Gingrich Hit Hard by Iowa Mailers

New York Times ^ | December 30, 2011 | Jeff Zeleny

[lbryce]

A prevailing headline from Iowa has been the decline of Newt Gingrich, who attributes the fall in his standing to a barrage of negative advertisements from his Republican rivals and their allies. The criticism on television is pointed, but the attacks arriving by mail are even sharper and carry a far longer shelf life than a fleeting 30-second commercial.

“You can’t teach an old dog new tricks,” says a brochure that hit mailboxes this week. If the message wasn’t clear, another postcard declared, “Old Dog, Newt Tricks.”

For all the talk about the confidence of Mitt Romney in the days before the Iowa caucuses next week, his campaign continues to relentlessly hammer Mr. Gingrich. While Mr. Gingrich and his advisers concede that the negative messages have damaged his candidacy, not everyone on the receiving end of the mail agrees.

Kim Reem, a Republican activist from Cedar Rapids, has been saving some of her political mail for the past week for The New York Times. Much of it attacks Mr. Gingrich, a tactic she said has not been persuasive.

“I haven’t had a piece of Romney mail on Romney in quite some time,” Ms. Reem said. “I assume he is making such big tracks shredding on Newt that he has given up campaigning on his own merits.”

But a poll released Friday showed that Mr. Gingrich has lost more than half of his support. He was leading in the NBC News/Marist Poll conducted earlier this month, but currently is backed by only 13 percent of the voters surveyed. He is in a three-way tie with Rick Santorum (15 percent) and Gov. Rick Perry of Texas (14 percent).

“Romney’s negative mail campaign tells me he is afraid of Newt,” Ms. Reem said. “And he should be.

[onyx]

BTTT

[nfldgirl]

Unfortunately for Newt, the same ad attacks will follow him here in SC and FL, on the radio, t.v., and through the mail. Unless he can get out in front of it, make an incredibly strong showing, he will face the same fate as the drop in polling that’s happened in Iowa. As an aside, while out yesterday morning in the great Upstate of SC, I saw an incredibly large sign for Newt in a great strategic location. Here’s hoping for the best; the thought of a Romney nomination sickens me to the core.

[BenKenobi]

Why is a Yankee supporting Newt over Santorum?

[wardaddy]

Hardly...Ron Paul is actually leading in many Iowa polls so much that indeed I can say with certainty that around one in five Iowans who answers polls in Iowa is daft

In a state with scarce minority vote yet the democrat turnout at their primary dwarfs ours

So you tell me...why in the hell does the GOP pick two such eccentric states to open

If they had the balls to open with Mississippi, Alabama we would always at least get a social conservative a head start

Ron Paul is a more lefty than not nutcase who only brings pro dope and anti war kids who are usually dems to the primary

[BenKenobi]

Last I checked Clinton won that battle.

[JediJones]

As Rush Limbaugh has been saying, in the last few years he’s realized the RNC is not interested in appealing to the conservative base. Their whole agenda is to appeal to “moderates” or “independents.” I think they just assume they have us in their back pocket and therefore don’t need to do anything to attract us. They have to be sent a message that they’re wrong. One sure way to do it would be to run a more conservative third party candidate if they give us Mittney Mouse as our nominee. Maybe the cooler heads would say to infiltrate the GOP from the ground up with Tea Partiers and get it taken over from the inside more slowly.

[JediJones]

Florida behaved very differently from SC last time. Huckabee was 4th and Rudy beat him. Mitt did a lot better there too. The religious conservative vote didn’t seem to be much of a factor there as it is in IA and SC.

Mitt Romney really needs to lose SC and FL to be taken out of the running. FL is really where Newt has to make his biggest stand. If he wins there, it could really turn things around in his favor. If he doesn’t, then it’s hard to see how he continues. If Mitt wins IA and FL, then I think the primary is over.

South Carolina:
John McCain 147,733 33.15% 18
Mike Huckabee 132,990 29.84% 6
Fred Thompson 69,681 15.63% 0
Mitt Romney 68,177 15.3% 0
Ron Paul 16,155 3.62% 0
Rudy Giuliani 9,575 2.15% 0

Florida:
John McCain 701,761 36% 45 57
Mitt Romney 604,932 31.03% 18 0
Rudy Giuliani 286,089 14.68% 0 0
Mike Huckabee 262,681 13.47% 4 0
Ron Paul 62,887 3.23% 0 0
Fred Thompson* 22,668 1.16% 0 0

[flaglady47]

1st/2nd: Romney/Paul or Paul/Romney
then:

Santorum
Perry
Gingrich
Bachman
Huntsman

[trebb]

And yet: The National Association for Gun Rights is a Virginia group run by a gun rights lobbyist. Gingrich spokesman R.C. Hammond directed questions about Gingrich’s positions to Gingrich’s website – which notes that Gingrich is a supporter of the more well-known National Rifle Association, which has given him top ratings and awarded him a “Defender of the Second Amendment award” in 2010.

