Wow.

Sarah Palin just launched a thousand points of fright at Team Romney and the Republican establishment who have been going after Newt’s relationship with Ronald Reagan, via Facebook:

We have witnessed something very disturbing this week. The Republican establishment which fought Ronald Reagan in the 1970s and which continues to fight the grassroots Tea Party movement today has adopted the tactics of the left in using the media and the politics of personal destruction to attack an opponent….

I am sadly too familiar with these tactics because they were used against the GOP ticket in 2008….

But this week a few handpicked and selectively edited comments which Newt made during his 40-year career were used to claim that Newt was somehow anti-Reagan and isn’t conservative enough to go against the accepted moderate in the primary race. (I know, it makes no sense, and the GOP establishment hopes you won’t stop and think about this nonsense. Mark Levin and others have shown the ridiculousness of this.) To add insult to injury, this “anti-Reagan” claim was made by a candidate who admitted to not even supporting or voting for Reagan. He actually was against the Reagan movement, donated to liberal candidates, and said he didn’t want to go back to the Reagan days. You can’t change history….

What we saw with this ridiculous opposition dump on Newt was nothing short of Stalin-esque re-writing of history. It was Alinsky tactics at their worst.

But this whole thing isn’t really about Newt Gingrich vs. Mitt Romney. It is about the GOP establishment vs. the Tea Party grassroots and independent Americans who are sick of the politics of personal destruction used now by both parties’ operatives with a complicit media egging it on. In fact, the establishment has been just as dismissive of Ron Paul and Rick Santorum. Newt is an imperfect vessel for Tea Party support, but in South Carolina the Tea Party chose to get behind him instead of the old guard’s choice.   In response, the GOP establishment voices denounced South Carolinian voters with the same vitriol we usually see from the left when they spew hatred at everyday Americans “bitterly clinging” to their faith and their Second Amendment rights. The Tea Party was once again told to sit down and shut up and listen to the “wisdom” of their betters. We were reminded of the litany of Tea Party endorsed candidates in 2010 that didn’t win. Well, here’s a...

The Nancy Reagan video I posted the other day now has over 18,000 views on YouTube, was uploaded or linked at Real Clear Politics, Daily Caller, Breitbart TV and dozens of other websites, mentioned by Rush and Hannity, and at the debate.

Drudge may try to control the narrative, but he doesn’t control information:

Elsewhere:

• Sad but true, when a blogger at Daily Kos makes more sense than the leading lights of the Republican Party and conservative media.
• Rick Santorum did not support an individual mandate.
• Still waiting for Jeb Bush to admonish Romney about his attacks about Reagan, ethics charge, Newt being crazy, etc., Jeb to Newt: Stop the ‘Ridiculous’ Crist Talk (h/t HotAir).
• Fake but true.
• Jonah Goldberg: ““I’ve got to say, I don’t like the way everyone thinks Newt’s desire to go back to the moon is proof of his craziness … The mockery of Gingrich over this seems more like a poor reflection on our own national spirit than on Gingrich himself.”
• Did you watch the President’s State of the Mitt Address?
• John McCain becomes Meghan McCain.
• We’re doing just fine in the world, according to Romney advisor.  (via @DanRiehl)
• Debate Tweet of the Night:

• More to follow

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I finaly have an embedable version of Mark Levin’s comments yesterday about the attacks on Newt.

It is a sad commentary on the damage people have done in the name of electing Mitt Romney. Add it to the list.

“I’m going to tell you something. Newt Gingrich was the former Republican Speaker of the House, the first Republican Speaker of the House in almost half a century, and he was fighting the Democrats and to win the House of Representatives before most of the people writing on the Internet about him and trashing him and going with talking points from other campaigns were old enough to wipe themselves,” Levin said. “[W]e can certainly criticize Newt Gingrich, but do not count me among those who are going to destroy the man. I saw that attempt already by the hard-left Democrats led by [Michigan Rep.] David Bonior.” …

“I’m supposed to sit here, read all this crap on the Internet, listen to purported Reaganites and others tell me that he didn’t do these things?” Levin said. “I was there. I lived it. I saw it. Or let me put it this way — Newt Gingrich, if he does nothing else, did more for the conservative movement and to stop the liberal Democrats in the House of Representatives than virtually everybody today who’s criticizing him.”

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I have been pounding the keyboard all week about the lies and distortions of the Romney campaign and supporters about Newt’s record of support for Ronald Reagan.

These allegations were played out by the Romney campaign and on Drudge, and did serious damage to Newt, both substantively and by forcing Newt to get off message.

I was highly suspicious of several accounts, including that by Elliot Abrams, regarding a speech by Newt in 1986.  That article in National Review gave rise to this notorious Drudge headline:

I noted in my prior post that Abrams never provided the entire speech or a link to the speech, which made me even more suspicious.

