These endless debates have allowed front-runners to stumble and dark horses to catch up — up to a point. Now as the primaries begin to come thick and fast, and debates wane, organization and money matter more and more, and that favors Romney.
The front-runner is getting closer to, or may have exceeded, his goal of matching the combined vote tallies of the two major anti-Romney candidates; that said, the race is not over — or rather, in terms of primaries and delegate counts, it has hardly begun, especially in the age of disastrous gaffe or embarrassing disclosure. If Gingrich is going to stop Romney, then for all practical purposes Santorum will have to drop out; right now, for all his professionalism and steadiness, Santorum is playing the role of a third-party spoiler candidate.
To continue, Gingrich will have to curb his Reagan boasting, drop his aggravating petulance and serial whining about his supposed unfair treatment, and cut out the sleazy tit-for-tat commercials, which hurt him more than they do Romney. Otherwise, he comes off as either more of the bomb-thrower of his youth, or someone who can dish it out but not take it. Instead, Gingrich needs to refocus on those anti-Obama themes and modes that boosted him to near-front-runner status. He showed that he is the most interesting ad hoc speaker again in his impressive concession speech with an effective impromptu “big idea” critique of Obamism, delivered quite well, and without his unfortunate “they’re unfair to me” whine.
Romney is doing better the harder he is hit. But he still hasn’t hit stride in explaining the disaster that we face of Obama’s borrowing $3 billion–plus a day to fund counterproductive big-government boondoggles while sending business into stagnation with more regulation, fears of Obamacare, and constant demonization of the successful. The latest news — sluggish 2011 GDP, the Congressional Budget Office’s bleak prognosis, housing slumping, more debt — depresses everyone, given that the “recovery” is turning into more of a “recessionary.”
That said, Romney’s organization, money-raising, and debate prep are all improving. He is getting better at explaining his wealth and how his expertise can improve the lot of the less well-off. When they hit him with the 1 percent class-warfare trope, he has to explain that Americans are not peasants, and that newly created wealth, like a Keystone pipeline, is not zero-sum and does not come at the expense of others — while raising the issue of hypocrisy, given that all of Obama’s chiefs-of-staff were get-millions-quick Wall Streeters, and his donations are Wall Street–centric. Scoundrel Jon Corzine’s bundling of hundreds of thousands of dollars for Obama sort of sums up the hypocrisy of “noble liberals versus the 1 percent.”
Meanwhile, the candidates have to cut the suicidal “you’re a liar!” back and forth, and demand from Obama an explanation for the continued massive borrowing amid the latest dismal news.
"If Gingrich is going to stop Romney, then for all practical purposes Santorum will have to drop out; right now, for all his professionalism and steadiness, Santorum is playing the role of a third-party spoiler candidate.
To continue, Gingrich will have to curb his Reagan boasting, drop his aggravating petulance and serial whining about his supposed unfair treatment, and cut out the sleazy teat-for-tat commercials, which hurt him more than they do Romney. Otherwise, he comes off as either more of the bomb-thrower of his youth, or someone who can dish it out but not take it."
Maybe, just maybe, exactly because of those things you recite about Gingrich that he has to change to win, maybe, just maybe, Gingrich is not the one to stop Romney. Maybe, just maybe, Gingrich is playing the role of the third-party spoiler.
Maybe, just maybe, Newter Gingrich is the one who should drop out because, among other things, he is showing himself to be a petulant whiner, a sleazy campaigner, a bomb thrower who can dish it out but not take it, showing himself to be not professional and not steady.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI commend Mr. Hanson for offering a thorough review on the Primary
- especially in light of the huge win for Mr. Romney.
In regards to his commentary on Mr. Gingrich: It is accurate, but I feel the time is long past for Newt to "reform" his ways. This is Newt Gingrich. Even if he tried to pretend to be different from now on, Gingrich's awful offering has been deeply destructive, especially to the Conservative elements who jumped onto his bandwagon. The damage is done. A sincere embarrassment. Bringing Newt up from the pits again, will only prove further disastrous for all.
Also, what is not truly reported, in many Conservative venues, is the shockingly poor management of Newt's Campaign itself. Gingrich continues to remind everyone why he could not get on to the VA Ballot. It is like the 1990's all over again, only in a brief span of a few months. Fox may not cover the endless folly of the Gingrich Campaign endless missteps, especially including the enormous display of financial incompetence.
