(Mitt Romney’s momentum has run him smack into a brick wall in South Carolina)
1/21/12
The ballots have been counted in South Carolina’s GOP Presidential primary, and it turns out that Mitt Romney’s momentum has hit a wall called Newt Gingrich. Despite being anointed by some powerful politicians, including South Carolina Senator Jim DeMint, whom many regard as a kingmaker and Governor Nikki Haley, a darling of the Tea Party, Gingrich beat Romney by double digits. In so doing, he picked up the votes of Independents and Evangelicals and, somewhat surprisingly, even women, despite the nasty interview recently given by one of his ex-wives.
Since 1980, no candidate has gone on to earn the nomination of either party without winning in South Carolina. Of course, trends, like records, were meant to be broken. But Gingrich now carries substantial momentum to Florida, where he already polls well. Another historical note: never before have three different candidates won the first three contests.
An interesting and perhaps telling point: voters told exit-pollers one of the main reasons they went for Newt is electability, a sharp contrast to the conventional wisdom about Romney. There can be little doubt that Gingrich benefitted greatly from his sterling debate performances, and it’s a good bet that he, alone among the other GOP contenders, can go head-to-head with Barack Obama and essentially shred the President on economic issues.
Mitt Romney comes in a distant second in the Palmetto State. Rick Santorum finishes third with Ron Paul not too far behind in fourth. Santorum has said he will stick regardless. A third place finish in South Carolina, after his surprising victory in Iowa, puts Santorum in the “exceeds expectations” category, which is always a good place to be in politics. As for Ron Paul, he plans to soldier on.
The Gingrich victory, while remarkable, is hardly a surprise. The past several days of polling saw him surge past Romney. What is somewhat unexpected is his solid showing among Evangelicals, whom he has not courted with any real vigor and who were expected to go heavily for Santorum, even as they did for Mike Huckabee in 2008. On the other hand, aside from his divorces and the negative ethical cloud under which he left Congress, there’s nothing about his positions that Evangelicals would find antithetical to their key issues.
The mainstream media have done yeoman’s work in portraying the former Governor of Massachusetts as the one man who could beat Barack Obama in the Fall. That alone is enough to give a Republican pause. Why would the MSM, which usually fawns over the President and his policies, push a candidate they truly believe could beat their favorite? As in the memorable line from‘Hamlet‘, “Something is rotten in Denmark.”
Even some on the Right, including the usually arch-conservative Ann Coulter, have allowed themselves to be convinced that Mitt is the one Republican who can unseat Barack Obama. They’re willing to overlook Governor Romney’s hugely unsuccessful move to universalize health care in Massachusetts, which even the President points to as the model for ObamaCare. They’re incredibly charitable in ignoring Romney’s flip-flops on abortion and gun control, along with other “epiphanies” that (coincidentally?) occurred to Mitt when he decided four years ago to run for the Republican nomination.
Rick Santorum has his own negatives to overcome. During his tenures in the House and Senate, Santorum was obliged, like many another Republican, to sign off on increases to the debt ceiling. He also earmarked projects that would benefit his district and state. And what of it? Every member of Congress feels duty bound to return to his or her constituents some of the money extorted from them by the feds.
In the meantime, Santorum fought tirelessly against issues, such as partial-birth abortions, that violated the moral compass of his Republican base in Pennsylvania. Yes, he voted to increase government spending, but tried to ensure the increases were as small as possible. That merely portrays him as a lawmaker who was willing to compromise on some things, so that others more palatable to conservatives would find their way into law. Isn’t the big Democrat knock on Republicans their unwillingness to compromise?
Newt Gingrich’s record as a Congressman and Speaker of the House speaks for itself. He engineered the historic Republican takeover of Congress in 1994 with his ‘Contract for America’ and engaged in successful mortal combat with the Clinton White House to reform Welfare and reduce government spending. Democrats are fond of referring to the “Clinton budget surpluses”. It’s a flagrant misnomer. Those were the “Gingrich budget surpluses”, period.
Romney likes to brag about cutting taxes in Massachusetts. What he doesn’t say is that any decrease in taxation under his watch was more than offset by increased fees and expensive regulations that made it harder to do business under his watch. The most expensive of these was RomneyCare, the universal insurance plan whose cost overruns have exceeded 1000%, even as health insurance premiums in Massachusetts have become among the very highest in the nation. These hardly amount to the record on which a so-called “conservative” should be able to run as a prospective Republican nominee for President.
The Florida primary is racing toward us, on January 31st. Expect Gingrich, Romney, Santorum and Paul to campaign heavily in the Sunshine State, and things could get rough and tumble. Mitt Romney will be fighting for his political life, is extremely well-funded and organized, and can be expected to put on a full court press. Likewise, Gingrich, whose campaign coffers are certain to swell after his South Carolina triumph, will flood the airwaves and the speaking circuit. He just might pull it off. If so, whence Romney? Some very big states have yet to hold primaries and, whatever happens in Florida, it’s unlikely Romney will throw in the towel.
Things have gone from interesting to fascinating in the GOP presidential race. The next few weeks promise to be highly entertaining, especially for political junkies like me.
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This entry was posted on January 21, 2012 at 12:29 pm and is filed under Conservative Political Commentary. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments.