I was in class most of this morning, and came back to hear Rush reading this post by Jeffrey Lord, Elliott Abrams Caught Misleading on Newt:

In fact, I’m sorry to say, what appears to be going on here is that Elliott Abrams, a considerably admirable public servant and a very smart guy, has been swept up in the GOP Establishment’s Romney frothings over the rise of Newt Gingrich in the Republican primaries. He is even being accused of trolling for a job in a Romney administration. No way!!!! Really????

What else can possibly explain a piece like the one Abrams penned on a day when Gingrich was being of a mysterious sudden targeted in one hit piece after another for his ties to Reagan? The pieces invariably following the Romney line that Newt had some version of nothing to do with Reagan.

A piece like the one Abrams wrote depends for its success in garnering headlines — which it did — by assuming no one will bother to get into the weeds and do the homework. Usually a safe assumption when dealing with the mainstream media, particularly a mainstream media that, as one with Establishment Republicans, hates Newt Gingrich.

Not so fast.

Due to the diligence...

Happy 2012, everyone! I just started my final semester at Cornell, which promises to be exciting. Before I delve into current events, I thought I would take my first post back to recap my winter break in south east Asia. I spent one week in Hong Kong and another in Singapore. Here are my conclusions:

• Both Hong Kong and Singapore are beautiful. Their size and wealth are testaments to the power of freedom. Sixty years ago, they were shadows of the cities they are today: HK’s GDP per capita was something like 20% of the UK’s and Singapore was still a manufacturing economy. In a short period of time, they’ve grown to compete with the businesses and industries that Western cities have historically cornered. This has brought implants from all over the world to their shores. There must be hundreds and thousands of people for whom these cities have meant a new lease on life or a new opportunity to thrive. This is something you can see in the diversity of faces and neighborhoods that each city offers and it strikes me as more awe-inspiring than any boulevard, painting or building I’ve ever seen. I’m happy it lives.
• Both cities are clean. Really clean. Everyone seems to take pride in their space, which makes even the poorest regions pleasant to walk around. I always teased one of my Singaporean friends for scrubbing her cleats after each golf practice. Now I wonder why she didn’t do it after every shot…
• Singapore still has a long way to go before it could be considered fully developed. That is, I assumed it would be more dense. There are a lot of underdeveloped areas right near the city center. I think I’ll consider this an opportunity.

I hope everyone had a great holiday season.

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Did you witness the pile on Newt last night about his vision for new space exploration and the reinvigoration of the space industry?

While some of Newt’s space ideas (they’re just ideas, not proposals) are grandiose in the way we always have dreamed of space, his proposals for private industry incentives and the desire...

Whatever my criticisms of Rick Santorum, we owe him a debt of gratitude for this segment last night, which confirmed that Mitt Romney loves him some Romneycare:

As

Thanks to reader Bob from Colorado, who writes:

I can’t remember if this one had crossed your desk before.

The electorate had better be awake and act this 2012 election season.

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Endgame assessment: It’s almost like there were two debates. Early on Romney scored points against Newt on Freddie Mac and the “wealth issue,” and Santorum scored major points against Romney on Romneycare.  The first half of the debate was not strong for Newt, although I think the talk of the space...

The only way Mitt Romney wins a nomination is by destroying others.  It was true in 2008, and it’s true in 2012.  He is incapable of bringing people together with positive inspiration.  He had the chance early in this cycle to prove he would not run the type of nasty campaign he ran...

One of the videos linked by Drudge, of Newt supposedly bashing Reagan while talking about George H.W. Bush running in 1980, is misleadingly edited.

Dan Riehl has the details and the more complete video:

There’s a short excerpt of a 1988 C-SPAN video purportedly showing Newt Gingrich bashing Reagan when talking about how...

The claim by Nancy Pelosi that she had secret information on Newt has been thoroughly debunked …. by Pelosi’s press secretary.

Yet Mitt Romney, not his SuperPAC but his own campaign, just started running an advertisement in Florida claiming otherwise.

How much more deceptive could the ad be?  The ad features prominently a comment...

I read the analysis below, and then I look at the hyperbolic rhetoric about how Mitt Romney is the most electable and Newt must be destroyed, and I just shake my head in disbelief.

Via James Pethokoukis:

It’s one thing when Newt Gingrich or Rick Santorum say Romneycare was the inspiration for Obamacare....

Politico’s homepage top headline is The right drops a bomb on Newt featuring photos of Ann Coulter, Tom DeLay, Elliot Abrams and Matt Drudge.

Just like in December, the rise of Newt has caused panic in Republican circles.

In December the charge was led by National Review, and now it’s being led by Matt Drudge, as...

There is something truly obscene about the full blown assault on Newt Gingrich’s strong Reagan conservative history from and on behalf of Mitt Romney, who unabashedly ran away from the Reagan legacy and conservative principles in his 1994 Senate campaign and 2002 gubernatorial campaign. Truly obscene.

The latest iteration comes from Elliott...