to build up a party capable of taking down that machine.

80 posted on 12/09/2012 2:44:24 PM PST by WVNan
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