The latest polls in Florida point to a significant Romney victory on Tuesday, possibly double digits.
If Romney does win by a double digit margin in Florida, the pressure will be for those who do not support Romney to stop criticizing Romney in the name of defeating Obama. A Romney defeat in a general election will be blamed on the language used against Romney in the primaries.
But that standard was not applied by Romney supporters when, in turn, Perry, Cain and Gingrich were leading.
Republicans are “giving Dems an advantage in the coming war to define Romney’s Bain years, which will be as central to the general election narrative as the war over John Kerry’s Vietnam service was in 2004.”
This point, which is quoted from a Washington Post piece that ran a few weeks ago, was used day after day by the conservative media and GOP establishment in response to attacks that came from Gingrich when attempting to vet Romney’s record at Bain.
Flash forward to the days following Gingrich’s South Carolina victory, and it was open season where no subject of attack was considered out of bounds.
How many campaign ads from the DNC would be run using clips of Ann Coulter, Glenn Beck, or Charles Krauthammer hammering Gingrich? The gauntlet was laid down by many in the conservative media. Below is just a very a small sampling of what was said.
Ann Coulter, in one of her less bombastic moments, called Gingrich ‘pompous and boring’. Drudge ran a false banner claiming “Newt Repeatedly Insulted Reagan”. Emmett Tyrell, III, called Gingrich “Our Bill Clinton.” Earlier, National Review ran a cover entitled, “Newt’s World.” Jennifer Rubin declared: “With Gingrich, you never have the peace of mind that you’ve gotten to the bottom of his well of sleaze.” And so on and so on.
Much of the conservative punditry didn’t seem to care if their attacks on Gingrich would hurt him in the general election, yet they will blame others for doing far less in response. All the Stalin-esque re-writing of history can’t change that.
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Well, now we know how many of these talking heads are credulous intellectual fakes. Romney’s their guy, so they will transmit and pile on any old, disprovable lie.
There are ‘way, ‘way too many people involved in our national dialogue who are happy to run their mouths before they know what the question is about.
We can fire them, too, and we don’t have to wait for an election.
Frankly, I’m not interested in being a ‘member-in-good-standing’ of a party whose ‘leadership’ is this corrupt, this willing to use the worst Alinskyite tactics to defeat a giant in the conservative movement.
Yes, Newt’s a giant in the conservative movement. Mark Levin said it best when he said that if Newt never does another thing for the conservative movement, he will have done more for conservatism than his detractors.
If the GOP Establishment assists Mitt in destroying Newt, then it’s time to start a third party devoid of the current GOP’s corruption.
Spoken like a true Ron Paul fan!
I’ve noticed the new tactic by Paul bots.
They don’t mention Paul.
They mention 3rd party.
I may have to go rogue and vote for Gary Johnson.
At least with Johnson we know government would be cut, slashed, diced, eviscerated. With Romney he will trim around the edges until the Dems cry racism. Maybe Lenin had the right idea, provoke such a crisis, reelect Obama, destroy the government under a mountain of debt then sweep the system clean.
Gary who?
It is time we form a Christian Party with the highest of standards for the party leadership. Not in their morals but in their profession of the Lordship of Christ over this Earth! Only that way will we resist the powers of Satan that control the elites. It is as the founding fathers intended!
All these dislikes merely show the problem in the Republican Party. Only God reigns! The GOP elites are not servants of Christ but of the Devils. Romney is a satanic cultist. He would have had no place in the company of founding Fathers! And I will not vote or unite behind a satanic cultist!
OK. Good luck with your theocracy. Keep us posted.
Signed,
Henry Hawkins
4th Vicar of Satan
There is nothing Theocratic about having a standard for our elected officials. Are you saying the founding fathers were a theocracy? They were far more evangelical than any today.
Just shows there is a fair amount of ignorance here.
Your premise allows only Christians, that anyone not accepting the Christian God is a satanist, such as the Mormon Romney in your formulation. Our founding fathers thought that idea so dangerous they wrote a few things into the Constitution to prevent it.
