Newt Wins South Carolina
Politico and the NYTimes are reporting a Gingrich victory.
Here's my analysis: Republicans are tired of tongue-tied, deer-in-the-headlights candidates. They're tired of gaffes and weasel-worders and stammering apologists and candidates who always need to have their words clarified by handlers. They're tired of candidates who can't debate or think on their feet or answer complicated and embarrassing questions. They're tired of watching presidential debates with their hearts in their mouths.
They compared the way Gingrich answered the question about his ex-wife to the way Romney answered the question about his tax returns and they decided that they'd rather have Gingrich go up against Obama.
It's high-wire-act fatigue. And they may have made the right choice.
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Sep '10
Re: Newt Wins South Carolina
Let's recall Thomas Sowell's endorsement of Gingrich.
Aug '10
Re: Newt Wins South Carolina
Interesting that Mitt congratulated Newt on his victory tonight while Newt refused to congratulate Mitt on his victories in Iowa and NH. I think that tells you all you neesd to know about the character of both men.
Dec '10
Re: Newt Wins South Carolina
1) Mitt lost in Iowa.
2) Mitt's SuperPAC scurrilously trashed Newt in Iowa and New Hampshire.
3) Today Mitt's campaign sent Newt an "anniversary cake" to commemorate the 15th anniversary of Newt's censure in the House. Petty and pathetic.
4) Romney rushed last night to announce a campaign appearance at Tommy's Country Ham House at the same time as a previously-scheduled Gingrich event at the same location -- and then showed up early and left before Gingrich arrived. Petty, pathetic AND gutless.
I know all I need to know about the character of the two men.
Jul '10
Re: Newt Wins South Carolina
James Of England
(SCHIP) and copyright and patent provisions. He loses in 1998 and resigns, his party "cannibals".
In Newt's speakership, he has the equivalent of her welfare reform, and a tax cut like hers, and his record is comparable. FIXED.
You already conceded that Gingrich won with a massive mandate after 40 years of leftist rule. As an aside S-CHIP passed in reconciliation in the Balanced Budget Act of 1997, which would have been followed if the Establishment GOP didn't oust him, by the same type of people Mitt Romney is today. Cannibals, indeed.
Yeah, Gingrich was only the leader and founder of the conservative caucus when the United States won the Cold War, beat inflation in the 1980s, and restarted our economic engine.. As for copyright and IP provisions, we had a discussion here about the correct conservative response to those.
For those of you too young to recall: our country was heading to the crapper. Bush brought back higher taxes and deficits and Clinton was just elected talking about HillaryCare; it was second after DADT. The Gingrich Revolution overturned that whole direction of the country.
[Ed.: Comment deleted.]
Edited on Jan 21 at 8:50pmApr '11
Re: Newt Wins South Carolina
Michael Tee:
[Ed.: Comments deleted.]
Receipts exceeded outlays. Budget surpluses do not necessarily reduce the debt because of federal interest, but they did slow the growth of the debt.
[Ed.: Comments deleted.]
· 59 minutes ago
Like I said, the budget was sorta balanced. It's completely balanced if you ignore the treatment of the social security surplus, which is commonly done; I listed it as part of Newt's achievements. Since, the US Public Debt does not pay attention to those accounting shenanigans, you can see that the deficit was almost, but not actually, closed. This was kind of an issue in the 2000 election; I don't know if you recall the "lockbox", but this is a part of what Gore was getting at. The accounting for entitlements is simply terrible. Of course, Gore would not have improved it.
Edited on Jan 21 at 8:52pmMay '10
Re: Newt Wins South Carolina
Enjoy it while it lasts. Newt throws grenades and only knows how to throw grenades. If his campaign doesn't implode on its own, the Bush political machine will take him out and here's why.