Tags: Gingrich takes South Carolina, Romney comes in second
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Romney Trips over South Carolina
(Mitt Romney’s momentum has run him smack into a brick wall in South Carolina)
1/21/12
The ballots have been counted in South Carolina’s GOP Presidential primary, and it turns out that Mitt Romney’s momentum has hit a wall called Newt Gingrich. Despite being anointed by some powerful politicians, including South Carolina Senator Jim DeMint, whom many regard as a kingmaker and Governor Nikki Haley, a darling of the Tea Party, Gingrich beat Romney by double digits. In so doing, he picked up the votes of Independents and Evangelicals and, somewhat surprisingly, even women, despite the nasty interview recently given by one of his ex-wives.
Since 1980, no candidate has gone on to earn the nomination of either party without winning in South Carolina. Of course, trends, like records, were meant to be broken. But Gingrich now carries substantial momentum to Florida, where he already polls well. Another historical note: never before have three different candidates won the first three contests.
An interesting and perhaps telling point: voters told exit-pollers one of the main reasons they went for Newt is electability, a sharp contrast to the conventional wisdom about Romney. There can be little doubt that Gingrich benefitted greatly from his sterling debate performances, and it’s a good bet that he, alone among the other GOP contenders, can go head-to-head with Barack Obama and essentially shred the President on economic issues.
Mitt Romney comes in a distant second in the Palmetto State. Rick Santorum finishes third with Ron Paul not too far behind in fourth. Santorum has said he will stick regardless. A third place finish in South Carolina, after his surprising victory in Iowa, puts Santorum in the “exceeds expectations” category, which is always a good place to be in politics. As for Ron Paul, he plans to soldier on.
The Gingrich victory, while remarkable, is hardly a surprise. The past several days of polling saw him surge past Romney. What is somewhat unexpected is his solid showing among Evangelicals, whom he has not courted with any real vigor and who were expected to go heavily for Santorum, even as they did for Mike Huckabee in 2008. On the other hand, aside from his divorces and the negative ethical cloud under which he left Congress, there’s nothing about his positions that Evangelicals would find antithetical to their key issues.
The mainstream media have done yeoman’s work in portraying the former Governor of Massachusetts as the one man who could beat Barack Obama in the Fall. That alone is enough to give a Republican pause. Why would the MSM, which usually fawns over the President and his policies, push a candidate they truly believe could beat their favorite? As in the memorable line from‘Hamlet‘, “Something is rotten in Denmark.”
Even some on the Right, including the usually arch-conservative Ann Coulter, have allowed themselves to be convinced that Mitt is the one Republican who can unseat Barack Obama. They’re willing to overlook Governor Romney’s hugely unsuccessful move to universalize health care in Massachusetts, which even the President points to as the model for ObamaCare. They’re incredibly charitable in ignoring Romney’s flip-flops on abortion and gun control, along with other “epiphanies” that (coincidentally?) occurred to Mitt when he decided four years ago to run for the Republican nomination.
Rick Santorum has his own negatives to overcome. During his tenures in the House and Senate, Santorum was obliged, like many another Republican, to sign off on increases to the debt ceiling. He also earmarked projects that would benefit his district and state. And what of it? Every member of Congress feels duty bound to return to his or her constituents some of the money extorted from them by the feds.
In the meantime, Santorum fought tirelessly against issues, such as partial-birth abortions, that violated the moral compass of his Republican base in Pennsylvania. Yes, he voted to increase government spending, but tried to ensure the increases were as small as possible. That merely portrays him as a lawmaker who was willing to compromise on some things, so that others more palatable to conservatives would find their way into law. Isn’t the big Democrat knock on Republicans their unwillingness to compromise?
Newt Gingrich’s record as a Congressman and Speaker of the House speaks for itself. He engineered the historic Republican takeover of Congress in 1994 with his ‘Contract for America’ and engaged in successful mortal combat with the Clinton White House to reform Welfare and reduce government spending. Democrats are fond of referring to the “Clinton budget surpluses”. It’s a flagrant misnomer. Those were the “Gingrich budget surpluses”, period.
Romney likes to brag about cutting taxes in Massachusetts. What he doesn’t say is that any decrease in taxation under his watch was more than offset by increased fees and expensive regulations that made it harder to do business under his watch. The most expensive of these was RomneyCare, the universal insurance plan whose cost overruns have exceeded 1000%, even as health insurance premiums in Massachusetts have become among the very highest in the nation. These hardly amount to the record on which a so-called “conservative” should be able to run as a prospective Republican nominee for President.
The Florida primary is racing toward us, on January 31st. Expect Gingrich, Romney, Santorum and Paul to campaign heavily in the Sunshine State, and things could get rough and tumble. Mitt Romney will be fighting for his political life, is extremely well-funded and organized, and can be expected to put on a full court press. Likewise, Gingrich, whose campaign coffers are certain to swell after his South Carolina triumph, will flood the airwaves and the speaking circuit. He just might pull it off. If so, whence Romney? Some very big states have yet to hold primaries and, whatever happens in Florida, it’s unlikely Romney will throw in the towel.
Things have gone from interesting to fascinating in the GOP presidential race. The next few weeks promise to be highly entertaining, especially for political junkies like me.
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This entry was posted on January 21, 2012 at 12:29 pm and is filed under Conservative Political Commentary. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments.
Tags: Gingrich takes South Carolina, Romney comes in second
You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site.