Are you seriously saying us satanic debauches can have no place in power?
Dear Vicar,
I’m not too happy with my current job. What kind of working conditions could I expect for Satan, Inc.? One presumes that the typical time-wasters such as drug testing, polygraphs, and background checks are not in the cards.
Regards,
Casey
“If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves, and pray and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” 2 Chronicles 7:14
Yeah, and while we’re at it, let’s make Christianity the REQUIRED religion of this country.
What?
That goes against the constitution?
Never mind.
We’re not coming together for Romney until about June. It would take me that long anyway. This race is not going to be over after Tuesday. BTW check out this link. Boot on the neck of Newt Gingrich.
http://www.buzzfeed.com/zekejmiller/romney-eyeing-blowout-keeps-foot-to-newts-neck
Romney and the GOP elite have so poisoned the well that I really don’t see the party unifying any time soon if Romney wins the nomination and becomes the face of the party.
I still say he’s the weakest candidate to put up against Obama. Chicago Jesus and the media will kick the crap out of him.
It will take brass ones to blame a Romney loss on things said about him in the primaries. That concept didn’t seem to occur to the Mittbots- Coulter etc when they were turning over every rock looking for dirt on Newt. Live by the smear – die by the smear
“…the pressure will be for those who do not support Romney to stop criticizing Romney in the name of defeating Obama.”
Yeah?
Good luck with that, Mr. and Ms. RINO…
Ya know… the Whigs used to think that they couldn’t be replaced as a party too… just sayin’.
I’m pretty sure that Romney will be nominated and then lose to Obama, and that Romney’s supporters will blame us anyway (they sure as heck won’t be blaming themselves), so I see no reason to hold my tongue.
I keep remembering how Karl Rove went on television and ragged on Christine O’Donnell for the first three consecutive nights after she won the primary in Delaware and her opponent was some Marxist named Chris Coons. She went on to lose, and Republicans just went on justifying their badmouthing of her by saying that she was just a horrible, horrible candidate. That was astonishing to me — and instructive. It was the first bit of hard evidence that the GOP really was only using conservatives to get their own candidates into office and didn’t want any pesky do-gooders spoiling the fun.
So I’ll slam Romney whenever the spirit moves me and call it the “Christine O’Donnell Precedent.”
ABO: As though Abaddon is allowed just one avatar at a time.
Anthony Kennedy has promised not to die or retire until Dog is gone.
The Executive and Congress unified in token opposition to Progressivism can indeed be worse than divided government.
We still have potential resorts of natural causes, tainted falafel, Impeachment.Trial.and.Conviction with the help of surviving Blue Dogs, shoulder-launched Libyan ground to air, military coup, First Wookie breaks his effin’ neck,…
check your meds….
If Romney wins this way the GOP and its minions, Drudge, National Review crackpots, the Bush contingent particularly Rove and even Fox News will be dead for me. Romney may not get my vote unless he specifically lays out how he will annihilate – and I use that word deliberately – annihilate Obamacare. The only hope of true conservatives is for Congress to seize power in a Romney Administration and make real change.
I agree. To hell with “the party.” I’ve been an active Republican since I was in high school. Have been campaign chair for my county in several past presidential elections. And I can tell you that I am through with the Republican party, the party elites, and their talking heads. They will not get another dime or minute of my time. They want to claim Romney is the conservative? Fine- they can have their “conservative.” But if faced with a choice of two democrats on the ballot for president in November (or, more specifically, one democrat and one political opportunist who blows in the wind and who is sometimes democrat and sometimes republican) I won’t be voting for either. Willard (who amazingly said in a debate that his first name is “Mitt”- which fits his track record that he’ll say anything) is nothing more than another John Kerry waffler.
You are right. The pressure will be on to stop criticizing Romney if he wins big in Florida and seems clearly to be the most likely nominee. Over the past month, Newt gave as good as he got, continuing to slam Romney this morning in Florida and on Sunday shows. If for whatever reason, he or Santorum or both of them have the resources and the will to keep campaigning, the contest will continue. If they cannot, they should recognize that reality and stand down.
