I (as many of you) just finished watching the CNN debate in my current city (Jacksonville) at my alma mater (University of North Florida) shouts out and I am quite sure Newt Gingrich CAN beat Romney in taking the Republican nomination. See why below the fold.
We've all been following the Republican primary since it began, watching stars fade and fall to be forgotten, but Newt actually stuck through the awful summer of 2011, came back with a win in South Carolina, and who has been swinging up and down with Romney for a Florida win.
Clearly there is a deep disdain for Romney with the Republican base, and a clear disdain for Gingrich with the Republican establishment, but Newt being hated actually gives him a better chance of pulling an upset to win the nomination (all to be later pummeled by Obama in the general).
The Tea Party is holding the Republican establishment hostage, we know they believe they are going to reform their party... to become even more radical, so allow them to push their establishment to the nuttiest candidate of them all (excluding the ultra long- shot Ronnie P)Newt Gingrich 2012
When I visit Redstate or Hotair, both sites are littered with Tea Party conservatives pushing Newt because they say Romney is not a true conservative (excuse the source, but it does say something if the Standard is saying this).
If the establishment hates Newt, all the more reason for Tea Partiers to love Newt. And the higher chance of a total clusterf%$& during the primary, leaving behind a fractured party and a badly bruised nominee.
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For your pleasure:
From a RedState Diary
Romney is a self-described progressive. Establishment pushes Romney because they want the status quo, but Romney wont win. Looking at polls from this week, 75% of GOP doesn’t support Romney, only 23% of independents have favorable opinion of him, the class-warfare left hates him as a 1% type. Just where is the proof Romney can win?
The conservative base is openly mocked by Romney’s establishment legions, including Romney’s staff that worked for Crist. Gingrich admires and supports us. A massive poll of 29,000 Tea Party members showed that 48% were for Newt and only 15% for Romney, and those were polled before Romney flip-flopped again today on housing, now saying government should save the failing homeowners like Obama says, instead of earlier stance the market needs to bottom out.
Newt brought in the Republican revolution of the 90′s, not Romney who was calling himself a progressive at the time. The Tea Party brought in the victory in 2010, not the establishment. Now with only 15% of the Tea Party supporting Romney, the establishment types want you to believe only moderates can win general elections. To win elections there needs to be a fire, some excitement for a candidate. Romney does not provide that for even his supporters, they just think he will be less offensive to the left.
As a Tea Party activist I will work and donate for Newt, but not Romney. I am not alone. We wont be out there working hard, so the establishment will have little help to finance this slap in the face to conservatives. With Newt on the ticket we have a chance, we have excitement, we have volunteer workers. I’ll take my chance of losing with Newt over certain loss with Romney.
The Republican elite is totally enamored of Romney because they know he won’t quash their influence-peddling or make them do anything difficult. He is a risk-averse personality, who will make “adjustments” to Obama’s policy disasters rather than tear them out by the roots. His record of governing in Massachusetts, as well as his temperament (and even his debating approach, of “don’t take risks, wait for others to take risks and implode”), reveals perfectly the template of the Washington insider mindset of “go along to get along”.
If you think Romney will repeal ObamaCare, you are delusional. He will never quite get around to it. There is, after all, Iran to deal with, and many other things that will suddenly become more important, or will turn out to require more of his time and attention, than repealing ObamaCare.
Romney may have made a good president at another time, but not at this crucial juncture in our history.
If you support Romney over Gingrich you are not a conservative, and nobody who is one buys a word that comes out of your mouth, so you might as well give up.
And then Hotair says:
From a Hotair Diary
Forget the polls. We are the people. Our votes determine what will happen.
Why do Romney’s supporters make fun and and think that personal attacks on Newt’s physical appearance or his wife is acceptable? I notice arrogance in their comments, Do they really think that his nomination is all but sure?
Tea Party wants another Angle/O’Donnell debacle. Note to Tea Party…your candidates suck statewide and nationally.
I like that guy!
The Tea Party is becoming a bunch of nihilists. It wants to commit kamikaze on all of us in a hissy fit because it wasn’t capable of producing a single viable candidate itself. Now it’s trying to foist on us an adulterous Freddie Mac Historian as the Tea Party’s torchbearer. You’ve go to be f’n kidding me.
And let the infighting begin...
So, all we need to do is link Newt to the Tea Party, he'll embrace it (as he already is) and with our support, they'll make him their candidate (because what other choice do they have), and vote Newt as the "true conservative." This gives Obama more time to focus on the economy as Newt has absolutely no chance of winning nationally; you know it, I know it, the Republican establishment knows it, and the Tea Party knows it - they just don't care, they care about picking anyone but Romney. Let's help them!