no newt . we can agree on that . he is puppet of the cronies . That be worse than McCain . Fuck you who ever said tea Baggers don't know shit . Fuck your ass with a big pole Dracula style. I won't say your name ?s I thought maybe some of you learned about bigotry by now . Guess not! It takes all kinds
Honesty does not = bigortry. If the Tea Baggers are not uninformed, then why are they desperately running from one candidate to another. That says to me that they are not very informed even about their own candidates. Remember too it was the Tea Baggers who brought us 8 years of George Junior and Deficits Don't Matter Cheney.
Tea Baggers did not exist to bring George the drunken sailor into office so that is dishonest right there . This is true they have no viable candidate and why they are running around like chickens with no head. Not a one . Deficit Chaney and Bush are on the shit list with a good percentage of Tea Baggers and they have em on the shit list for the same reason you do ( deficit spending), not to mention some of the freedoms they stripped from Americans. Lumping all teabaggers into one category is the bigot part. Dishonesty and stereotyping an entire group . Making false accusations is also . Tea Baggers came after George and he was part of the reason for there little get together . They don't want another George any more than you . They want a Reagan. I am not in that camp , but I recognize bias when I see it . God help us if they do go for Newt . Sorry I said that thing about Dracula. I take that back. A fit of rage over came Me . Look I know Teabaggers that are not stupid . There Ideology may differ from yours , but calling them stupid is a personal attack . I think it would be good if you stick to discredit of there policy rather than personal attacks of there person-hood . O.K. time for a riddle about Cain . Who said this: Cain turned on his brother . I should go get the exact quote . It blew my mind . I'm gonna go look for it . You can see the implication of how he has turned on his brothers . O.K. I am going to see if I can find it
NO my statement was not dishonest. Let me repeat it. Tea Baggers put George Junior and Deficits Don't Matter Cheney in office and kept them there for 8 years. It doesn't matter that those folks didn't start calling themselves Tea Baggers until Obama was elected. While George Junior and Deficits Don't Matter Cheney were spending the country blind, where were the Tea Baggers? Listening to Fox News, Levin, Limbaugh, et al. and sitting on their duffs calling any one who disagreed with a sitting war time president a traitor. That is what the Tea Baggers were doing when George Junior were involving the nation in expensive and unnecessary wars - ill conceived and poorly executed. As I said before, just because they only recently started calling themselves Tea Baggers, it does not relieve them of responsibility for their earlier actions. Wither Tea Baggers are dumb and ignorant or a slave to their cognative biases and victims of the conservative press; their actions/positions are not consistent with their stated goals. And two, I have not said anything that is not true in regards to the Tea Bag crowd. They do a fine job making fools of themselves all on their own. If they were smart and informed as you seem to think, we would not be seeing such inconsistency in their actions (e.g. the flavor of the day candidate). They would know something of the candidates that are running in their party. It is quite apparent that they have very little knowledge about any of their candidates - knowledge that should be fairly easy to discern for anyone with half a brain and reasonably informed. I didn't attack them personally. I attacked their movement, their political positions and I criticized their actions. Tea Baggers have allowed themselves to become pawns of some very powerful folks who do not have the best interests of the nation at heart.