What is the alternative? Continue living off the land and the free media for another month just to stick it to Romney, wreaking vengeance? If so, you might just as well launch a third party suicide candidacy because it will have exactly the same effect: to elect Obama.
Was Newt attacked “unfairly?” Perhaps, but a lot of the stuff thrown at Romney has been half-baked partial truths. When people say politics is a rough racket, they mean rough — and a lot of candidates have been roughed up a lot more unfairly than Newt. In 1960, the Kennedys sent their attack dog, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Jr. (a Navy war hero as well as the great man’s namesake) barnstorming through West Virginia with a standard stump speech that openly and falsely accused Hubert Humphrey of dodging the draft (Humphrey lost the primary in Protestant WVa, “proving” that
Catholic JFK could win). Given how close the Kennedy-Nixon race was, some public estrangement on Humphrey’s part probably could have given Nixon the Presidency. But Humphrey concealed his bitterness, sucked it up, and put his shoulder to his party’s wheel.
“But Humphrey concealed his bitterness, sucked it up, and put his shoulder to his party’s wheel.”
Boy.
Do I feel all inspired…
lol.. Yeah.
“C’mon, boys! Let’s win one for the Puppet!”
Oh, so this is all about how YOU FEEL? Not about the future of the country.
You bet, Humphrey sucked it up and kept working for what he believed in and not incidentally, went on to have more success in politics, instead of slinking off to nurse his grievances and figure some way to take revenge on the Kennedys. The man had class.
So does Romney. If he doesn’t win the nomination, he will back the Republican to the hilt.
No this is about what YOU feel.
You need US. We don’t need You. Nobody is buying what you are selling.
Go get some more moderates on you team. Your loser needs all the help he can get.
Your loser intentionally torpedoed the Republican ticket in 2008 and stuck us with Obama.
You know what they say about paybacks.
We’ve all gone rogue now!
Try reading up on current history. Obama slimed the Hell out of Hillary -with the help of the MSM-, but the PUMAs still turned out for him in November 2008. A lot of fair-weather “conservatives” took their ball and went home in a sulk that year.
Now. Pop quiz: who won the election that year? Ding! Ding! Ding! Yes, boys & girls, the party who sucked it up and worked to get their candidate elected, despite the bad feelings from the primary season.
What is the alternative?
That’s just it. The GOP isn’t giving us an alternative. With the Dems, you have a bunch of statists pushing as hard as they can to drag us quickly into a socialist hell. With the GOP, you have a bunch of squishy compassionate conservatives who are heading into the same hell, just a bit slower. At least the Dems are genuine about it. The GOP has a bunch of schlubs barking about how they are conservative while pushing for socialized medicine, loans, markets and everything else.
Maybe if the GOP spends another 40 years in the wilderness, the current crop of rinos will die off and be replaced with Alan West’s grand kids.
The conservative tea party movement gave the GOP the house. In return, the establishment spit in their face.
To hell with the GOP. I’m done with them.
Like the California Republicans, the GOP has been committing slow suicide by rejecting conservative principles and embracing liberal ones. The California Republican party, which is further along in its death than the GOP, has been relegated to permanent minority status for many years to come.
It’s more than that. At some central committee meetings one detects the lingering odor of gangrene infection. The state party is rotting from the inside, out. Don’t stand too close. It might bloat and burst.
If I had a dollar for every time I’ve heard conservatives say, four more years of Obama will destroy America, I’d be a rich man.
But now, it would be better if the Dems ran the country for 40 more years?
Obama or Willard, they are both Dems. Seems you agree with the Dems.
You really haven’t been paying attention, have you? Or did you sleep through 2010? The Tea Party candidates aren’t the majority, but if you fold in sympathizers like Paul Ryan, there’s fair number in office.
Given that this will be only the second cycle of elections since the rise of the Tea Parties, it’s no surprise they’re not stronger.
But feel free to stay at home and sulk, if you wish, and blame everything on Mitt Romney, just like so many people blamed Sarah Palin for 2008.
