COMMENTARY | According to Jon Stewart’s Super Pac (founded by Stephen Colbert) South Carolina’s Republicans, who go to the polls Saturday, should vote for Herman Cain.
Reasons? South Carolina doesn’t allow for write-in candidates and Stephen Colbert, who according to the Laughing Squid is exploring the possibility of running for president of the United States of South Carolina missed the ballot deadline. Herman Cain (and Texas Gov. Rick Perry who dropped out of the race on Thursday) will, however, appear on the ballot, despite having suspended their campaigns.
I propose four more reasons that South Carolina Republicans should nominate Cain: Rick Santorum, Ron Paul, Mitt Romney, and Newt Gingrich/
Santorum doesn’t get that the purpose of freedom in no way empowers his theocratic notion that everyone is free, in America, as long as they adopt his personal version of biblical morality. If you’re a straight, middle-class, white, Christian male, then perhaps Santorum is your guy. To everyone else, he’s the devil.
Rep. Paul is only marginally better. His strict constructionist point of view on the Constitution gives no sanctuary to the fact that we ratified that document when it took two months to cross the Atlantic, when no one had ever heard of police actions, because they didn’t exist yet. Interpretation of the Constitution has to happen through an examination of intent, rather than through a legalistic approach of examining words on a page. Elect Rep. Paul, and you have just notified the world’s despots that they are free to start attacking their neighbors.
Romney says, “Corporations are people too, my friend.” Seriously, Republicans? Why are you still even looking at this guy? He’s completely out of touch. Bain Capital was a good place for him because he’s the bane of your party.
Gingrich got into this race with a simple strategy — let all of the others punch each other out, and then swoop in and steal the nomination from a man (Romney) that evangelical Christians wouldn’t support in a race against three Muslims and a Jew. Gingrich for president? Sure, if you thought King Ralph should have kept his throne! You may as well elect Snooki.
Republicans, I’m sorry, but you should sit this one out. Are any of these guys really the guy you want to risk saddling yourselves with for eight years? This is about the future of your party. Vote Herman Cain in South Carolina!
Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/gop/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ac/20120121/pl_ac/10862503_why_south_carolina_republicans_should_vote_for_herman_cain
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ROCK HILL, S.C. ? Newt Gingrich’s South Carolina strategy is pretty simple: Tear down Republican front-runner Mitt Romney with a populist pitch or go down trying.
The party establishment, Gingrich said Wednesday, doesn’t want to confront the hard questions.
“Don’t talk about who got all the money. … Can’t we can’t just move forward letting the rich keep all the money?” Gingrich said, arguing that “crony capitalism” undermines free enterprise.
“I want you to know that I am running precisely because, as an Army brat from a middle-class family who taught in college, I think middle-class, taxpaying, working families deserve a government that is honest,” he said.
As the GOP presidential race swept South, Gingrich had little to lose after humbling fourth-place finishes in both New Hampshire and Iowa. And the former House speaker made clear on Wednesday that he’s not giving up without a fight, despite mounting pressure from some GOP power brokers to coalesce behind Romney and avoid a nasty primary fight that could bolster Democrat Barack Obama.
That’s putting Gingrich on what could be a kamikaze mission designed, he says, to rescue the GOP from selling out to the moderate, establishment wing.
As a pro-Gingrich political action committee took the wraps off a 28-minute Web video eviscerating Romney’s leadership of Bain Capital, Gingrich launched a full-throated assault on “crony capitalism” and establishment politics.
It’s a strategy that is already drawing critics. Conservative radio show host Rush Limbaugh said Gingrich sounded like Democratic Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren in Massachussetts.
And by midday, he appeared to be having second thoughts when he was confronted by a Republican voter.
“I think you’ve missed the target on the way you’re addressing Romney’s weaknesses,” said a man at a town hall in Spartanburg. “I want to beg you to redirect and go after his obvious disingenuousness about his conservatism and lay off the corporatist versus the free market.”
“I agree with you,” Gingrich replied. “It’s an impossible theme to talk about with Obama in the background. Obama just makes it impossible to talk rationally in that area because he is so deeply into class warfare that automatically you get an echo effect.”
The “crony capitalism” remark was not repeated at his final campaign stop at the Beacon Restaurant in Spartanburg.
Gingrich spokesman R.C. Hammond insisted there had been no shift in strategy and that Romney’s tenure at Bain is still “fair game.”