Prognostication: Romney, Gingrich, and the Mysteries of Time Prognostication: Romney, Gingrich, and the Mysteries of Time Think of it this way: A week from today, Americans will celebrate their Thanksgiving holiday, honoring the beginning of our genocidal mission to conquer a continent with the ritualized consumption of dead birds. It's important to consider Thanksgiving, which marks the start of the "holiday season", because while news agencies might now count weeks instead of months until the GOP primary season officially opens, the people at large are often more focused on celebrating or fretting over the autumn and winter festivities. But, essentially, from Thanksgiving to Christmas is a month of holiday preparation and even obsession, and then comes a week dominated by college football until the New Year arrives. The primary season opens before the college football season wraps up. The Iowa caucus is January 3, the same day as the Sugar Bowl, a football game in New Orleans designated as this season's national championship game. The New Hampshire primary is a week later, on the tenth. So it is with some interest that we might look upon the November standings in the GOP presidential contest. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Mitt Romney has emerged to claim a one point lead over second-place challenger Newt Gingrich. The former Massachusetts governor has widely been considered the nominal frontrunner, the candidate with the best potential in a contest against President Obama, but has struggled since August to demonstrate that he is the statistical leader as well. Republican voters have given Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann, Texas Gov. Rick Perry, and pizza-spinning lobbyist Herman Cain their time atop the polls. And as Cain falters under the weight of sexual harassment scandals and his own repeated demonstrations of political incompetence, Mitt Romney is finally experiencing a moment at the head of the class. He is not without a challenger, though. Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich trails in the RealClearPolitics rolling average by all of one percent. And, significantly, he tops Romney in two recent polls from Public Policy Polling and FOX News. A CBS News poll taken last week shows Romney and Gingrich tied for second place behind Herman Cain. The temptation, of course, is to wonder how long Newt Gingrich will stand at the head of the class, but it is probably at least as wise to wonder if the former congressman from Georgia can establish himself for any period as the lone frontrunner. We are, after all, approaching the holiday season. This is important because many observers and pundits expect that once the primary season officially begins, the preseason jockeying among candidates and their supporters will shake out; as voters in various states head to the official, binding, deciding polls, Mitt Romney is widely expected to resolve as the early frontrunner. To the other, though, conventional wisdom is notoriously naïve. And therein lies the big question. Thus, prognostication. Or, perhaps, wild speculation. It may well be that with the holiday season approaching, Newt Gingrich will not have time to establish himself as a lone frontrunner. If Romney should claim the early primary advantage when the real voting begins, we might expect to see a settling of the GOP presidential field in December. The holiday season, combined with the fact that the Republican-go-round has come to Newt Gingrich might portend the close of the reality television roller coaster that has, thus far, been the GOP's pageant of strangeness. Thus, the question of Newt Gingrich as the frontrunner may end up being forestalled by a combination of holiday obsession and political reality. While we cannot rule out a strong December for Gingrich, it would seem unwise to expect that either former Sen. Rick "Google" Santorum or former Utah Governor and Ambassador to China Jon "Harley" Huntsman will get their turn at the head of the class. Nor Texas Rep. Ron "The Wannabe Libertarian" Paul, whose candidacy serves best as an insurgency run to shape the discourse. Paul, currently polling between five and ten percent has the power to stay relevant in the early primary season. Santorum and Huntsman, each claiming just under two percent in the current rolling average, are already also-rans. So it comes down to the Gingrich question. Will Mitt Romney be able to cultivate a consistent advantage in polling as the primary preseason enters its closing month, or will the lobbyist, author, and former congressman from Georgia maintain his strong showing in the wake of Herman Cain's scandals? Those who reasonably suspend conventional wisdom in the face of the Republican spectacle can rightly wonder if Romney's seemingly eternal handicaps of political waffling and religious affiliation will evaporate as the real vote draws night. And, presently, the