Win 2 primaries/caucuses and it is over? What a load of crap. If you clowns continue to push Obama the White then at the very least grow the stones to accept responsibility if/when your glitter-turd loses in the general election.
Take note and pass this message on to your buddies when you’re sipping girly drinks and playing grab ass. You push your sorry excuse for a nominee on me and I will join thousands of other in not holding our noses and not voting for either chocolate or vanilla Obama. You morons failed to learn the Perot lesson the first time and you have obviously not gotten any smarter or wiser.
I am so angry over the Republican establishment attacks on Gingrich (or anyone who would dare to oppose Romney) that I am seriously considering not voting at all. Sure, Obama will probably get reelected but what’s the difference between him and Romney? Not much that I can see. This has been a real education. I never believed that the Republicans held such contempt for conservative voters. This will not be forgotten any time soon.
I’m still hoping Newt can pull it out, and I will still work to elect conservatives to Congress and local offices, but I refuse to vote for another RINO that has been forced on us. I absolutely refuse.
P.S. – What is wrong with the voters in Florida? Can they not see what is happening here?
Most voters don’t pay attention except to whatever soundbites are served up to them. So yes, this is the outcome we get.
And I hate to say it, but if Newt hadn’t dropped the ball in the last two debates, we probably wouldn’t be in this mess right now. I don’t know what Newt was thinking—he could’ve and should’ve savaged Romney and flayed him alive. Was Newt trying to take the high road and expecting that the idiocracy would see through Romney? What was the deal with that?
But Newt was damned no matter what. If he flays Romney he’s “evil, unpredictable, melt-down Newt.” So, he takes the high road. One of the things from the Party intelligentsia that has really irritated me is the constant warning that eventually Newt will come unhinged. Well, how long has this campaign been going on? And has he had a single moment of becoming unhinged any greater than any of the other candidates?
A now former republican who will not vote for Mitt in November.
-Ted Bell
Yeah, I thought about that angle too. You’re probably right—he’d just get pigeonholed as “Angry Newt” if he’d brutalized Romney in return.
“One of the things from the Party intelligentsia that has really irritated me is the constant warning that eventually Newt will come unhinged. Well, how long has this campaign been going on? And has he had a single moment of becoming unhinged any greater than any of the other candidates?”
Key point. This is the same model of the impossible bind they tried to put Palin in. I.e., if Palin didn’t respond to criticism against her she was weak and implicated; if she did respond, she was a whiny weakling seeking refuge in victimhood.
Now it’s the same with Gingrich in this sense: if he does attack Romney, he’s a treacherous “attack muffin.” If he doesn’t, he gets crushed.
The only way out is through it. I’d hoped Gingrich would have figured this out. The answer is not either to take a self-conscious “high road” or stoop to guttersnipe politics. The answer always was, is, just hitting the issues dead-on and relentlessly calling the opposition out, on every count. Gingrich should have never fooled himself into thinking that by retreating from his attacks on Bain or otherwise softening his message in order to appear other than the image they were forcing on him he could escape their calumny (if that’s what he thought).
Only a steam-engine of a son-of-a-bi*ch is going to beat these people. I thought it was Gingrich. I’d still like to believe it is.
“If Romney does win by a double digit margin in Florida, the pressure will be for those who do not support Romney to stop criticizing Romney in the name of defeating Obama.”
Fat chance. That game is over. They’re over. If Romney takes this, they’re finished. But it won’t matter anyway; Romney never had a chance against Obama. Dan Riehl had a good piece a few days ago on how Obama won’t even break a sweat defeating Romney. They can blame whomever they want, they’re over.
Wow. Gosh. If Dan Riehl says so, we might as well call off the election and cut our wrists now, just to spare ourselves any more agony.
I think the answer to our problems is to neuter the power of the president & congress.
Surgically with a scalpel, not a full offing with a lob of an ax.
McCain and now Romney. Really? That’s the best the republicans can do? Really? Holy cow, we are in trouble.
I agree with the others that posted about not voting for Romney. The guy is sooooo uninspiring, such a RINO, I really don’t see how I am going to work up the energy to punch out the chad or fill in the circle for him. The GOP spits in the face of conservatives so they can just go and try and beat obama on their own.
