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Newt Gingrich is joining team Obama by mocking Mitt Romney advisor Eric Fehrnstrom's "Etch-A-Sketch" comments today. Asked about how Romney would handle his pivot from primary to general election, Fehrnstrom said, “Well, I think you hit a reset button for the fall campaign. Everything changes." Fehrnstrom said on CNN, "It’s almost like an Etch-A-Sketch. You can kind of shake it up and restart all of over again." After highlighting Mitt Romney's inconsistancy on the issues, Gingrich handed the Etch-A-Sketch to a child in the audience and said, "Here you go, you can now be a presidential candidate." Obama's SuperPAC has...

PPP's newest national poll finds that Mitt Romney leads with 34% to 31% for Rick Santorum, 20% for Newt Gingrich, and 9% for Ron Paul. But if Gingrich dropped out Santorum would have a small lead with 41% to 40% for Romney and 11% for Paul.46% of Republican primary voters actually do think it's time for Gingrich to drop out, while 42% think he should continue on. 48% of his supporters would go to Santorum, while 33% would pick Romney. Gingrich dropping out being worth 4 points to Santorum is also what we found on our Illinois poll over...

It is now more obvious than ever that Newt Gingrich should stay in this race. If for no other reason he needs to do so to keep repeating his questions and answers on fuel. Over the coming months he needs to get others to repeat and spread the truth about our oil capacities and this is the way to do it. Keeping the debate going will spotlight the current debacle that is the Administration’s oil policy, the effects of Obama’s unemployment rates and the rest of the economic questions that plague us because of Obama, front and center in the...

Think Progress flags an amazing exchange on CNN, in which Eric Fehrnstrom, a top adviser to Mitt Romney, seems to confirm that the conservative positions Romney has been forced to take during the primary won’t be a big deal because he can simply erase them once he becomes the GOP nominee: HOST: Is there a concern that Santorum and Gingrich might force the governor to tack so far to the right it would hurt him with moderate voters in the general election? FEHRNSTROM: Well, I think you hit a reset button for the fall campaign. Everything changes. It’s almost like...

There are good reasons for Mr. Obama’s discomfort. First is the almost immediate hit to the president’s popularity when gasoline prices go up. Rightly or wrongly, Americans hold him accountable. In fact, the president is vulnerable on this topic. He has consistently portrayed fossil fuels such as oil, coal and natural gas as energy products of the past while expressing an almost unimaginably naïve optimism about the potential of alternatives. His attachment to high-cost “green” energy has played well with environmentalists but for most of the country – the roughly 50% not concerned about global warming -- it is increasingly...

<p>Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich said Tuesday that Rick Santorum "probably didn't mean to" say that he doesn't care about the unemployment rate but that it still illustrates a broader problem with the former Pennsylvania senator.</p> <p>"I know that Santorum probably didn't mean to say it, but it's what he said," Gingrich said. "And, you know, when you're going to take on an incumbent President of the United States you better know what you believe. You better be able to say it very vividly. Can you imagine a Barack Obama dealing with somebody who says he doesn't care about the unemployment rate?"</p>

The Santorum campaign appears to be taking a slightly new tack on Newt Gingrich’s continued presence in the race. Instead of calling on Mr. Gingrich to drop out of the race, they called for Mr. Gingrich’s supporters to come to their side. “It’s time for Gingrich supporters to get behind us if they truly want to have a conservative candidate; it’s up to Newt Gingrich to decide what his future is,” John Brabender, Mr. Santorum’s top strategist, told reporters after Mr. Santorum and a crowd of about 200 people had left the hotel ballroom here where Mr. Santorum had conceded...

Newt Gingrich said Tuesday night that “phase one” for himself and Rick Santorum in the days ahead must be stopping Mitt Romney from getting enough delegates to claim the Republican presidential nomination. Having skipped campaigning in Illinois and faced with mounting campaign debts, Mr. Gingrich said on Fox News that he was staying in the race because he believes voters would choose him as the nominee after rejecting Mr. Romney. If Mr. Romney fails to get the 1,144 delegates he needs to wrap up the nomination, Mr. Gingrich said that “then we’ll have a real conversation about who can best...

The Race in Illinois Mitt Romney and his allies have pounded Rick Santorum on television and radio, especially in the expensive market of Chicago, where the suburban vote could prove decisive for Mr. Romney. Mr. Santorum was still hoping for a strong vote from downstate Illinois — abutting two states where he won, Iowa and Missouri — but his aides indicated that their hopes were fading in light of the heavy advertising campaign against him. Mr. Romney’s aides believe a comfortable victory could be at hand on Tuesday, but Mr. Santorum and the rest of the field showed no signs...

Did not see a thread started for tonight. About 50 mintues before polls close. Tonight, it's important to keep track of the actual delegate count. Even though Romney will likely be projected the winner within 30 minutes, the delegate math will what's important. Romney has solid leads in the 7 CD's in Northern IL/Around Chicago. These total about 19 Delegates 3 Congressional Districts covering North/Mid state are too close to call. These total about 9 Delegates. Santorum's got the edge in the Downstate 8 Congressional Districts. These total about 26 Delegates. Depending on how the 3 CD's swing, it is...