resulting question focuses on Newt Gingrich. The right-wing mainstay has surged in recent days, but is also a walking scandal. And therein lies the question. President Obama holds the slightest edge versus the generic Republican candidate, he is presently running ahead of Romney by a slightly better margin (1.3%) in head-to-head polling, and more comfortably against Gingrich (8%). Perhaps, then, we might look at the question in terms of whether or not Newt Gingrich can actually win against President Obama. And, to be certain, the conventional wisdom says no, but as noted, conventional wisdom is unreliable. Thus, will Republicans spend December fighting among themselves, or are they preparing to clean up after the raucous brawl and focus on the next battle? The crystal ball is cloudy. Intuition suggests the GOP will begin to fall in behind Mitt Romney, but so little about this field of candidates seems intuitive. For now, the Gingrich question remains. While a Rasmussen poll released earlier this week shows President Obama gaining ground on Newt Gingrich in head-to-head polling, the firm has also released, today, an Iowa poll giving Gingrich thirteen points over Mitt Romney (32-19%) among likely caucus participants. ____________________ Notes: RealClearPolitics. "2012 Republican Presidential Nomination". (n.d.) RealClearPolitics.com. November 17, 2011. http://www.realclearpolitics.com/ep.../republican_presidential_nomination-1452.html —————. "President Obama vs. Republican Candidate". (n.d.) RealClearPolitics.com. November 17, 2011. http://www.realclearpolitics.com/ep...ident_obama_vs_republican_candidate-1745.html —————. "President Obama vs. Republican Candidates". (n.d.) RealClearPolitics.com. November 17, 2011. http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2012/president/president_obama_vs_republican_candidates.html Rasmussen Reports. "Election 2012: Obama 50%, Gingrich 38%". November 14, 2011. RasmussenReports.com. November 17, 2011. http://www.rasmussenreports.com/pub...ember_2011/election_2012_obama_50_gingrich_38 —————. "2012 Iowa Republican Caucus". November 17, 2011. RasmussenReports.com. November 17, 2011. http://www.rasmussenreports.com/pub...ial_election/iowa/2012_iowa_republican_caucus
An amusing comparison of Gingrich and Romney: http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/283841/gop-smackdown-gingrich-v-romney-jonah-goldberg
Bill Clinton praises Gingrich: http://www.newsmax.com/Headline/Bill-Clinton-Praises-Newt/2011/11/26/id/419143 Honest praise? A calculated move to try to boost Gingrich in the primary assuming he'll be the weaker general election candidate? A little of each? I doubt even an outright endorsement from Clinton would help a Republican in the primary, although it might well help in the general election.
For the first time (I think), Gingrich is polling ahead of Obama* *the difference is probably within the margin of error of the poll, however, it's also interesting to note that Gingrich is ahead of Obama by 18 points among independent voters.
You can pretty much bank on the expectation that Gingrich will find some way to sabotage himself in the coming months. He does so pretty much like clockwork, for years now. His tenacity is impressive, though.
It's interesting. The Tea Bag faction does not like the one affair that Cain is alleged to have had; so they flee into the arms of the man who has had multiple affairs - seems reasonable in a Tea Bag sort of way. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
Gingrich is a douche' bag and anyone foolish enough to vote for him in the primaries needs to have their head examined. The man is a political animal through and through, there's not a genuine bone in the man. He'd sell his sick mother if he thought it'd help him out politically.
This Newt Thing I've been trying for days to take this Newt thing seriously, and I just can't. He is an integral figure in what Kathleen Parker calls the "Palinization of the GOP", but that derives from Paul Begala's Newsweek piece that goes by the blunt title, "The Stupid Party". As the former Clinton advisor and CNN host put it: John Stuart Mill famously dismissed mid-19th-century British conservatives as the “stupid party.” But in the America of my youth, it wasn’t true. Conservatives looked up to intellectuals. William F. Buckley set the tone with his sesquipedalian erudition. George F. Will was a must-read, and my conservative classmates at the University of Texas in the Age of Reagan could all quote Milton Friedman. No more. Today’s conservatives are more likely to mimic Rush Limbaugh than Buckley, and they probably know more of the work of Salma Hayek than Friedrich Hayek. Parker's take is only slightly more nuanced: Republicans aren’t really stupid, of course, and Begala acknowledges this. But, as he also pointed out, the conservative brain trust once led by William F. Buckley has been supplanted by talk