Free Republic

Third party voters did much to screw good men like Romney and Allen West on Tuesday... I don’t know what they thought they were doing but now we are all screwed because of it.

I hope the Independents who are Libertarians bite the bullet and vote for Romney. Sure, it is a nice principle statement to not vote for either candidate - but our children and grandchildren will suffer the fallout of this semi-prideful rebuke if Obama has another term.

I agree - Romney must be choose one hell of a VEEP. From the way he sounds lately, I have a feeling Santorum is jockeying for that nod. If it was a Romney/Santorum ticket, then yes I would vote for them.

If it is not Santorum or another conservative VEEP choice, I would still hold my nose and vote for Romney simply to get rid of Eric Holder, and just enjoy Obama’s departure as a bonus.

Mika always looks like she just sucked a lemon.

Yes, I believe Newt can overcome his baggage. There was a caller on Rush yesterday with an interesting statement on that:

“Newt has a lot of baggage, but we know what his baggage is. Obama has a lot of baggage but we’re not allowed to look in his suitcase.”

All Newt has to do is remind the media of this over and over, and methinks they will drop the baggage subject...

I have supported Rick Perry and also liked Rick Santorum, but I do agree with Newt here. It's time for them to go quietly and unite behind Newt who each day seems to be the only one who can stop Romney, IMO.

I try to look at the glass half-full, as in, who is the most conservative. My answer would be Newt.

Agreed, Gator - I had the pleasure of meeting Newt on Saturday and pray the rest of the field will just go away so Newt can do his thing. After last night I know for sure he could take Obama down.

All of the GOP candidates should be talking this way about going up against Obama. I like Newt's style here.

I am very amused by this. You think that because I am digging deep and asking controversial questions that concern me, you automatically think I am a Mitt supporter? That is laughable and makes you sound a bit paranoid. Let’s see, I’ve been registered on FR for about ten years and I’ve been covering up my Mitt-love all this time so I can take up for the biggest RINO of the bunch. Of course, you’ve figured out my secret!!!

Are you serious?

So basically by copying in Jim R on your response are you trying to ‘tell on me’ for asking questions? You did read my post that said Cain and Santorum are my favorite candidates, correct? Are we not allowed to discuss hypothetical scenarios here on FR with polls clearly showing Mitt and Newt leading, or are we all supposed to bury our heads in the sand and pretend that’s not happening? I’m interested in everyone’s opinion on what they will do and freely offer mine. I said I respected your position and was trying to better understand it. I’m simply asking around to gauge what everyone is thinking and trying to understand their positions as well...or are we not allowed to be curious and do that either?

Really, if I am pissing you off then you need to get a thicker skin, Nik. Responding to you in return is making me tired! Good night, and God Bless :-)

I understand what you are saying and understand your convictions. There are great conservatives in the running right now - Santorum, Cain are my two faves - but they just aren’t catching on with the majority. I love Cain and want him to win, but he now sounds gimmicky to the average person with using 9-9-9 for every other answer - Santorum doesn’t have the ‘it’ factor sadly because he’s got everything else going on. Bachmann has great ideas but she’s been ‘Palin’d’ by the media and screwed up by hammering Perry on Gardasil. We’ve given them and other conservatives wide exposure with an unfriendly media and that is a HUGE part of the problem. There are too many candidates who’ve managed to tear each other to shreds rather than spew their invective toward Obama, where it would have been less damaging (see Bachmann/Gardasil (Perry) and Bachmann/amnesty (Newt). And if you are an average American, you’re wondering what planet Ron Paul is from everytime they show a soundbite on the MSM. He has no business in the GOP debate and only serves to drag down the public perception of conservatives, no matter how many good ideas the man has.

Since 80% of Americans still get their news from the MSM, the way I see it is that conservatives are doomed in national races until the MSM changes and has something positive to report about conservative ideals. On the local and state level, electing conservatives is less challenging (see Tea Party successes) because you are not dealing with the national media all the time. Again, that is my opinion only. After the ‘R’ candidate is chosen, if we don’t get a pure conservative I would rather support someone who is malleable to conservatives (like Newt) than a rigid progressive idealogue like Obama anyday, and be grateful to have a foot in the door of the political system to try and change the system by getting the national media to at least discuss conservative ideals. Having an ‘R’ in office will get those ideals out front in the news cycle much moreso than having Obama there.

Let’s say Newt gets it and we have an ‘R’ congress. Would you at least agree that even though he is not the perfect conservative, that a government like that would at least do favorable things for our country and turn it around? IMO more Americans will see that yes, a more conservative political direction is a successful direction for our country, and want more of it when the next election cycle comes.

Perhaps if we weren’t living in such desperate times I would understand the mentality of just sitting this one out or throwing away a vote to a third party because I didn’t get what I wanted - but an newly emboldened, 2nd term Obama/Holder combo with a ‘mandate’ is going to be the death of us. Or is that what you want, to start from scratch after we pass the point of no return?

