2012 GOP Presidential Campaign -- "This individual's going to accuse me of an affair for an extended period of time."

and there's the other major problem with Gingrich, money

nlike Dubya, who could muster tearful repentance, macho bluster, and simple-minded sympathy in equal measure

You sure you don't mean Rod Steiger?

little known fact: Dubya travelled back in time to play the role of Jud in the screen adaptation of Oklahoma!

Congressional Ethics Committee's investigative report on Gingrich released

Looks like this was discussed upthread, but I don't get Pelosi's logic--why sabotage the guy you want to win? Unless, as some of you suggested, she thinks this will rally Republicans around Gingrich.

she probably isn't playing three-dimensional chess and enjoyed the opportunity to lol at gingrich

I wish somebody would start a game of three-dimensional chess with Perry. I think that would be fun.

why sabotage the guy you want to win? Unless, as some of you suggested, she thinks this will rally Republicans around Gingrich.

Dems don't have a lot of muscle to flex in GOP primaries. this won't sabotage him. it will have the simultaneous effects of a) probably motivating the base (who hates Pelosi) and will see any attacks from her as vindication of Newt's threat and b) it will act as a harbinger of things to come for independents/swing voters who may only be starting to pay attention to Gingrich. win/win for the Dems.

let's keep in mind that like .01% of the american voting population are aware that this event happened

That's like four-dimensional chess...I'm two dimensions behind, but I like it. (xpost)

Hooray! Wait...:

"A lot of people agree with me and find it amazing," Trump said of the eligibility controversy. "It's miraculous how this birth certificate just appeared."

He said many people have questioned the birth certificate's authenticity.

"It's strange that after years all of a sudden it appears," Trump mused. "How come there are no records his mother ever was in the hospital?"

He noted there are records of other births in the Hawaii hospital at the time.

"There's no record of Obama or his mother," he said.

Trump added that members of Obama's own family have pointed to different hospitals in Hawaii as being his birth location, and his grandmother reportedly made statements linking his birth to Kenya.

"I have real questions (about Obama's eligibility)," he said.

I think it might just mean that in the end the base will be depressed. They'll end up with Mittens after all the others have flamed out and all their enthusiasm has been spent

Huntsman walks back climate change stance. that's cute... he thinks he's going to get to go to the ball when Newt shits the bed

(and hell he just might. so that'll show me)

eh I can imagine that newt is seen as 'the brains' by some people, and he definitely does his best to promote that image. he drops big words, references history pretty often, etc. etc.

He even has a bona fide Ph.D.!

it's not inconceivable w/ the dynamics of this race. I mean I don't expect him to get the nom, but if you woulda asked any of us "will cain or gingrich at any point be the frontrunners" some months ago, we woulda laughed. he's trending up on intrade, at 8% atm.

xp

Looks like this was discussed upthread, but I don't get Pelosi's logic--why sabotage the guy you want to win? Unless, as some of you suggested, she thinks this will rally Republicans around Gingrich.

Remember when the GOP fervently prayed that Dean would be the nominee around this time in 2003?

bad hair day? trump is having a bad face day

http://www.csmonitor.com/var/ezflow_site/storage/images/media/images/1206-gingrich-trump-meeting/11161698-1-eng-US/1206-GINGRICH-TRUMP-MEETING_full_380.jpg

egged on by trump, gingrich will spout something so outrageous that his frontrunner status gets sabotaged. if this debate acutally takes place.

― the deli llama,

lol @ yo name

if this debate acutally takes place.

this debate will not take place.

yeah. it's really gingrich's "my dinner with donald" campaign event.

but i love the possibility that, if romney wins the nomination, trump will consider a third-party campaign.

can he have another book ready to promote by then?

wait, of course he can.

he writes his books on the back of restaurant napkins.

"book"

BOOK

it's amazing how there is such a concept as a "frontrunner" when nobody's voted, except with dollars

i have voted w/ lols

Romney's officially out of the Donald debate: http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2011/12/06/us/politics/AP-US-Romney-Trump-Debate.html?hp

J Long
: 12/06/11 15:40

The point that some of y'all are missing w/ regard to what Walsh said (and by some of y'all...I mean the people who give credence to not attacking Obama personally) is that it is extremely hard to attack Obama without fully illuminating what exactly he is (an Alinsky disciple who has very different desires for America than our mostly conservative citizenry does). The GOP will have to attack him for the truth to get any traction because the media will suppress, deflect and attack any gently proffered information.

fuck u prettyboy jason long

Justin* lol

who?

A sage.

it's amazing how there is such a concept as a "frontrunner" when nobody's voted, except with dollars

― Dr Morbius, Tuesday, December 6, 2011 3:49 PM (22 minutes ago) Bookmark Permalink

you're right, why won't they give gary johnson his time in the limelight?!?!?!?!?!