radio hosts who love to quote Buckley (and boast of his friendship) but who do not share the man’s pedigree or his nimble mind. Moreover, where Buckley tried to rid the GOP of fringe elements, notably the John Birch Society, today’s conservatives have let them back in. The 2010 Conservative Political Action Conference was co-sponsored by the Birchers. Meanwhile, the big tent fashioned by Ronald Reagan has become bilious with the hot air of religious fervor. No one was more devout than the very-Catholic Buckley, but you didn’t see him convening revivals in the public square. Nor is it likely he would have embraced fundamentalist views that increasingly have forced the party into a corner where science and religion can’t coexist. Scientific skepticism, the engine that propels intellectual inquiry, has morphed into skepticism of science fueled by religious certitude .... The conservative turning of scientific skepticism on its ear is nothing new in general terms; historically conservatism has turned many a decent notion upside-down. The same historical heritage that appeals to superficial Christianity, for instance, would reject the Apostles of Christ as evil communists. Justice, in the conservative mind, is the perpetuation of injustice so that the beneficiaries should not have to give anything to balance the outcome. The solution to the economic chaos brought by the deregulation of greed is to pander even further to the greedy. At the heart of the conservative movement over the last two decades has been Newt Gingrich. After all, the phenomenon of the "Stupid Party" is nothing new. Fundamentalist Christianity rose in the American tale as a response to Darwinism, and established an orthodoxy of faith that betrays the basic principles expressed by Jesus Christ. Global warming now dominates the conservative anti-scientific ire, but this has been going on at least since Clinton's presidency, when academic excellence was regarded as antisocial elitism. Throughout the 1990s, conservatives clung to the counterintuitive notion that a sizable portion of the population would wake up one day and choose to become a hated minority—i.e., homosexuals—apparently for a lark. And though not always a headliner, Newt Gingrich has remained close to the center of this action. Speak nothing of the "Palinization" of the conservative movement; the suggestion of Sarah Palin as a credible vice presidential candidate emerged from the Republican surrender and eventual condemnation of the intellect. And therein we see another transformation. The sacrifice of the intellect was intended to help build faith in God, and was enumerated by St. Ignatius Loyola, founder of the most effective educational movement within the Catholic Church. Yet in the modern day we see a superficial sacrifice that looks more like unskilled, thuggish butchery than anything reflective of faith. Gingrich's rise in various polls of late derives from two main factors. First is the seemingly ubiquitous "Anybody but Mitt" notion about the GOP presidential nomination contest. While Mitt Romney's political credentials are respectable in broader terms, the former Massachusetts governor fails the purity standards demanded by the Republican Party's hardline right wing. And, to be certain, there is increasing concern about the polymer flexibility of successful politicians these days, but this is one of many affecting notions unreconciled to the real processes taking place. Witness, for instance, the FOX News tantrum about President Obama's online Thanksgiving message. One right-wing pundit could be heard saying that it doesn't matter what the president believes; he owes the American people a more explicit acknowledgment of Christian supremacy in our society. Yet when it comes to a Republican presidential candidate, that broader appeal is a strike against a politician such as Mitt Romney. Or perhaps it is irrelevant if the theory that Romney is simply of the wrong religion holds; in that case, nothing he says will be good enough for the hardliners. The second factor is, of course, the self-destruction of the GOP's other "ABM" frontrunners. Donald Trump wisely stayed out of the race. Rep. Michele Bachmann exploded in a spectacle of stupidity and paranoia only to be followed by Gov. Rick Perry, whose Texas smarm was not nearly opaque enough to hide the gaping chasm where his intellect is supposed to be. So the ABMs settled on Herman Cain, the black man who could eliminate the race card if only people would vote for him because he's black; who stands accused of being a serial sexual harasser; who stands accused of having a thirteen-year affair outside his marriage; who does not comprehend his own tax plan; who needs to be reminded of what reality actually is before he can even attempt to explain how he feels about it. The parade of empty suits interrupted only by a stylized bathrobe reminiscent of dictatorial pomp has now led to