[Trteamer]

Frankly I am sick and tired of the Republicans running negative ads against each other in the primaries. It’s stupid. Obama is the real threat, but I guess modern political thinking is just one of giving him a pass and attacking your rivals.

I should quit the Republican party, but I want to stay around and make life uncomfortable for the RINO’s at my caucus. I have seriously thought about registering as a Democrat in the future so I can mess with their primary candidates in their caucus....

[InterceptPoint]

Unfortunately for Newt, the same ad attacks will follow him here in SC and FL, on the radio, t.v., and through the mail.

That's my fear as well. But somehow I don't think the folks in SC and FL are going to be as easily moved away from Newt as we have seen in Iowa. Don't forget, Iowa was in the Obama column in 2008. Could be the water. Or maybe they just eat too much corn.

[show]

Newt was Time Magazine's Person of the Year 1995

They fear hiim because he is the Real Deal.

LEADERS MAKE THINGS POSSIBLE. EXCEPTIONAL LEADERS make them inevitable. Newt Gingrich belongs in the category of the exceptional.

All year--ruthlessly, brilliantly, obnoxiously--he worked at hammering together inevitabilities: a balanced federal budget, for one. Not so long ago, the idea of a balanced budget was a marginal, we'll-get-to-it-someday priority. Other urgent work needed doing: the Clintons' health-care program, for example, which would have installed elaborate new bureaucratic machinery. Today, because of Newt Gingrich, the question is not whether a balanced-budget plan will come to pass but when.

Gingrich has changed the center of gravity. From Franklin Roosevelt onward, Americans came to accept...

NEWT GINGRICH'S WORLD By LANCE MORROW Monday, Dec. 25, 1995

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,983876,00.html#ixzz1iD3SsmPW

[varon]

“IOWANS ARE CORNHOLIOS”

"Cornholios" = Good name for a snack food...........

[HereInTheHeartland]

“one in five Iowans who answers polls “

Good point, most people are not answering polls right now.

[show]

Also, it doesn't help when you have Romney's strategist commenting as an independent political analyst against Newt Gingrich, when in fact he appears giddy hoping that Romney faces Santorum and Paul in South Carolina over dangerous Newt and Perry.

It's clear that Romney wants Santorum and Paul to stay in the race. Here are quotes from David Polyansky, a political strategist who helped Huckabee get elected and then worked to help Bachman with her Straw Poll.

First he quotes that it's the POLITICAL FORTUNE of Santorum’s recent advance (Romney's political fortune). 2nd quote, he praises a CNN poll for convincing Iowa voters to vote for Santorum. 3rd quote he says Santorum and Pual can easily be taken out in South Carolina and Florida and calls both Newt and Perry dangerous for Romney in South Carolina and Florida.

It looks as if is secretly working for Romney in order to knock the most Conservative and nationally popular candidates out of the race early. All of his quotes in this article point to Romney winning as long as Santorum and Paul stay in longer than dangerous Newt and Perry. Looks like he is in it for Romney.

1st Quote:
“Few saw this bombshell coming,” GOP strategist David Polyansky said. “In an already unpredictable race this is another stunning turn of political fortune.”

2nd Quote:
“It is kind of interesting to see that, by pure luck and timing, in what many have dubbed the ‘Fox Primary,’ that it might actually be CNN as the network that had the biggest impact and influence on the Iowa caucus,” Polyansky said.

2nd Quote
Where Romney places in the caucuses may prove less important than where his rivals land, Polyansky said. Santorum and Paul would be much easier to dispose of in South Carolina and Florida than the more dangerous Perry and Gingrich, he said.

[show]

Here is the link for the article.

http://caucuses.desmoinesregister.com/2011/12/31/romney-leads-paul-in-new-des-moines-register-iowa-poll-santorum-surging/

[Yankee]

Why is a Yankee supporting Newt over Santorum?

For the same reason I voted for George H. W. Bush and not Michael Dukakis in 1988, even though all four of my grandparents were Greek immigrants.

I don't base my votes on parochial matters.

I believe in the Buckley rule, promulgated by William F. Buckley, which states: “Nominate the most conservative candidate who is electable.”

To me, that's Gingrich.

[napscoordinator]

Didn’t Mike Huckabee win this Iowa “caucus” thing last year?

Yes he did. He went on to do pretty good the rest of the election but came up short at the end when big states like Cali, Washington and other big blue states went to McCain. I was never a Huckster fan at all. However, he was probably better than McCain. Although maybe not.....2008 was just plain awful. Horrible memories. :-)

[Cringing Negativism Network]

Gosh.

Now which candidate could those nasty-grams POSSIBLY be from.

I just cannot imagine.

[BenKenobi]

Santorum is more electable and is more conservative.