We obviously have two different viewpoints, and I do respect yours - I am really trying hard to understand why many would rather take the whole country down into the abyss of another Obama/Holder term than attempt to work with what the majority of the voting public gives us. Romney sucks, and being Christian I don’t like many of his positions. Many of us here don’t, but IMO having an ‘R’ in the oval office is a better shot to get conservative ideas through Congress, no matter who that ‘R’ is. It’s just foreign to me to put our families and future generations through hell because I didn’t get EXACTLY what I wanted. Frankly, if I stepped away from everything in life I didn’t like 100% I’d have no friends and no job experience, probably wouldn’t have had kids because of that painful labor thing and would have stopped dating my husband when he got a really bad haircut one time early in our relationship - but my parents taught me that part of being a grown up is working with what you’ve got and doing the best you can with it, and that it’s unrealistic (not to mention damaging) to expect perfection in people, especially public people.

As an aside, I joined FR in either ‘02 or ‘03 and did step away from posting for a while but recently have decided to start contributing again, but wow, it certainly has changed over the past couple of years. I’ll continue to hang around though, because after either Mitt or Newt gets the nod (I see that as inevitable) I’ll remain hopeful that some members will work for the good of the ‘R’ candidate as well as the good of the other ‘R’s down ballot (conservative and moderately conservative) as if our lives depended on it.

Thanks for sharing your viewpoints on this topic and I hope to learn something from your response that helps me understand your position better. Have a blessed day! :-)

yes, I know but wasn’t that before the climategate emails surfaced?

oh and understandably so...there is hardly a conservative blood cell trapped in Romney’s body.

So if there isn’t a conservative on the ballot, you don’t vote, then. Correct?

Do you know if Newt has changed his stance on global warming since the Climategate emails??? I don’t remember him saying anything to prop up the GW farce recently...

Nope, I’m not pro-Romney. Never have been.

A lot of ‘damn things’ wrong with this country are being done by Obama and Holder and at least he could fix those if we get stuck with him as the candidate. Gun Walker, NLRB, Department of Education, EPA, etc - all those and more can be affected in a more positive way with anyone but Obama/Holder, right?

For the life of me, I just don’t get the whole ‘throw the baby out with the bath water’ mentality here with you and others if we end up with the guy. Let me repeat, I have no love for Romney. I have all the love for God, my family and my country, though, and don’t want to see it end and will do what I can to keep those intact.

at this point, you are probably correct unless Newt can overtake Romney. At least with Newt there is hope to energize and excite independents when he makes a fool of Obama in the debates. I don’t see how Obama could make any headway with independents having Newt as the opponent that would upstage him at every turn.

And your point about splintering and blowing this, it is so evident even on this board by the sniping that is taking place because I dared to ask if people would unite behind Romney if he were the chosen one - and I am a political conservative! Sad to say, but a lot of people here give me less hope with an attitude that is very discouraging and almost feels like people would rather have a complete collapse of our country and our way of life than vote for someone who does not represent their views 100%. It’s like in a marriage, no spouse loves 100% of his/her mate’s habits, LOL! My husband has some bad ones, as do I. BUT I love him and accept ALL those habits, though, because I love him and he’s a good man and does what is best for us and our family. I understand people don’t love the idea of voting against their political convictions, I get that. Electing a completely conservative candidate is very important to me, but even if I don’t get my way it won’t rank above my conviction as a wife and mother to ensure my family’s well being - so in the end I will rally behind and vote for the person who is best for my family AND I will work to get conservatives elected to Congress instead

Conservative GOP Candidate + Republican Congress = Awesome America

Romney + Republican Congress = An America way better than what we have now!

4 more years of Obama + more Holder = end of America

hmmm if only we could get Tebow to run - talk about ‘it’ factor LOL!!! j/k

nathanbedford described it perfectly in his post above in comparing Newt to Sarah Palin after mentioning the emotion of OWS to the freeloading hippies. Obama/Soros are good at that. Sarah is good at that. And now, with Newt rising, we see he is good at that too. I am grateful to nathanbedford for putting this all into context for me because it is so black and white now... whichever GOP candidate can espouse the most emotion with a ‘cause’ will get the nod. I mentioned earlier that maybe Newt can do that by showing America how they’ve been lied to by the MSM since Cronkite!

you should be a political consultant, LOL

Great points and thanks for putting into words what I’ve seen Newt doing that gets me excited in the same way that Sarah Palin does when she speaks!!!

do you think if Newt wins NH then Romney’s done? Can Newt still win the nod if he loses NH?

I pray that you are correct! And I have been happy to see that Mitt can’t get above that 25% - he’s just doesn’t have that ‘it’ factor about him that makes him stand out. BUT the fact that he is untarnished going into NH, SC, IA is scary. If Newt can win NH, I see a positive outcome for America.

That is the message I am getting here, that if Romney’s the guy and conservatives don’t get their candidate nominated, that some will just let the roots of our country (Christianity, free enterprise, etc) die off via voting 3rd party or not at all...because that is what will happen under a 2nd Obama term. Or do you believe things will not get worse for our country if Obama is reelected?