As far as the conservative talking heads pushing for Romney, they have no credibility any more. Coulter especially. First she’s for Christie and now Romney. She’s a conservative? Give me a break.
If Romney gets the nomination, I’ll just return to abstaining from politics altogether. Not going to campaign on anyone’s behalf, nor will I bother voting. I stopped caring about politics in ’08 the last time they pulled this. So I’ll be damned if I cater to a repeat of the same parodical game where I’m forced to choose between the Giant Douche (Romney) and the Turd Sandwich (Obama) all over again.
I’d rather not aid and abet the establishment’s entrenched ruling political class that never meaningfully changes.
We will find out how much these people know.
http://www.newsmax.com/InsideCover/Florida-primary-tea-party/2012/01/29/id/425866
CHARACTER MATTERS AND ROMNEY’S WORRIES ME
by Mark Levin on Sunday, January 29, 2012 at 11:57am
http://tinyurl.com/8yzte6x
I’m going to donate what I can to Newt. He needs to continue beyond Florida. Certo!
I might be done. Third party is sounding really good right now. Romney and the prog wing of the GOP are positively bent on maintaining their power structure. It may also be too late to prevent a November disaster. The only hope may be third party for 2014 and 2016. But that may be too late to prevent the end of the Republic.
“Newt Gingrich made a campaign stop today at The Villages in Florida where over 4,000 people were there to hear his message.”
http://tinyurl.com/8xq7z5c
“It not about winning here anymore,” one Romney staffer told BuzzFeed. “It’s about destroying Gingrich — and it’s working.”
Really, Romney is actually destroying himself.
http://tinyurl.com/7343lqc
So, let’s turn the dial to the Newt channel, and have him win the nomination.
What do you think will be the response of those supporting Romney? Are they, like lambs, going to fall in line behind Gingrich? Or, are they going to reflect similar feelings, as the majority of you right now, become angry and boycott voting for Newt?
I’m just wondering how far the factions of the GOP are willing to take this contest, and how much water they are willing to take on by having Obama win in 2012.
You mean the way the establishment abandoned Tea Party candidates who won primaries in 2010? Why is it always the conservative movement that has to swallow its pride and vote for the person who will betray them just a little less than the Democrat candidate will? Why can’t the establishment get behind actual conservative candidates?
It was always going to be that way because it’s always been that way. The Karl Roves of the Republican party dump all over the Republican candidates they disapprove of. I’ve mentioned it before because it irritates me so much but google all the Nevada Republicans endorsing Reid. Not only did they endorse Reid, they trashed Angle.
It’s a win-win-win-win for the Republican swells. If their candidate wins the nomination, it’s “you have to fall in line for the party.” If our candidate wins, they trash him and or her then say “we told you he/she couldn’t win.” When their candidate wins the nomination and loses the general it’s because we didn’t fall in line behind their candidate. When their candidates win the nomination and the general, they say “we don’t need you.”
Everything’s all right with the world.
I think we should all remember how difficult it was for Reagan. People need to pray.
“If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves, and pray and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” 2 Chronicles 7:14
This site has become a cesspool of hate – because you don’t like Mitt, you have devolved into accepting a serial philanderer/opportunist. Talk about compromising values.
When McCain was pulling dirty tricks to get himself the nomination, no one seemed to get too bent that they did not vote for him in the end. Was the support for Mitt at that time just because he was an anti-McCain? Then have conservatives just become the most unsatisfiable group on the planet? Like 2-year-old children who don’t know what they want but whatever is presented to them, they don’t want THAT.
I don’t like most of what is being bandied about by either side. I would prefer that the arguments be made based on what someone will do rather than what they might not be.
Boo hoo when I was considering getting married faithfullness was a major consideration – electing a POTUS – not so much. You say you want “arguments be made based on what someone will do rather than what they might not be” after you criticize Newt for his past – see the hypocriscy?
Based on the history of some past Presidents – Clinton, LBJ, JFK, adultry doesn’t seem to have mattered.
