What do you think about Gingrich winning South Carolina?

I am sure a lot of the SC voters felt Newt was being unfairly picked on by a vindictive ex-wife. They are also probably closed minded enough to not vote for anyone who is Mormon.
That said, Mitt won’t run into that degree of idiocity in Florida, and the mentally balanced states coming up.
I am enjoying the results. Let the Republicans beat each other up before they face Obama.

I think it is a very clear commentary on how truly awful this field is. Conservatives can’t make up their minds as to which lousy option to pick. Honestly with the candidates they are offering I would have no choice but to go with Little Elf Ron Paul. Newt Gingrich is a pompous ass with no ethics, a hot head, and zero ability to be the president of our country.

I hope this keeps up and that old Gingrich gets the nomination because it all but assures Mr. Obama a second term.

Great! It shows just how important ethics moral stature cooperation bipartisanship loud talking is to the party.

It just reaffirms the incredible stupidity of the American voter. He’s running on family values and honesty? Give me a fucking break. Morons. I hate to think he could be going to other nations representing the American people.

Yikes,just makes me super glad I’m a Canadian.But your guys politics is really colorful to watch from the outside looking in.

@SQUEEKY2 Colorful? I keep wondering why the rest of the world doesn’t throw us out of the UN for being such idiots. And then I realize why we put the building where we did. At least one American had a brain.

I think it’s good. He’ll never get the presidency and he takes that state out of the running.

@Simone_De_Beauvoir What do you mean by he takes that state out of the running?

As a Democrat I like it, because it means the primary will go on for some time and could get pretty ugly. South Carolina already has exposed some pretty big weaknesses for Romney.

I think that it doesn’t matter, why? Because not a single candidate really has a chance against Obama, and definitely not Gingrich.

It was kind of surprising to me, actually. I know a ton of Republicans, libertarians who align with the Republicans, and conservatives who absolutely loathe him. Then again, they aren’t exactly representative of the masses. I was also under the impression that his campaign was dead in the water.

I think they were really impressed with the way he attacked the press person who asked him about what his ex-wife said. I think he came out with a very strong defense, and people liked that. I think that most people secretly are uncomfortable about private issues becoming public issues.

This is probably because most people do things in private that they don’t want coming out in public. Most people may not have affairs, but there are other things we do that we think we’d be dunned for if others found out. So we don’t want these things to be relevant and we don’t want them to be seen to reflect on our character as far as others see us.

So for Newt to defend himself vigorously suggests that he is a strong guy who can defend the country vigorously. It also suggests that he has the strength to take on whoever needs to be taken on—such as the banks—in order to set the economy straight.

I think that Romney may be admired because he has a lot of money, but people don’t feel like they know who he is because of all his changes in position over the years. Newt has always been Newt. He has always had to defend his name. He has become a terrier of some kind.

I think that is much more appealing than Mitt. Mitt just doesn’t seem to have a there there. Newt, like him or not, is clearly somewhere (even if it isn’t really clear—it sounds clear).

I’m not sure Newt is really who we think he is or who he presents himself as. I suspect he owes a lot of people, but we have no idea who he owes now, due to the recent supreme court decisions that allow people to support him without identifying themselves.

Mitt wants to take the high road, but he can’t. He has to get down in the trenches and mix it up with Newt or he’ll get his liver skewered and roasted for breakfast. Mitt needs to show some character. Some passion. Some desire to be president or he’ll be left making doilies at the women’s auxiliary. It may already be too late. I don’t think he understands the passion that people are looking for and Newt, unfortunately, does.

He’s a reprehensible human being, and very well represents the Republican base – the people who literally cheered at the debates for letting uninsured people to die, for torture, for Perry’s record of executing people after demonstrably unfair trials. He’s bringing back overt racism that the GOP has kept thinly veiled.

I may send a check to his campaign.

@wundayatta I know right, talk about the balls on Gingrich. He called out the guy who asked him that question, saying “I think the destructive, vicious, negative nature of much of the news media makes it harder to govern this country, harder to attract decent people to run for public office. And I am appalled that you would begin a presidential debate on a topic like that.”