Gingrich hammered his point home at his first event of the day packed event in Rock Hill.
“We have a right to know what happened at Goldman Sachs, what happened with trillions of dollars in New York,” he said. “We have a right to know what happened when companies go bankrupt.”
It’s a line of attack meant to keep the heat on Romney and his tenure at the venture capital firm where lucrative corporate takeovers were sometimes accompanied by deep layoffs.
“This is not anti-capitalism,” Gingrich said. “That is the smoke-screen of those who are afraid to be accountable.”
The sharp new populist tone comes with risks for Gingrich, who has a net worth in the millions of dollars and who has made a career navigating the corridors of power in Washington. It opens him up to charges of hypocrisy. Additionally, a segment of the Republican electorate will see his remarks as contrary to the very free market principles that the Republican Party espouses, thus engaging in the very class warfare he condemns
The everyman economic message could resonate in South Carolina, which has been hit hard by the recession. The former Georgia congressman was met by large and enthusiastic crowds chanting “Newt” as he campaigned in the conservative western reaches of the state.
“I think he’s got spunk and nerve,” said Dottie Myers of Gastonia, S.C. “I like that.”
Gingrich said he thinks South Carolina will winnow down the choices to Romney and a conservative alternative.
“I believe that South Carolinians are either going to center in and pick one conservative or, by default, you’re going to send a moderate on to the nomination,” he said.
___
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Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/politics/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120111/ap_on_el_pr/us_gingrich
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SIOUX CITY, Iowa ? Republican presidential front-runner Newt Gingrich clashed sharply with one rival, took pains to compliment another and said it was laughable for any of them to challenge his conservative credentials Thursday night in the last campaign debate before the Jan. 3 Iowa caucuses kick off the 2012 primary season.
In a forceful attack, Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann said Gingrich “had his hand out and received $1.6 million to influence senior Republicans and keep the scam going in Washington, D.C.,” for Freddie Mac, a government-backed housing entity.
“Just not true,” Gingrich shot back. “I never lobbied under any circumstances,” he added, denying an allegation she had not made.
The clash underscored the state of the race, with Gingrich, the former House speaker, atop the polls in Iowa and nationally, while Texas Rep. Ron Paul, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and his other pursuers work in television ads and elsewhere to overtake him in the final days before the caucuses.
Former Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, who has staked his campaign on Iowa, was quick to challenge Gingrich as a conservative leader. He recalled that Gingrich had to contend with a “conservative revolution’ from the ranks of Republican lawmakers when he was House speaker in the 1990s.
Romney, who runs second in the polls in Iowa, largely refrained from criticizing Gingrich, despite increasingly barbed attacks in day-to-day campaigning. Instead, he firmly rejected suggestions that he had once favored gay marriage only to switch his position. “I have been a champion of protecting traditional marriage,” he said.
Given the stakes, Gingrich, Bachmann and Santorum weren’t the only contenders eager to impress Iowa voters and a nationwide television audience with their conservative grit.
“I hope I am the Tim Tebow of the Iowa caucuses,” said Texas Gov. Rick Perry, referring to the Denver Broncos quarterback whose passing ability draws ridicule but who has led his team to a remarkable seven wins in eight weeks.
“We’re getting screwed as Americans,” said former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, insisting that he, in fact, was a steadier conservative than any of the others on stage.
“Anybody up here could beat Obama,” said Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, whose views verge on libertarianism and who has struggled to expand his appeal.
And Bachmann, who was quicker than any other candidate to criticize a rival, bristled when challenged repeatedly on the accuracy of her facts. “I am a serious candidate for president of the United States, and my facts are accurate,” she said.
Indeed, the big question in the opening moments of a fast-paced two-hour debate went to the heart of a dilemma that could eventually settle the race ? do conservative Republican caucus and primary voters pick a candidate with their hearts, or do they look elsewhere if they judge their favored candidate might not be able to defeat the president.
Those voters begin making that choice on Jan. 3, and if experience is any guide, one or more of the presidential hopefuls on the debate stage will not make it out of the state to compete in the New Hampshire primary a week later.
Gingrich, who seemed an also-ran in the earliest stages of the race, has emerged as a leader heading into the final stretch of the pre-primary campaign.
His decades in Washington and his post-congressional career as a consultant have been the subjects of tough critiques from Romney’s campaign in the past week.