Jul '10
Re: Newt Wins South Carolina
Rob Long:
Here's my analysis: Republicans are tired of tongue-tied, deer-in-the-headlights candidates. They're tired of gaffes and weasel-worders and stammering apologists and candidates who always need to have their words clarified by handlers. They're tired of candidates who can't debate or think on their feet or answer complicated and embarrassing questions. They're tired of watching presidential debates with their hearts in their mouths.
They compared the way Gingrich answered the question about his ex-wife to the way Romney answered the question about his tax returns and they decided that they'd rather have Gingrich go up against Obama.
It's high-wire-act fatigue. And they may have made the right choice. · ·
Something to that Rob. But let's not make it a bigger deal than it is (and it is a biggish deal). Newt won on his home turf. If Stuart can describe NH as Romney's home then I can describe SC as Gingrich's. Good for him.
Of course the fact that he has been whipped twice by Ron Paul (Ron Paul!) tells us nothing about the breadth of Newt's appeal.
Dec '10
Re: Newt Wins South Carolina
Palaeologus
Something to that Rob. But let's not make it a bigger deal than it is (and it is a biggish deal). Newt won on his home turf. If Stuart can describe NH as Romney's home then I can describe SC as Gingrich's. Good for him.
Of course the fact that he has been whipped twice by Ron Paul (Ron Paul!) tells us nothing about the breadth of Newt's appeal.
Does Newt own a vacation home in SC? Romney owns one in NH.
I do wonder what happened to Mitt's momentum on the short trip from Manchester to Spartanburg. It's not as if he was struggling to get traction in SC: he had a strong lead in the polls up until this past Monday. So why was he unable to sell himself as the nominee to people who were already well-disposed to him?
Oct '11
Re: Newt Wins South Carolina
Michael, if you'd like to see cheerleading, go to this guy's profile and look at the conversations he's started. James, well done on not sinking to this juvenile's level on the personal insults.
Jul '10
Re: Newt Wins South Carolina
Stuart Creque
Palaeologus
Of course the fact that he has been whipped twice by Ron Paul (Ron Paul!) tells us nothing about the breadth of Newt's appeal.
Does Newt own a vacation home in SC? Romney owns one in NH.
I do wonder what happened to Mitt's momentum on the short trip from Manchester to Spartanburg. It's not as if he was struggling to get traction in SC: he had a strong lead in the polls up until this past Monday. So why was he unable to sell himself as the nominee to people who were already well-disposed to him?
Newt won because he was even better than usual in the debates. He deserved to win on performance. Kudos Newt.
But Romney hasn't lost to Ron Paul (let alone twice!) and has placed well in all three contests.
You want Newt as the nominee? Cool. But if we're serious about winning, let's look at the entirety of his candidacy, not just the highlight reel.
Dec '10
Re: Newt Wins South Carolina
Palaeologus
You want Newt as the nominee? Cool. But if we're serious about winning, let's look at the entirety of his candidacy, not just the highlight reel. · 13 minutes ago
I would like a nominee who demonstrates his ability to win by winning. So far, the evidence for any of the four remaining candidates is mixed (well, Paul hasn't yet won any of the contests, so he looks out of the money).
The argument "Newt can't win and Romney can" is not persuasive to me unless and until I see Romney winning persistently and Newt not winning persistently. I am not interested in Romney "placing well" against Obama: McCain did that already, with a very respectable 47 percent of the vote.
Apr '11
Re: Newt Wins South Carolina
Stuart Creque
Wow. What did Gov. Romney do with entitlements? · 3 hours ago
Edited 49 minutes ago
I don't understand the question. Is this a Romneycare thing, or do you want me to go through the reforms he made to the state benefits that weren't federally mandates (meals for the elderly, homeless shelters, etc.)?
Oct '10
Re: Newt Wins South Carolina
Then why wasn't it expected 3 days ago? And wasn't NH Romney's "backyard and therefore kind of expected?"
Apr '11
Re: Newt Wins South Carolina
Michael Tee
James Of England
In Newt's speakership, he has the equivalent of her welfare reform, and a tax cut like hers, and his record is comparable. FIXED.