This is good (from Salon):

Gingrich, who’d agree to sit down for a day-long “Lincoln-Douglas-style debate” with a Teddy Ruxpin doll, is selling himself as a candidate based in large part on his ability to talk. Republicans think Obama talked his way into the White House, mesmerizing voters with his fancy words and soothing tone. And certain conservatives are itching for Gingrich to face Obama in a talking contest. They think Gingrich would destroy him. And they base this impression on the sight of Gingrich dominating interviews with morons like Glenn Beck.

totally true about gingrich's appeal. but also the fact that gingrich seems to embody/channel right-wing anger in a way romney doesn't. romney says the right things, but that's not enough. the right is ANGRY. they want BLOOD.

Indies don't. I don't know what Dems want.

We want Newt!

(Even if we're Canadian liberals.)

legalized weed!

xp

Indies don't.

indies aren't deciding the GOP primary race.

It's hard to know when you mean primaries and general election.

primaries.

This is pretty amazing:

http://www.gallup.com/poll/151355/Gingrich-Romney-Among-GOP-Voters-Nationwide.aspx

One thing does jump out: if you compare the Nov. 2-6 percentages to Dec. 1-5, one reading would be that everybody stays more or less the same and Cain's 22% migrates en masse over to Gingrich. So I'll try to remind myself that, in addition to Gingrich's own vulnerabilities, that 22% might not be the most stable number in the world.

hm:

What's the scariest news for Mitt Romney in the nearly mirror-image polls out today showing Newt Gingrich rocketing into the lead in Iowa, South Carolina and nationally?
The short answer: the breadth of Gingrich's support. In all three surveys, Gingrich is not only lapping Romney among the ideologically conservative and religiously devout voters who have resisted the former Massachusetts governor throughout the race; Gingrich is also running step for step (or ahead) with Romney among the less ideological, more secular, voters who have been Romney's base.
All of this is a big and ominous change for Romney. Earlier he had the luxury of watching the rivals to his right divide conservative voters while he made steady progress at consolidating the party's more managerial, less ideological wing. For a brief period in late summer, Texas Gov. Rick Perry threatened to reach across the divide - but his poor debate performances quickly deflated his standing with both groups. Now Gingrich, a much steadier (if still volatile) contender than Perry, is not only consolidating conservatives, but loosening Romney's hold on the more pragmatic and managerial components of the GOP coalition.

In the ABC/Washington Post Iowa survey out today, for instance, Gingrich attracts 31 percent of self-identified evangelicals (who constituted a full 60 percent of the Iowa GOP electorate in 2008), according to results from the survey provided to National Journal. Romney, Rick Perry (and incongruously for a libertarian) Ron Paul all attract 14 percent, with Michele Bachmann at 12 percent. Romney's deficit with that group is consistent with the findings of earlier polls.

More worrisome for Romney are the results among the Iowa Republican voters who don't consider themselves evangelicals. Even among that group, Gingrich leads him 27 percent to 21 percent, with Paul at 14 percent and Perry at 11.
It's the same story in the new Winthrop University survey released in South Carolina. Its sample size is smaller, which means the margin of error is larger, but it points in the same direction as the Iowa poll. In the Winthrop poll, Gingrich leads Romney among self-identified evangelical Christians by more than two-to-one and runs about even with the former governor among those who don't identify as evangelicals. That's a formula for clear success in South Carolina since evangelicals there as well comprised 60 percent of the 2008 GOP primary voter.
The story repeats again in the first installment of what will be a daily national tracking poll that Gallup released Tuesday. Overall, the survey placed Gingrich ahead of Romney by 37 percent to 22 percent (strikingly similar to the results of both the Iowa and South Carolina state polls). In the Gallup poll, Gingrich is crushing Romney by two-to-one among Republicans who identify as conservatives and by 47-17 among those who consider themselves supporters of the tea party. But the former speaker runs even with Romney among those who consider themselves moderate or liberal, and those who don't support the tea party.
Further detail on the survey provided by Gallup underscores the breadth of Gingrich's advantage. He leads Romney by almost two-to-one among Republican voters without a college degree - again, not surprisingly, since that has been a group consistently skeptical of Romney. But Gingrich also leads by 37 percent to 26 percent among Republicans with at least a four year degree - the group that earlier in the year had served as Romney's base. The same is true when looking at the race by income: Gingrich leads not only among those Republican voters earning $90,000 or less (by a resounding two-to-one), but also holds a solid 38 percent to 25 percent edge among more affluent Republicans - again, a group expected to provide Romney's foundation.
Religion fills out the picture: Gingrich's lead over Romney is about the same among those who term religion important in their lives as among those who don't.
Romney has all sorts of resource and logistical advantages. But in terms of the range of voters that each man is currently attracting, these results suggest that as of today, at least, Gingrich is positioned to compete in a broader range of states than Romney. All of this will undoubtedly increase the incentive for Romney to find a more effective line of attack against Gingrich in the next round of Republican debates - starting with ABC's encounter in Iowa on Saturday.

Mitt's gonna have to kick Newt in his newt sack pretty soon.

Not out till Jan. 31, 2012--if you think a couple of us are too preoccupied with Newt's future, there's a publisher out there having seven or eight heart attacks a day.

http://a2.mzstatic.com/us/r30/Publication/cb/9b/1c/mzi.cwaemusz.225x225-75.jpg