But the former speaker passed up an offer to criticize his rival on the issue of Medicare, saying, “I’m not in the business of blaming Gov. Romney.” In fact, he said, Romney has made constructive suggestions for preserving the program that tens of millions of Americans rely on for health care yet faces deep financial woes.
Gingrich drew criticism earlier in the year for calling a GOP Medicare proposal “right-wing engineering.” Romney refrained from criticizing that plan but did not embrace it in full.
Bachmann, who has long-since faded to the back of the pack in the polls, showed no such reluctance.
When he labeled her charges inaccurate, she shot back that when she made similar contentions in the previous debate, she was judged factually accurate by an independent arbiter. She said Gingrich’s work for Freddie Mac was in furtherance of a “grandiose scam” to keep alive an entity at the heart of the housing crisis.
“I will state unequivocally for every person watching tonight: I have never once changed my positions because of any payment,” Gingrich said, adding that in fact, he favored breaking up both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, his benefactor.
Moments later, Bachmann challenged Paul even more aggressively, saying his refusal to consider pre-emptive action to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon was dangerous.
“The problem would be the greatest under-reaction in world history if we have an avowed madman who uses that nuclear weapon to wipe nations off the face of the earth,” she said, referring to an International Atomic Energy Agency report that said Iran was “within just months of being able to obtain that weapon.”
Paul questioned the report. “They have no evidence; there has been no enrichment,” he said.
Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111216/ap_on_el_ge/us_republicans_debate
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Republican presidential candidates former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, left, and former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, right, take part in the Republican debate, Saturday, Dec. 10, 2011, in Des Moines, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)
Republican presidential candidates former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, left, and former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, right, take part in the Republican debate, Saturday, Dec. 10, 2011, in Des Moines, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) ? Republican presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich says he is being factually accurate when he calls the Palestinians an “invented” people and says they are the creation of anti-Israel propaganda.
Gingrich’s chief rival for the presidential nomination, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, says the former House speaker has made a mistake in the description and has made it more difficult for Israelis and Palestinians to negotiate toward peace.
In remarks Saturday night at a candidate debate, Romney said the United States should allow both sides to talk without signaling a preference.
Gingrich responded to the criticism by saying he is speaking as a historian but adds that it’s time for a candidate to stand up and call Palestinian leaders “terrorists.”
Associated Press
Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2011-12-10-Debate-Palestinians/id-e85e4c513b184a00a8eb27932abc5688
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WASHINGTON ? Republican presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich landed the endorsement of New Hampshire’s largest newspaper on Sunday while rival Mitt Romney earned a dismissive wave, potentially resetting the race in the state with the first-in-the-nation primary.
For Gingrich, the former House speaker, the backing builds on his recent rise in the polls and quick work to build a campaign after a disastrous start in the summer. Romney, the former Massachusetts governor who has a vacation home in the state and has been called a “nearly native son of New Hampshire,” absorbed the blow heading into the Jan. 10 vote that’s vital to his campaign strategy.
“We are in critical need of the innovative, forward-looking strategy and positive leadership that Gingrich has shown he is capable of providing,” The New Hampshire Union Leader said in its front-page editorial, which was as much a promotion of Gingrich as a discreet rebuke of Romney.
“We don’t back candidates based on popularity polls or big-shot backers. We look for conservatives of courage and conviction who are independent-minded, grounded in their core beliefs about this nation and its people, and best equipped for the job,” the endorsement said.
The Union Leader’s editorial telegraphed conservatives’ concerns about Romney’s shifts on crucial issues of abortion and gay rights were unlikely to fade. Those worries have led Romney to keep Iowa’s Jan. 3 caucuses ? where conservatives hold great sway ? at arm’s length.
At the same time, the endorsement boosts Gingrich’s conservative credentials. He spent the week defending his immigration policies against accusations that they a form of amnesty. On Monday, Gingrich takes a campaign swing through South Carolina, the South’s first primary state.
Even Democrats on Sunday were noting Gingrich’s rise.
“He’s clearly a smart guy,” said Sen. Chuck Schumer, a Democrat from New York. “And look, I give him some credit for not just blowing with the winds on an issue like immigration. That showed some real courage.”
Romney, taking a few days’ break for the Thanksgiving holiday, has kept focused on a long-term strategy that doesn’t lurch from one development to another. Last week, he picked up the backing of Sen. John Thune, a South Dakota conservative, to add to his impressive roster of supporters.