Actor Robert De Niro opened a fundraiser starring Michelle Obama by listing her Republican rivals and jokingly suggesting that America isn't "ready for a white first lady." Newt Gingrich was not amused, and the Obama campaign says the quip was inappropriate. Gingrich on Tuesday called De Niro's comment "inexcusable" and demanded an apology from President Barack Obama. "I think that Robert De Niro's wrong," Gingrich said at a campaign stop in Shreveport, La. "The country is ready for a new first lady, and he doesn't have to describe it in racial terms." SNIP "We believe the joke was inappropriate," said...

News sources have confirmed Jim Runyon, a Gingrich delegate in IL has agreed in principle with 9 other Gingrich delegates in the 4 CD's that Rick Santorum failed to field a slate of delegates, that they will pledge their support for Santorum should he reach Tampa. This will have the effect of eliminating the delegate disadvantage in IL that Santorum was facing, particularly in the 13th Congressional District. It's now possible Santorum may split the delegate allocations by CD with Mitt Romney, or may in face take the lead, despite Romney getting more of the popular vote, since the Congressional...

Newt Gingrich had to win Mississippi and Alabama in order to remain a viable candidate. Those states weren't essential because of their delegate counts or their importance to the national election, but because Gingrich had won nothing outside the South and staked everything on a southern strategy. He lost. He remains in the campaign, but he's a ghost, a bitter aftertaste, and a thorn in Rick Santorum's side. Santorum now faces his own "must win" primary, Illinois. He's won more states than Gingrich, but his strength so far has been in the Midwest and South, and in neither region has...

President Barack Obama's re-election organization said Tuesday it was "inappropriate" for Robert De Niro to joke at a campaign fundraiser in New York Monday that America wasn't "ready for a white first lady." "We believe the joke was inappropriate," Olivia Alair, Campaign Press Secretary to the First Lady, said in a statement. The campaign's comment came after Newt Gingrich delivered a scorching response to De Niro's comments at an Obama for America fundraiser, which was attended by first lady Michelle Obama. While Michelle Obama headlined the event, she was introduced after De Niro's remarks. The event was also attended by...

To my friends who are Rick and Mitt supporters – we have already agreed to disagree. Please respect my opinion. I’m furious. Negative ads, establishment vitriol, media bias, media blackouts – all of these factors have helped push Newt into third place. It is nearly impossible for Newt to win – in the delegate count, but Newt can still win! How, you ask? By making sure that nobody wins in the delegate count! As long as nobody gets the number of delegates needed to secure the nomination on the first ballot, Newt can win. In fact, he would be the...

With former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich low in the polls and splitting the conservative vote with former Sen. Rick Santorum, commentators and pundits have suggested that Gingrich should drop out of the GOP race. Political analyst Scott Rasmussen told The Daily Caller that a dispassionate reading of the tea leaves suggests they’re right. “I think if [Gingrich] dropped out, it would be good for the party and it would be good for Santorum and Romney,” Rasmussen said. “It is much easier and much healthier for the Republican party if you have Santorum and Romney going head-to-head and Ron...

The Newt Gingrich presidential campaign is taking on more of a marathoner’s pace to accompany its insistence that Gingrich plans to see the Republican nomination contest through to the August convention... Monday...Gingrich convened about 15 top campaign advisers outside Washington, D.C., to examine the months ahead... before flying to Louisiana, where he plans to spend the week campaigning ahead of Saturday’s primary. ...Gingrich [has] endured a fresh round of calls for him to exit the race – Gingrich has said that if he felt Santorum could defeat Romney – and President Barack Obama – one-on-one, he would gladly step aside,...

Following in the footsteps of Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum today attacked Mitt Romney for his time at Bain Capital..... I heard Governor Romney here called me an economic lightweight because I wasn’t a Wall Street financier like he was. Do you really believe this country wants to elect a Wall Street financier as the president of the United States? Do you think that’s the experience that we need? Someone who’s going to take and look after as he did his friends on Wall Street and bail them out at the expense of Main Street America. This line of attack cost...

I am new to Free Republic. I look forward to being a small part of this community. I see by many of the postings that most of the posters on this website are ANTI-Romney. That is good because I am too. I am a conservative from Tallahassee, Florida. I am torn between Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum. Reading some of the postings I see there are passionate folks on the Newt side as well as on the Rick side. I am leaning toward Rick Santorum because I think he can best beat Romney in the Primary and frankly I think...

Rick Santorum could be the worst thing to happen to the GOP — ever. Worse even than George W. Bush. And that’s saying a lot. Bush did so much damage to the GOP brand, he almost destroyed the party forever. It was George Bush who brought us Barack Obama. Few Americans voted for Obama, they just voted for ABB (Anyone But Bush). Now the GOP has a golden opportunity. Obama has wrecked the U.S. economy from sea to shining sea. He has turned off voters by the millions. By historical standards, based on the current disastrous economic and unemployment numbers,...