Gingrich, who polls well among conservatives because they want somebody—anybody—who isn't Mitt Romney and might be able to survive a public debate with President Obama. Suggestions of early polling success among independents only remind that people are frustrated with the state of the nation, and want someone—i.e., President Obama—to take it out on. But Newt's political baggage is astounding, and lest the swing bloc prove itself idiotic, his luck will fade as reality worms its way through his doughy charm. Are the so-called independents really upset at Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae? Then why would they run with one of the highest-profile paid advocates for Freddie Mac? Are they really values voters? Then why would they run with a thrice-married serial adulterer who helped drag the nation into an impeachment trial about sexual purity? Are they anti-elitist? Then how will they deal with his revolving credit line at Tiffany's, or his speaking fee between sixty and a hundred thousand dollars? Former Gingrich (and Quayle) press secretary Rich Galen could even be heard commenting on MSNBC about the prospect of how an appearance fee higher than the median annual family income will play among South Carolina conservatives, though it's also fair to wonder why that matters when so many adored the media glitz star Sarah Palin, who raked in twelve million dollars in the year after she quit her post as Governor of Alaska. In the end, then, the question would become whether or not Gingrich can win in the general election. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! via RealClearPolitics Despite Gingrich's recent success in a Rasmussen poll (all of two percent), Democrats and their supporters are not particularly worried about him. Rather, they seem to prefer an ABM candidate, as Mitt Romney is the only Republican in the race who consistently polls with any chance of winning the general. Given Newt Gingrich's political baggage, his role in the erasure of conservative intellect, and the fact that his policy expressions seem to be blunt endorsements of conservative class warfare, it is unlikely that he can defeat Obama in the 2012 general election. Indeed, his best chances rest with the possibility of self-destructive neuroses drawing the swing bloc to his side in order to punish Obama while empowering the very politics that cause so much of their frustration. In telling the so-called "99 percent" to take a bath and get a job, Gingrich seems to be hoping that many of those people won't notice that the reason they can't get a job is because the broadly criticized "one percent" wrecked the economy. And in a season when the current Speaker of the House declares that the one percent are refusing to hire people in order to get their way politically, one wonders just how stupid the former Speaker thinks voters are. Of course, that is how Republicans, as they do with so many things, turn respect upside down. They appeal to voters by insulting them, and hope people will be angry enough about it to blame Obama. ____________________ Notes: Parker, Kathleen. "The Palinization of the GOP". The Washington Post. November 18, 2011. WashingtonPost.com. November 30, 2011. http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-palinization-of-the-gop/2011/11/18/gIQAd6gwZN_story.html Begala, Paul. "The Stupid Party". Newsweek. November 13, 2011. TheDailyBeast.com. November 30, 2011. http://www.thedailybeast.com/newswe...mbing-itself-down-to-be-our-stupid-party.html RealClearPolitics. "General Election: Gingrich vs. Obama". (n.d.) RealClearPolitics.com. November 30, 2011. http://www.realclearpolitics.com/ep.../general_election_gingrich_vs_obama-1453.html
Ron Paul has put out an Ad that savages Gingrich: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWKTOCP45zY&feature=youtube_gdata_player Should Gingrich get the nomination, Obama could use this exact same ad against him to good effect.
The Waffle War? Ouch. Perhaps it is not the most germane point at the moment, but I was struck by the prominence of MSNBC in that advertisement. If the spot has an effect on conservative voters, does that mean they regard the "liberal FOX" as a valid outlet, or merely a convenient source? Beyond that, I would suggest that while the temptation is strong to equate Gingrich's sharp policy swings to Mitt Romney's legendary chameleonism°, it is also worth noting the severity of the Georgia Bombshell's changes. While Gingrich would try to downplay his work as a lobbyist—such as blasting politicians for taking money from Freddie Mac while working for a payout of at least a million and a half—Romney, a Bain Capital job-slasher, at least has the stones to unabashedly remind that "corporations are people". We could be witnessing the start of the Great Waffle War of 2012. ____________________ Notes: ° chameleonism — Is that a real word, yet? If not, can we officially coin it?