This is another mindless example of the Gingrich folly:
"Gingrich’s Faith Leaders “Not Aware” They’d Been Enlisted in Campaign"
Newt Gingrich cannot lead in a competent manner required to run a Campaign, and would be a disaster even attempting to manage the Executive Branch. He is never going to change himself, and this is quite evident.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse"To continue, Gingrich will have to curb his Reagan boasting, drop his aggravating petulance and serial whining about his supposed unfair treatment, and cut out the sleazy tat-for-tat commercials, which hurt him more than they do Romney. Otherwise, he comes off as either more of the bomb-thrower of his youth, or someone who can dish it out but not take it."
I think the cake is baked on Newt and his temperament. He can't take the heat of a national campaign. Obama's team would easily destroy him.
Plus Newt is a 68 year old man who is set in his ways, he clings to them. He doesn't have a very supple mind. His incessant whining and complaining are proof. He even had his surrogates whining and complaining for him (Sarah Palin).
Mitt Romney on the otherhand takes the attacks quite well. And he's had to take it from Newt and Obama/DNC/Democratic Super Pacs. Also there was a statistic that said the MSM had been the most negative towards Mitt.
Yet Mitt doesn't whine, he just goes on campaigning to get his message to Americans.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseIs it possible that Santorum is staying in precisely to derail Gingrich and save the Party from going into the fall led by a lunatic? "Tis a far, far better thing I do than I have ever done..."
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseExcerpt from Dirk Beliq in the comments section on Foster's post about Mitt going negative.
"Newt has vaporized any residual merit he may've had in his egomaniacal crusade for attention. He is craven in his cravings and woe to any who are so enthralled with the notions that supporting him is some sort of blow against the "Establishment" - Sarah Palin is about to go up in flames with him; pity. When the defeat of Obama is a matter of national survival, we don't have time to patronize a petulant baby-man with the name of an amphibian."
Brilliant. Go read the whole thing.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseFor the curious -- the reference should be to Robert Costa's post (not "Foster's").
The back and forth is interesting, but I found Beliq's much longer reply a tad later in the thread to be spot on. A most interesting voice.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseSantorum should not drop out; Gingrich should.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI fear we will lose the general. The damage to both Mitt and Newt have pretty much doomed them both. I hope I am wrong.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseHillary Clinton and Barack Obama waged a pretty good war against on another in the Democrat primaries 4 years ago. Bill Clinton even pushed the racist envelope to damage Obama and was reported to have said, "A few years ago, this guy (Obama) would be getting us coffee." MSM didn't make as much it as they are with Newt and Mitt but noentheless, these things happen in primaries and politics.
Once a front runner emerges, the focus will shift on the match up with Obama. If Obama then wants to relitigate attacks made in the GOP primaries, then so be it. The front runner need only point to the fact that Obama has to go negative because he has nothing to stand on. Nothing.
I firmly believe Obama will be a one termer. I think Romney will be the challenger and he will slice and dice Obama, who is not nearly as good on his feet as he's touted to be, in the debates.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI disagree that Santorum needs to get out to create a chance to stop Romney. Instead, he and Newt should split the country so that one or the other vigorously opposes Romney in each state. Santorum's third place finishes are largely self-fulfilling prophecies as anti-Mitt voters gravitate to Gingrich as the candidate with the best chance to beat Romney, and anti-Newt voters go for Romney as the guy who can stop Gingrich. I expect there are a number of places where he can beat Romney if he makes a strong effort and Gingrich doesn't. Conversely, many of Santorum's votes have been coming from people who don't like either of the others, and Gingrich may not get much of a bounce from his departure.
Neither Gingrich nor Santorum have the resources to compete with Romney nationally, but between them they can offer a strong alternative in most of the states. They can thereby prevent Romney from clinching early. Perhaps one of them shows himself to be a far superior candidate than the other and will be able to build enough support to capture the nomination by winning most of the late winner-take-all primaries, or perhaps they keep tag-teaming Mitt all the way to the convention.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI'm not convinced Romney is even a Conservative.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseAbsolutely EXCITED about the Florida Primary!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Congratulations to Governor Romney on a well deserved win.
I am hoping you go all the way to the nomination and presidency!
Mitt Romney 2012!!!
I Believe.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseRomney: "And in 2016 too, maybe!?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI agree that Sen. Santorum is a more interesting candidate than Gingrich - I would like to hear more from him than hear more of the same from Spkr. Gingrich.
What seems more interesting is the fact the the Spokesman/Bomb-thrower style pol is really not that enticing in the real world of campaigning and retail politics. Gingrich's style is just that, style, and he seems to only be impressive in very narrow confines - debates, faux debates where he delivers punchy lines to a straw man/ absent opponent (sounds a little like Pres. Obama's style, no?) Isn't this why Bachmann never took off? A shiny darling of some zealous sub-group with no depth.
