The latest reporting about Santorum continues to suggest that he has no intentions of getting out. This bodes well for Romney. Santorum has no prayer, but the longer he stays in the more he guarantees a Romney victory. Certainly Santorum can't be delusional enough to think he can eventually win. So the question becomes, what's he angling for?
Much blame goes Newt's way. He blew it in the last two (critical) debates. For all his supposed debate prowess, his one weakness so far has been dealing with direct head to head spats with other candidates. If that continues, he'll not stand a chance.
My view - Romney is the weakest in a one on one match-up with Obama. I guess it shouldn't surprise - that given the options - the stupid party (GOP) would pick the worst alternative. If Romney wins the nomination - we'll be extremely lucky to unseat Obama. Will it be as bad as McCain? I don't know. Romney at least shows more fight and a willingness to get dirty than McCain. The bigger question is - if Romney should prevail, what exactly have we won? Obama lite?
HE WILL LOSE THE GENERAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! My God, what are coming to.
holy cow. Im done for awhile. this makes me sick. I will prob. vote Romney but will send no money and will not have sign in front of house, no bumper sticker and absolutely no walking the trenches. I have no eagerness to wake up on election day and vote Romeny
Oh... The Cain endorsement is essentially meaningless. Whatever political capital he had has long since evaporated. The only endorsement that might have an impact at this point might be Palin’s and Santorum’s should he get wise and gets out. What Santorum is up to at this point is hard to discern. It’s hard to imagine that he’s in this to help Romney. But then again nothing would surprise.
Doesn’t matter if mitt wins fla. 50 delegates.
ga has 76 and newt will easily carry ga on super tues.
i’d like a newt win but it isn’t going to stop him if he does not win.
newt is pissed and he’s not going to give in to mittens. not ever.
Can you say early voting?? That’s the game changer in Florida.
The bigger question is - if Romney should prevail, what exactly have we won? Obama lite?If Romney wins we lose in the form ofa progressive who insisists his policies are "conservative".
In Gingrich's last two debates and the speech he just gave in Palm Beach FL, he talked about cutting taxes and regulations, repealing ObamaCare, Dodd-Frank, and Sorbates-Oxley, getting rid of Obama’s “czars,” and even getting the Tenth Amendment in motion – all good.
But I haven't heard him say a word explicitly about CUTTING GOVERNMENT SPENDING. Obama's multi-trillion-dollar drunken Marxist-Keynesian poli-psycho spending binge has taken the U.S. to the brink. Gingrich, PLEASE EMPHASIZE LESS GOVERNMENT. Don't talk so much about what our government can do (building the transcontinental railroad and going to the moon), talk about unleashing the AMERICAN PEOPLE. Talk about CUTTING GOVERNMENT! BY OVER A TRILLION DOLLARS!
Some of my thoughts about the last two debates:
1st FL debate: The Cain method of, "Just go to my website" doesn't work. The American people don't know all the ins and outs of this stuff and deserve a straightforward, hard-hitting, no-nonsense answer from Gingrich on these charges. Whether they're false or not, the American people deserve a clear, concise answer on WHY they're false, what the truth is, and then (if they're false) a sharp rebuke on the perpetrator(s) and a reiteration on the media's attempts to move the debate away from the REAL problem: Obama and the Dems.
2nd FL debate: I really think Gingrich could have done more to take the thunder away from Santorum and Romney (who really blasted Gingrich early on). Apparently Gingrich later said he was so surprised by Romney's dishonesty that he didn't know how to answer until he checked the facts later to be sure.
But I think Gingrich could have really fired back and launched some spot-on points about things like the trillion-dollar deficit, less, not more, government programs, etc. I think he probably missed his que right at the starting gate when Blitzer baited him into a swipe at Romney. In the past, Gingrich has successfully called the moderator on that kind of stuff. (He did later but not as effective.)
I'm actually wondering if Gingrich's handlers influenced him the last couple of debates to play a "prevent defense" (almost always fails) instead of putting on a full-court press (i.e. advised to defensively keep from losing instead of offensively going all out for the win).
I think Gingrich has missed the boat by not going after Romney’s allegations and not being more aggressive in attacking Romney’s issues.