GREAT POST TIASSA! I cannot help but notice how this slate of Republican candidates so closely resemble any number of conservative talk radio hosts (i.e. limbaugh, levin, beck, et al). It would appear Republicans/Tea Baggers are looking for a president who is a Rush Limbaugh clone.
Rasmussen has Gingrich ahead of Romney by 21 points. http://www.realclearpolitics.com/ep.../republican_presidential_nomination-1452.html
Mind-boggling? I'm nearly speechless. If Newt Gingrich ends up winning the GOP nomination, this could be the best Christmas present the Republicans have ever given us. I suppose I can add that this is also a time when I sincerely regret the partisan divide in our society, especially as it affects me. I would very much like to comprehend just what is going through the minds of conservative voters as they flock to Gingrich. What will next year bring? With the primary season kicking off shortly before the college football national championship, I can only wonder if the Newtonian momentum will carry through January and bury Mitt Romney's presidential hopes around February 7, with eight states having settled their GOP nomination questions. It's possible that we will know by Christmas. It seems a staggering proposition that Newt Gingrich will win the nomination, but the ABM phenomenon might well concretize this month, and become a genuine political reality. The way the numbers have been going, it does not seem that Rep. Ron Paul will get his turn at the head of the class. His highest showing sees to be about fourteen percent in an August poll, and Gingrich's advantage seems largely bled from Herman Cain's waning political fortune. Santorum is a non-contender, and it seems unlikely that Jon Huntsman is going to break four percent, which he last saw in a September FOX News poll. Especially as Mitt Romney seems to be hanging tough. While the latest Rasmussen result seems to bruise his campaign, it's worth noting that he has had his moments in the sun. He saw brief and slender advantages in November as Cain faltered, and before that in September and October as Perry declined. The Gingrich news roundup is as confused as we might expect. Alex Pareene, at Salon, notes: The Republican primary campaign has become a two-man race, with unloved ostensible front-runner Mitt Romney currently suffering the indignity of trailing in the polls to self-satisfied serial adulterer Newt Gingrich. Where does the unofficial communications arm of the conservative movement stand on the race? They’re noncommittal, thus far. We all know the basic facts: A lot of conservatives see Romney as completely unacceptable. The more pragmatic ones see Gingrich as wholly unelectable. Fox News is run by consummate conservative elite Roger Ailes. Ailes has two objectives: Generate ratings and elect Republicans. The Gingriches of the world excite Fox viewers, because of their shamelessness. Romney excites no one, but he’ll need Fox’s support if he ends up the beneficiary of a Gingrich collapse. Fox has indulged its audience’s brief surges of affection for unelectable fringe candidates, from Trump through Cain, but the channel’s always been careful to remind the base that they may eventually have to hold their noses and vote for Romney. Karl Rove, who’s already running a shadow campaign against Obama, has made this point explicitly during his Fox appearances. Gary Langer of ABC News considers poll results that also lend to the theme of the GOP nomination being a two man race: Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney are maintaining broad popularity in the Republican Party, both far outstripping GOP rival Ron Paul in basic favorability. But among independents – crucial swing voters in the general election – the advantage is Romney’s. The latest ABC News/Washington Post poll finds that all three have challenges in the perception of the general public. Gingrich remains underwater in basic favorability, with more Americans seeing him unfavorably than favorably. Romney gets no better than an even split on this measure; Paul, roughly the same. Meanwhile, wary conservatives are trying to find a way to push back against the Newtonian phenomenon. Will Rahn explains GOP star-in-waiting Chris Christie's criticism of the Georgia Bombshell: Christie, a rising star in Republican politics, is a supporter of former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, Gingrich’s chief rival for the GOP nomination. Now trailing Gingrich in the polls by a significant margin, Romney’s camp may have found an effective attack dog in the famously blunt Christie. “Speaker Gingrich has never run anything,” Christie said to a