You already conceded that Gingrich won with a massive mandate after 40 years of leftist rule. As an aside S-CHIP passed in reconciliation in the Balanced Budget Act of 1997, which would have been followed if the Establishment GOP didn't oust him, by the same type of people Mitt Romney is today. Cannibals, indeed.
Yeah, Gingrich was only the leader and founder of the conservative caucus when the United States won the Cold War, beat inflation in the 1980s, and restarted our economic engine.. As for copyright and IP provisions, we had a discussion here about the correct conservative response to those.
I don't think Reagan-Bush was leftist.
Newt was near unanimously booted.
You think that because Newt achieved the equivalents of two of Thatcher's most minor achievements, they're equivalent? While Newt may have been a very energetic congressman, he had no serious role in the Reagan victories you refer to.
I had thought that you were against expansive copyright. Could have been wrong.
Jan '12
Re: Newt Wins South Carolina
Stuart Creque
1) Mitt lost in Iowa.
2) Mitt's SuperPAC scurrilously trashed Newt in Iowa and New Hampshire.
3) Today Mitt's campaign sent Newt an "anniversary cake" to commemorate the 15th anniversary of Newt's censure in the House. Petty and pathetic.
4) Romney rushed last night to announce a campaign appearance at Tommy's Country Ham House at the same time as a previously-scheduled Gingrich event at the same location -- and then showed up early and left before Gingrich arrived. Petty, pathetic AND gutless.
I know all I need to know about the character of the two men. · 1 hour ago
I may be stretching an image here, one that even if accurate may offend some; but Romney, despite his successes, appears to me very much like Peter Keating.
Doesn't he come off as a timorous second-hander? At least with respect to his political ambitions? Howard Roark though he might have been in the private sector (did he really start from scratch, seek no favors?), his term as governor of Massachusetts smacks of Ellsworth Tooey.
Apr '11
Re: Newt Wins South Carolina
Tommy De Seno
If this is true, and holds up in other states down there, is the term "Bible Belt" no longer relevant to our politics? · 4 hours ago
The Bible Belt referred to the Fundamentalists and Evangelicals who were alienated and politically quiescent after the Scopes trial, but who voted Democratic. That ended with the Moral Majority and the Reagan coalition.
Married women tend to break conservative, because they see liberals and their government as moral and economic threats to their families. Obviously a substantial number think a conservative confessed serial adulterer is a better bet than a baby-killing leftist who has hidden who-knows-what dirt.
Jan '12
Re: Newt Wins South Carolina
Not quite. Two weeks ago, none would have lavished such a neighborly image on Newt's chances. He earned this win.
Oct '10
Re: Newt Wins South Carolina
Seems to be a lot of "I'd rather go down swinging than to lose with a squish" sentiment on our side.
Seems to me also that we're viewing the general campaign through the lens of the primary campaign.
Two completely different animals. How 'bout we start thinking "I'd rather win with an erratic conservative than with an erratic moderate?" How 'bout we start remembering who our general opponent is? Barack Freaking Obama.
Good God, people. The guy has so much baggage in just 3 years that he makes Newt look like an overnight guest.
Aug '11
Re: Newt Wins South Carolina
Stuart Creque
3) Today Mitt's campaign sent Newt an "anniversary cake" to commemorate the 15th anniversary of Newt's censure in the House. Petty and pathetic.
That is appalling. (LINK.)
Nov '11
Re: Newt Wins South Carolina
Newt needs to send a great big "thank you" note to ABC for the timing on their interview with his ex. I bet it was worth a very significant number of votes for him. It was seen as a blatant attempt to undermine his candidacy by the hated MSM, and gave him an opportunity to once again run his "hammer the media" play on the eve of the election.
If they'd ran it a week earlier, the boiling resentment among the conservative electorate might have cooled some. A week later would have been too late, of course.
They really haven't a clue how distrusted they are out here in fly-over country.