The Republican Nomination For President: The Race For The Race For The White House

Yeah, the only problem with that "providing correct information" piece is when its obvious that what they are doing is trying to control damage when the pol they are "clarifying" for has been caught saying something he meant to say, but was just plain stupid, impolitic or inappropriate.

That's only human, isn't it? I make my mistooks too! LOL

Things have kinda moved on, but a point of clarification if I may....

I'm very happy about developments in SC, but that does not translate to any kind of certainty that Obama will win in November. Karmically speaking, I probably wouldn't make that kind of statement even if I believed it, but as it happens I believe that there are far too many variables at play (especially how the economy does between now and election day) to be sure of anything.

What I have been saying is that I'm more optimistic about Obama's chances of winning in November after Gingrich's big win in SC than before, and since I'm an Obama supporter, that means that Gingrich's big win in SC makes me happy.

The reasons include (but are not limited to):

- A longer race gives Republicans more time to soften each other up (Romney attacks Gingrich, Gingrich attacks Romney).
- A longer race shortens the general election campaigning of whomever becomes the nominee (pivoting to campaigning against Obama before he actually got the nomination has hurt Romney, such as his statements in the debate re: taxes about "when" he becomes the nominee)
- What Gingrich's win indicates about the porousness of Romney's support in the South.
- What Gingrich's win indicates about the porousness of Romney's support amongst evangelicals.
- Implications thereof re: turnout.
- The outside chance of Gingrich actually pulling this off, especially if some feedback loops start of Romney being a loser and Gingrich being a winner. I think Romney, while he has many weaknesses, stacks up much better against Obama.
- The general weakening of Romney as a candidate. The exact same person was much stronger two weeks ago than today, after the Bain commercial (paid for by Gingrich people), the "maybe" on releasing taxes during the debate, and a big loss in SC. Even if he wins the nomination after all (which I do still think is the most likely outcome), he'll be weaker on election day because of what happened in SC than he would have been otherwise.

WOW!!!!! That 's terrific, Waterman!
Thank u for that news!!!
I think that we r going to see Newt pulling away, forward.

Santorum finished below "no opinion"; maybe he'll quit.





David

would Newlin be considered a felon with sentencing before judgement?

Im glad he pleases you Dave. I really would like to see Newt run also, but for different reasons of course.

Romney is the liberals choice to face Obama, he is not the choice of conservatives.

Of those that remain in the running, conservatives would rather see Gingrich face Obama.

The T.E.A. party has picked Herman Cain to respond to PrezBO's state of the union campaign speech... must see TV for sure.

These two things are directly related. The main thing Romney had going for him was his electability. The more he waffles and comes off as a namby-pamby the more folks who are angry about everything (or nearly everything) will turn to Newt. The more that happens, the more likely it is that Newt will pull off the nomination. That said, I think there will be hell to pay at the convention if it looks like Newt is going to win. There's still talk out there about a brokered convention and the drafting of someone who is stronger than Romney and isn't Newt.

Well I am curious who could it be? Most of the known conservatives have already declined including Jeb Bush and Chris Christie. (what a name)

Polls in Florida are saying that they think Newt is more likely to beat Obama than Romney. Good stuff.

(Not incidentally, Newt currently has the lead in Florida, a meteoric rise.)

Mitch Daniels declined too, but I think if pushed to jump in this summer he might be swayed. He'd have the benefit (luxury) of skipping the primary season and only have to look at defeating Obama.

Yeah, I'm not surprised. My two siblings in FL are both on the Newt bandwagon. They're angry and want a candidate who sounds angry.

Newt is stronger than Mit... This nation would be better off with pretty much any Waffle House cook as president than with Barack Obama.

The primary season does offer actual benefits too though. How many people have seen Romney or Gingrich in person, shaken their hands, looked 'em in the eye? That's genuinely powerful, and some other person swooping down from on high might just not have the same capability of building up that sort of connection.

Not to mention just plain on-the-ground operations, county offices, volunteers, all the rest of it.

The convention is August 27th -- these days, ten weeks is just ridiculously short for a viable presidential campaign.

Again, I think that a core (35-40%) of voters will just vote against Obama no matter who they're voting for, and this stuff doesn't matter for them. But to actually win, it really matters.

Definitely. I'm seeing a lot (here and there, no direct link) about people loving the idea of Newt having a debate with Obama and telling him, to his face, what they've been thinking.

America loves the idea of seeing Gingrich calling Obama out on national TV in three separate presidential debates.
Obama will crumble and that will be that.

Fox news HAS been good for something. Yay.

I say that blithely, but really, if Gingrich becomes the nominee I think that would be a wonderful thing for puncturing the Fox bubble.