So instead of going with somebody who betrayed his wife, we all need to get behind somebody who will betray all the rest of us once he gets into office. Makes sense. /
You are the 2 year old. Your candidate can’t win so now your throwing a temper tantrum. We have been telling you for almost 4 years now we don’t want Mittbama. You chose to shove him down our throat.
DEAL WITH IT. You gambled and lost.
Maybe you can get Dominoes to deliver you a pizza.
The only opportunist that I see is Romney, who has used his influence with the cocktail party Republicans to run ads that clearly LIE about Newt Gingrich.
But you keep ignoring the immorality of Romney’s campaign.
Is he showing character?
Oh, yes.
He is showing his REAL character: ANYTHING to win.
Lie, cheat, and steal(the video from NBC) to win.
Anyone who wants to be the President this bad, and has run for 6 fricking years has got an ego that makes Newt’s ego look like Barney from The Andy Griffith show.
Romney was HATED by the other candidates in 2008 for his slash and burn campaign.
How quickly you forget.
This is a narrative problem, not a Newt vs Mitt problem. If you buy into the notion that the only thing that counts is that Obama be defeated in November, then Newt is your worst pick since he is now polling as the weakest candidate. This is a “creme de la crud” problem.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/story/2012-01-27/swing-states-poll/52871890/1
If, as I do, you believe that derailing the corrupt and entrenched one-party system is the top priority, then you need to be working for a brokered convention. Yes, it would be acrimonious and bloody but it is high time for a bloodletting. We are fighting corruption of the highest order and we have run out of time.
Everyone reading this should be voting for Santorum. His “electability” will improve greatly once the same dirty money financing both Obama and Romney get tired of wasting its resources and looks elsewhere. Then it would be up to Santorum to hold the line and not sell out. He would have the opportunity to redefine “electability” away from “the guy with the most money” be offering an alternative to the difficult to market and expensive to sell cancer that the one-party establishment is forcing us to accept.
Otherwise, we wil be relying on Ron Paul polling 15-20% and threatening to take his vote and run 3rd party as the final option in bludgeoning our way past the “Great Wall of GOP Country Club”.
I just see no victory of any kind for the conservative cause and no solution to the main problem were Romney or Gingrich to win. They both support the individual mandate and are committed to big global government. They even fight using the language of the socialists.
Nope.
It’s a re-branding problem.
Once the truth about Newt’s accomplishments is served to the public after his nomination, Obama will crawl into a ball and cry like a baby(I stole that from Kevin Dujan of Hillbuzz. It was too good).
You wimps in the Republican party can’t take it.
And Romney has repeatedly shown what a baby he is.
He reflects you “go-along-to-get-along losers”.
Every time I see offensive anti-Gingrich images or headlines or tweets reiterated here, I think of the headline readers, and also the adage in advertising about “repetition”. It’s just more publication of the slime. Perhaps there is another was to address them or display them without reiterating them.
It’s called brain alliteration, and it works.
Repeat it enough times, and it sticks.
Look here:
“Bush tax cuts for the rich”
“Bush lied people died”
And on, and on.
I’m glad you recognize this, Janitor. It’s the first step to fighting back.
Is that a Romney mailer quoting Ruben?
*snort*
She’ll be even deeper in the tank for them, if it’s possible.
If the establishment is going to lay the blame of a Romney’s defeat in the general election at the feet of the Tea party and conservatives for attacking him in the primaries, then the Republican party deserves to go the way of the Whigs.
The establishment is acknowledging that Romney can’t take the criticism in the primary, which means Mitt will be torn to shreds by Obama, Democrats and the media. As surely as they turned on McCain after the primaries were over, they’ll turn on Mitt in a much worse way.
Maybe .
The democrats are on very shaky ground also.
I see the Oakland riots. CHARGING INTO town Halls & tearing down American flags & burning them is not going to end well. The anti 1% is code. Anti semitism is just one step away from attacking Jewish businesses & then attacking Jewish homes & persons.
America may erupt & the Dems have nowhere to go.