Dennis Miller had it right months ago when Newt was in single digits and off touring in Europe: this is "Branding". I think it excites him to be thought of as a figure standing athwart the tide of history, etc.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse"explaining his wealth and how his expertise can improve the lot of the less well-off"
Both are immaterial. The real issue is Romney's ideology, not his wealth. How would he restore American values and its place in the world? It doesn't matter if the winner of the presidency is the CEO of a leveraged buy-out company with Swiss bank accounts and millions in the Cayman Islands or a grocer from Dodge City, Kansas with a mortgage. Newt stands for what's needed, even as the NRO crowd ridicules him as "grandiose." Romney? A liberal governor from a liberal State; foreign bank accounts (why??); a low rate of tax; stuffing money into the campaign instead of debating the issues; Soros' view that Obama and Romney are tweedledom and tweedeldee. The most left-wing electorate in the nation elected Romney governor, and not because he's a "conservative." Romney, supposedly a great businessman, must close the sale with the GOP's right-wing, but all I hear is Rockefellerian arrogance.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseEven if Santorum was out and all his votes went to Gingrich, Newt would not have won Florida. The only spoiler of Newt's campaign is Newt. The whining about being outspent is unpresidential and can only be blamed on Newt's lack of financial supporters and his lack of organization. He couldn't even make it on the ballot in his home state.
Romney is a fantastic organizer and knows how to mobilize his grass roots support. He knows how to attract the kind of money into his campaign that will ultimately beat the Obama machine. I am a proud tea party conservative who is thrilled to have a candidate like Mitt who can win and carry on the Reagan tradition.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI don't think there is much left that Gingrich or Santorum can do to stop the Romney train. Romney may not be as conservative as many (including me) would like, but he at least sounds reasonable, which will draw independent voters away from Obama a lot more easily than the bomb-throwing rhetoric that Gingrich is known for. The voters, especially independents, don't just vote for ideology, they vote for the man, and Gingrich comes across as an arrogant jerk with good ideas.
It's a shame we could not get a more conservative candidate than Romney, but his opponents simply are not very good options. And Romney may surprise us. I do think he will be more conservative than McCain was, and I think he will be good on the economy, and I don't think he will stray on the socially conservative issues. And if he follows through on his promise to repeal ObamaCare, I will be very happy indeed.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseFirst, a big congratulations to Team Romney on their win in Florida. It's sad that most the commentary has via media seems to be what Newt should do. Also, it appears the main subject matters for Mitt's win is how much they spent on ads, and how most of those ads were negative with little commentary on the Newt's Super Pac ads.
As for who is most responsible for Newt's big loss in Florida? I would say, "Newt." I don't think any ad from the Romney camp is as crazy as Newt's proposal of a US Space State in the next 8 years a week after the country just had to raise the debt ceiling another trillion dollars, that trillion with a "T" to keep the country operating again, and out of that one trillion, 400 billion will be automatically owed to a foreign entity. I have to hand it to Newt, even with this Space State proposal he still has the nerve to declare himself "The True Conservative." Uh, Yeah.
What is so impressive about Team Romney's good old fashion beatening of Newt, was that in almost every demographic in Florida, Romney beat Newt. And, to be fair, I wouldn't say that the Romney camp is getting fair play from conservative outlets, so much so for me, I am now watching CNN for fair and balance presentation, and that saying something.
Congratulations Team Romney - next is Nevada.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI hope the Gingrich campaign reads this to learn what they are doing wrong and what they can do right.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI just watched Gingrich's and Romney's post primary speeches. Romney is all platitudes and very little content. He did a good job stating the clear difference between him and Obama.. He was reading from notes. I guess he will be okay, but why do I feel uneasy that he will not do the slash and burn that we need to accomplish if we are to survive?
Gingrich was all content and it didn't look like he needed notes to remind him what to say. He has convictions of what we must do, specifically. It is too bad that Gingrich went the petulant way. He really is the best idea man. I feel confident that if he got a conservative congress, Gingrich would dramatically reverse the Obama destruction. It would be a transformative presidency. Would Romney's be? I don't know.
If people watched these two videos and knew nothing else, our side would choose Gingrich. Ah, well. We shall see.
Mr. Hanson is right about what Newt should do but what on Earth makes us think he'll actually do it? This part of Newt (whining, complaining, bomb-throwing, etc) that we're seeing is who he is, it's part of why his own party didn't want him in leadership in anymore, it's why he was so unpopular in the '90s. This is just another reason why Newt should not be president and wouldn't make a good president.
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