crowd of Romney supporters in the Sunshine State. “He’s been a legislator. I have to tell you — I don’t think being a legislator is the best calling card.” “Look at the guy we have in the White House now,” Christie continued, referring to President Obama. “He never ran anything and was a legislator.” Christie then dismissed the newly popular Gingrich as a passing fad that would go the way of other one-time Republican presidential front-runners this year. Gingrich’s support in the polls, he said, were only “as solid as the Cain numbers were, as solid as the Perry numbers were, as solid as the Bachmann numbers were.” And there is, of course, the hometown factor; Boston Globe columnist Joshua Green declares, for Bloomberg's Businessweek, that a Gingrich nomination would indicate the failure of the Tea Party: Newt Gingrich is only the latest improbable Republican frontrunner, and unlike those who preceded him — Donald Trump, Michele Bachmann, Rick Perry, Herman Cain — he has a decent chance of sticking around. That’s partly due to necessity. Just a month from the Iowa caucuses, conservatives don’t have time to anoint a new savior. It’s also because, despite his copious shortcomings, he seems immune to what felled the others. An able debater, he won’t flop like Perry and Cain. He’s not a full-on nut like Trump. And his legislative record eclipses Bachmann’s, which barely exists. But his late emergence as the “true conservative” poised to challenge Mitt Romney is rich, and its broader significance underappreciated. For two years, the driving force in national politics has been the Tea Party, whose founding myth was that ordinary citizens were rising up in defiant resistance to the hidebound, self-dealing ways of Washington. Greedy politicians had bloated the government and lined their own pockets at taxpayers’ expense, while letting the country go to rot. Prime examples were held to be the expansion of government health care and federal support for the housing market, especially Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-sponsored entities that many conservatives blame for the financial crisis. The mere fact of being a veteran Washington legislator cost respected conservatives like Sen. Bob Bennett of Utah their jobs. Should all that anger, energy and contempt for Washington end up concentrating itself in the person of Newt Gingrich, then the movement will have failed when the stakes were highest. Temperamentally, Gingrich is a good fit. Both his zestful attacks on the media and unbridled self-regard both reflect Tea Party tendencies. But since being deposed as House Speaker in 1999, he has earned millions of dollars by conducting himself in almost point-by-point opposition to what the Tea Party claims to stand for. In fact, he’s a superb exemplification of the way Washington really works. But Ali Weinberg of NBC News suggests that voters in South Carolina are willing to forgive Newt Gingrich much of his political baggage because his status as a Beltway insider plays to his favor: During a three-day swing through South Carolina, Newt Gingrich spent a lot of time addressing liabilities for his revitalized campaign, some of which his opponents have tried to peg him over: his career as a Washington insider; his support of a “humane” approach to immigration; and even his personal skeletons, long out of the closet. But conversations with South Carolinians who came to hear Gingrich speak suggest some voters here would overlook those hurdles, meaning his opponents might have to consider other lines of attack if Gingrich sustains his recent surge. One such issue -- Gingrich’s 20-year Congressional career -- has become fodder for Mitt Romney, who on Monday called Gingrich a “life-long politician” .... .... But some voters here indicated that Gingrich’s longtime ties to Washington were actually part of his appeal. “Because he’s spent so much time in Washington, he knows what it takes to get done,” said Bob Smith, 66, a marriage counselor from the coastal town of Hilton Head, who attended a town hall on Tuesday in nearby Bluffton. “He proved that in ’94 when he helped get rid of the Democratic majority and got America back on track even with a Democratic president.” In truth, the Gingrich surge offers a certain entertainment value. While conventional wisdom is notoriously fickle, and often unreliable, one can reasonably take a certain degree of pleasure in watching pundits, analysts, and politicians alike choking and sputtering over the state of the GOP presidential field. Conservative commentator Jennifer Rubin lashed out over the weekend at the Union Leader endorsement of Newt Gingrich