Rasmussen:
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
South Carolina: Romney 35%, Gingrich 21%, Santorum 16%, Paul 16%
I agree about Newt blowing two debates and he can blame himself for the inept performance. But, the poll numbers were taken BEFORE Cain endorsement and BEFORE Sarah was all over foxnews. It may be a bit late because romney is carpetbombing Newt with goldman sachs/wall street money..
http://www.politico.com/blogs/burns-haberman/2012/01/newt-blasts-carpetbombing-romney-112695.html
If Romney is the nominee, I will be writing in another candidate for POTUS.
The fact that he will not repeal Obamacare is enough to convince me.
I am thoroughly disgusted with the GOP Establishment.
If Romney is the GOP it marks the end of the Republican Party
Here’s a question:
If Newt wins in Florida, does “Queen Media” declare him the winner of all to come, as they would do for Romney?
If not, then why is it over if Romney wins?
Maybe Newt wins more states coming up who have not been blitzed by Romney’s negative ads. We know he has spent multi millions on the media campaign there.
Silly question- Is Florida that vital?
One consolation for Newt in a loss in Florida will be that (please correct me if I’m wrong) Florida is only getting “half its delegate count” from this primary because it was penalized by the RNC for moving up the primary date without RNC approval.
Newt can still fight on, and I don’t think that a win for Romney in FL will secure victory for him — not yet.
It may be back-and-forth right into Super Tuesday....
I am in Florida and all the people I know are voting for Newt. We won’t be looking for polls to determine who we vote for.
Is this for real or just Ed Morrissey flying blind? Newt seems to be running a bad campaign and had two weak debates back to back. Then there are the Florida voters which are transplanted Yorkers and Jerseys, mostly ill informed elders, with a remainder of diverse emigrants and native population. A moderate and liberal paradise. The problem is most of the south is being invaded by people trying to escape liberalism and then create the same problems from which they wanted to escape.
Florida is one state...and Newt will pick up steam.
Please watch Paul Ryan today on Fox News Sunday. While not endorsing a candidate, he re-emphasized the Conservative economic principles that are sorely needed to save this country. Who do you honestly believe most represents and understands those principles ... and has the abiility to work with Congress to ensure they are implemented?
So Romney wins FL, so what. I’m sure if Newt won FL the media would tell us it is meaningless and that they only have 50 delegates anyway.
The latest reporting about Santorum continues to suggest that he has no intentions of getting out. This bodes well for Romney. Santorum has no prayer, but the longer he stays in the more he guarantees a Romney victory. Certainly Santorum can’t be delusional enough to think he can eventually win. So the question becomes, what’s he angling for?
A few things. There are many caucus’ coming up that he thinks he can win. Second, he feels that if he has enough delegates going into the convention who knows what eventually will happen. Third he still believes that Newt will falter and he will take his voters. The third one probably won’t happen although Newt needs to get back on his debate performances. He cannot allow what happened Thursday Night to happen ever again.
This is an exact replay of 4 years ago. The establishment ‘moderates’ united early around one single candidate. Conservatives have failed to coalesce around a single candidate and instead the conservative alternatives have spent much of their time and resources beating up on each other.
The Florida polls are all over the place now, but Gingrich’s post-SC bounce has faded. The most optimistic Florida polls have Gingrich about even. The most pessimistic polls (like this one) have Romney with a significant lead. Given Romney’s ground game and push for early voting, it sure looks like Romney comes out on top in winner-take-all Florida Tuesday, barring a significant game changer.
Hopefully, Gingrich is able to fight on and Santorum recognizes that he can only play spoiler at this point. But the meme from the MSM media following Tuesday is going to be relentless that the race is over and Republicans need to all unite behind Romney. That message is likely to move the national polls that still show Gingrich with a slight lead.
Year after year, conservatives have torpedoed themselves in the presidential primaries by putting forward too many alternative candidates and always delaying pulling out and endorsing other conservatives.
Let’s hope there still is time to get out the message that Romney will not to a thing to undo Obama’s vast expansion of the welfare state.
So how did that Romney “win” in Iowa work out? You have to be an idiot not to see what is going on here.