The Union Leader’s rejection of Romney wasn’t surprising despite his efforts to woo state leaders. The newspaper rejected Romney four years ago in favor of Arizona Sen. John McCain, using front-page columns and editorials to promote McCain and criticize Romney. In the time since, Romney courted publisher Joseph W. McQuaid. Earlier this year Romney and his wife, Ann, had dinner with the McQuaids at the Bedford Village Inn near Manchester, hoping to reset the relationship. It didn’t prove enough.
Romney’s advisers were quick to point out that Gingrich went into October with more than $1 million in campaign debt. Romney, meanwhile, was sitting on a pile of cash and only last week began running television ads ? a luxury Gingrich can’t yet afford.
The duo’s rivals, meanwhile, tried to gain traction.
Herman Cain on Sunday criticized any immigration proposal that included residency or citizenship but struggled to explain how he would deal with the millions of people estimated to be currently living illegally in the United States.
Cain, who joined the race to great fanfare, has seen his luster fade as his seemed to have trouble articulating the nuances of his policy positions. For instance, he was unable to explain the difference between “targeted identification,” which he says would determine common characteristics of people who want to harm the United States, and racial profiling.
At the same time, Cain acknowledged that accusations that he sexually harassed several women during his days running the National Restaurant Association in the 1990s have pulled him from among the front-runners. He has flatly denied the allegations repeatedly.
“Well, obviously false accusations and confusion about some of my positions has contributed” to his fall in the polls, Cain said.
While Romney enjoys solid support in national polls, many Republicans have shifted from candidate to candidate in search of an alternative to Romney. That led to the rise ? and fall ? of potential challengers such as Cain, Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota and Texas Gov. Rick Perry.
Romney enjoys solid leads in New Hampshire polls, too. A poll released last week showed him with 42 percent support among likely Republican primary voters in New Hampshire. Gingrich followed with 15 percent in the WMUR-University of New Hampshire Granite State poll.
Rep. Ron Paul of Texas posted 12 percent support and former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman found 8 percent support in that survey.
Those numbers could shift based on the backing of The Union Leader, a newspaper that proudly works to influence elections, from school boards to the White House, in the politically savvy state.
Huntsman, President Barack Obama’s former ambassador to China, said the endorsement points to how competitive the New Hampshire contest is.
“A month ago for Newt Gingrich to have been in the running to capture The (New Hampshire) Union Leader endorsement would have been unthinkable,” Huntsman said in an interview Sunday during a break in campaigning. “I think it reflects, more than anything else, the fluidity, the unpredictability of the race right now.”
The endorsement, signed by McQuaid, suggested that New Hampshire’s only state-wide newspaper was ready to assert itself again as a player in the GOP primary ? even if the newspaper has reservations.
“We don’t have to agree with them on every issue,” McQuaid wrote in the editorial that ran the width of the front page. “We would rather back someone with whom we may sometimes disagree than one who tells us what he thinks we want to hear.”
Yet with six weeks until the primary, The Union Leader’s move could again shuffle the race, further boosting Gingrich and priving a steady stream of criticism against his rivals. In recent weeks, Gingrich has seen a surge in some polls as Republicans focus more closely on deciding which candidate they consider best positioned to take on Obama.
He has also started to put together a strong campaign organization.
In New Hampshire, he brought on respected tea party leader Andrew Hemingway and his team has been contacting almost 1,000 voters each day. Gingrich hasn’t begun television advertising and has refused to go negative on his opponents.
The newspaper has a decidedly mixed record of picking candidates. It backed Steve Forbes in 2000 and Pat Buchanan’s 1992 and 1996 bids. Neither candidate won the Republican nomination.
Gingrich, who left the House in 1999 under the cloud of an ethics investigation and after disastrous midterm elections for the GOP, has faced skepticism of his personal life. He married to his third wife and acknowledged infidelity during his first marriages.
Even so, voters are giving Gingrich a look ? and the timing appears to be ideal for him.
“Romney is a very play-it-safe candidate. He doesn’t want to offend everybody or anybody,” said Drew Cline, the op-ed editor of The Union Leader. “He wants to be liked. He wants to try to reach out and be very safe, reach out to everybody, bring everybody on board.”
That isn’t the brand of candidate The Union Leader was looking to back, he said.
___
Schumer was interviewed on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” Cain and Cline spoke with CNN’s “State of the Union.” Huntsman appeared on “Fox News Sunday.”
Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/gop/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111127/ap_on_el_pr/us_campaign2012
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