and the role of conservative media: The endorsement includes no recognition that Gingrich was creamed by Bill Clinton in the budget standoff. No mention of the ethics violations and the penchant to compromise away conservative principles. No mention of the House Republicans’ attempted coup against Gingrich’s leadership. And no mention of his post-speakership, which consisted primarily of feathering his nest by shilling for causes and interests the Union Leader opposed (e.g. ethanol subsidies, Freddie Mac, Medicare Part D, immigration reform). Even sillier than the ill-reasoned endorsement is the reaction of right-leaning pundits who find this development meaningful — decisive, even! Good grief. While the newspaper is New Hampshire’s largest, it has a lousy track record of picking winners. (It has previously endorsed Steve Forbes and Pat Buchanan.) Moreover, conservative pundits are usually the ones warning Republicans that newspaper endorsements are declining in value in recent years. But this episode is hardly isolated. The track record of the right-leaning media (including talk shows and blogs) has been embarrassingly bad this election cycle. Some of the errors are rudimentary ones that get repeated every cycle — the fixation on early national polls and the overemphasis on money. But in this presidential primary the conservative media has been far worse than many mainstream publications in analyzing the candidates’ weaknesses and recognizing problematic issues and performances .... The emergence of the Newtron Bomb in the GOP War for the Ticket is an exposé in motion, a dynamic indictment not only of the Wreck of the Conservative Hope, but also the superficiality of American political culture in general. The emergence of a formerly laughingstock campaign as a potential legitimate frontrunning organization not only defies early prognostication, but reminds without question of the paucity of conventional wisdom. The situation seems so unstable that one even hesitates, in light of the Rasmussen poll, to rely on the "Anybody But Mitt" explanation, or attempt to dissect the question of the conservative purity test that unseated longtime GOP stalwarts Mike Castle in Delaware and Bob Bennett in Utah. It's a hard thing to wrap one's head around. The thought of a Gingrich nomination thrills Democratic supporters, many of whom are wary about the possibility. As retiring Rep. Barney Frank expressed it: "I did not think I lived a good enough life to see Newt Gingrich as the Republican nominee." A Gingrich nomination would be one of the best things the GOP ever did for the United States of America. One can only dare to hope. ___________________ Notes: Pareene, Alex. "Who’s winning the Fox primary?". Salon. December 1, 2011. Salon.com. December 1, 2011. http://www.salon.com/2011/12/01/fox_treading_carefully_in_gingrich_romney_race/singleton/ Langer, Gary. "Gingrich, Romney Outstrip Paul in Popularity Within the GOP". Polls. November 30, 2011. ABCNews.Go.com. December 1, 2011. http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politic...y-outstrip-paul-in-popularity-within-the-gop/ Rahn, Will. "Christie compares Gingrich to Obama". The Daily Caller. December 1, 2011. DailyCaller.com. December 1, 2011. http://dailycaller.com/2011/12/01/christie-compares-gingrich-to-obama/ Green, Joshua. "If Newt Gingrich is the Answer, Tea Party has Failed". Businessweek. December 1, 2011. Businessweek.com. December 1, 2011. http://www.businessweek.com/politic...grich_is_the_answer_tea_party_has_failed.html Weinberg, Ali. "Some South Carolina voters inclined to look past Gingrich's baggage". First Read. December 1, 2011. FirstRead.MSNBC.MSN.com. December 1, 2011. http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/_new...oters-inclined-to-look-past-gingrichs-baggage Rubin, Jennifer. "Gingrich’s endorsement and the failings of the conservative media". Right Turn. November 27, 2011. WashingtonPost.com. December 1, 2011. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs...rvative-media/2011/11/27/gIQAPIc81N_blog.html
Cain plans to endorse Newt today: http://www.myfoxatlanta.com/dpp/new...n-to-endorse-newt-gingrich-monday-20111204-tm
How appropriate if true, The Newt is to kiss The Donald's ring this morning. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
It appears that is not true; another case of the right wing media getting it wrong yet again; nothing new in the world today. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! http://www.drudgereportarchives.net/Article.php?ID=128781& http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_...ta-fox-station-says-cain-to-endorse-gingrich/