This from the same guy who hammered on Clinton and his affair and continually drug that story through the mud as good cause for trying to impeach the then president (for some 2+ years). The same job he’s trying to get.

@jaytkay Don’t joke about that. The Republican has a good chance of winning the general election. “It’s the economy, stupid.” If the economy doesn’t improve quite a bit in the next few months, you may very well regret that contribution.

I heard a Romney rep. say that they are already focusing on Florida, this was before S. Carolina had occurred.

Romney, having been in the lead, could afford that attitude, whereas Gingrich has the motivation to focus on every single state in front of him to gain ground back.

It’s all politics (no pun intended), as you can see by Ron Paul stating they aren’t doing much in FL b/c they know Florida isn’t going to Paul and he is a self admitted “miser” when it comes to his contributors money. . . he has to use it where it will have the most impact.

So I think it’s just reflective of the effort put into S. Carolina.

I personally stand behind Ron Paul. The media has already “chosen” Mitt Romney, and Gingrich doesn’t have a bad resume either.

But I think it just continues to show that the party isn’t really in favor of any of the candidates they have to choose from.

South Carolina is a lost cause, anyway. It doesn’t mean anything.

It shows that the “religious right” is more concerned with revenge, and winning than having a candidate that supports their values. Of course I have always suspected that the zealots down south want to punish the democrats for electing a black president more than they care about honesty and faithfulness in a candidate.

@mrrich724 I would rethink your Ron Paul support if I was you. Sure he is right about breaking up the Military Industrial Complex, pulling out of Afghanistan, reducing or eliminating bases in Europe and in other places where they are not clearly needed. The problem is that he really believes in the Ayn Rand self-centered completely selfish model as a goal for government. It ignores common interest and assumes that industry will ultimately do what is best for the country. Of course we have just had 30 years of industrial control, what happened? The rich got filthy rich and the middle-class just got filthy.

@Ron_C ,your last post was spot on.

@SQUEEKY2: We were watching the black history concert from the White House (on PBS) last night – and my wife turns to me and says, “Can you imagine what some of the extreme southerners are thinking about this?”

I hate to admit it, but I think @Ron_C is correct.

UGH, I hate him less than Romney, but I still hate him.

@JLeslie In terms of what others can win, the republicans. At least, at this point. Whoever else wins others will have one less to speak of.

This does not change my opinion of people in South Carolina.

@SQUEEKY2 thanks and a thanks to @cprevite even if it was a reluctant agreement.

@Ron_C: Sorry. It was only reluctant because I like to believe the best in people and it’s disappointing. Nothing against you sir.

@Ron_C No candidate is perfect, just as Obama is stonewalled time and time again from getting what he wants, so will Ron Paul be stonewalled. No candidate is going to be successful in making extreme reforms because of the point that politics has gotten to.

And we’ve been heading so “extremely” in one direction (big government, social handout programs, etc) that I think we need some “extreme” in the other direction.

I don’t think we will get to an Ayn Rand society with 4 or even 8 years of Ron Paul in office. But here are my reasons (Feel free to PM me after this if you want to discuss, b/c I don’t want to derail the thread, no pun intended):

1) Ron Paul will get the focus BACK onto the constitution, where it needs to be.
2) Ron Paul will work to shrink government, and while he may be stonewalled, shrinking it in any amount from the size it is now, is a great thing.
2) See #2, and apply it to the budget as well.
3) See #2 and apply it to the military as well.
4) Ron Paul is the ONLY candidate who has convinced me that he’s in it for a genuine care for the country and its people. I don’t believe this about any other candidate, be it Obama or Romney or anyone else. He’s the only one that is not part of the status quo (or at least he’s got me convinced).

I don’t think he will be successful in everything he wants to do, but I think heading in that direction and taking the focus back to what America was supposed to be in the first place, may help us stray right back to the middle where we should be (Not the middle of democrat/republican, but the middle of complete dependence on the government vs. no government)

A state going crazy falling prey to a scumbag.

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