Newt Gingrich 2012 campaign video: On Bain Capital: It's a Question of Character, Not Capitalism. January 11, 2012. http://youtu.be/yV6qUI5-ij4
Above, audio of Newt Gingrich's appearance this afternoon on Sean Hannity's nationally-syndicated radio show, where he discussed Mitt Romney's track record with Bain Capital. He's rightly frustrated and at pains to explain the subtle yet important distinction of his having asked hard questions and demanded answers about what Romney actually did for the company, not Gingrich's questioning of the free enterprise system.
Unfortunately, among others, the Mainstream Media's punditocracy of the Left and the Right seem perfectly willing to ignore the clear distinction.
Even worse for well-informed voters who want someone who will really take the fight to President Obama and make him the focal point of the campaign, that large group ignoring the distinction also includes the sycophantic Republican Party 'Establishment' based in the Beltway and in the state capitols, who favor political coronations, not hard-fought floor fights on public policy issues.
(To figure out who these particular GOP characters are, just picture John Sununu and his small-minded ilk taking up space in the Bush 41 White House, James Baker's State Dept., and carious agencies. Then, think of their many, many younger Gray Flannel suit-wearing underlings, who since then have either made it to Congress or became prominent in D.C. not by solving problems creatively, but rather by promising to finesse people they already know in exchange for money. Yes, lots and lots of smart but philosophically weak and outside-the-box averse guys. As it happens, to be honest, often the type of guys my then-girlfriends had broken-up with in order to be with me.
The sort of well-educated but oblivious people who in the early Nineties often seemed more afraid of the fact that their whole worldview had been tossed upside-down by the fall of the Berlin Wall, and who DIDN'T want to recognize the bravery of the people in Eastern Europe and reward it by recognizing their independence, but who preferred instead that it stay in the Soviet sphere because that way they didn't have to think about it.
Brent Scowcroft-types.
These are THE people whom I most loathed of any I dealt with in the 15 years I lived and worked in Washington. And there are still lots of them who haven't learned a single lesson in twenty years.)
It's the same reason that the GOP establishment was so deathly afraid of the armies of retired accountants, military vets, college students and Libertarian-oriented school teachers interested in financial solvency in Washington who were the vanguard of the Tea Party movement -there was nothing they could offer to appease them.
They didn't want something in return, they wanted concrete results in Congress.
Romney's hyper-sensitive and completely calculated "How dare you criticize free enterprise..." response to Gingrich's probing questions, when that's NOT what's at issue, is also mentioned as part of the larger problem with Romney.
Not just that he is thin-skinned regarding constructive criticism of his own record, per se, but as many surmise, Romney's chiseled jaw is, in fact, a glass jaw.
One that Obama's minions will start jabbing and punching at long before the GOP convention if Romney wins.
Think Chuck Wepner in the 1975 Ali fight.
In short, Romney is being criticized on the specifics of what HE did in specific situations when he was in charge.
Period.
His ability -or inability- to make principled decisions and stick by them is exactly what's being criticized, and his own track record, post-Salt Lake City Olympics, is why that is such a mother lode.
Newt Gingrich 2012 campaign video: For the dogs. January 11, 2012.
http://youtu.be/x-4bm5NxqPY
Cold Reality of the Sunshine State: Mitt Romney has won two small states whose total # of votes cast were less than the # of absentee ballots already requested by voters in Florida... for an election three weeks from last night.
I had actually heard speculation about the way these numbers would probably sort themselves out last week -ironically, while I was on my way to the Supervisor of Elections office in Broward County HQ's in Ft. Lauderdale- but nothing has changed to make them inaccurate.
If anything, the contrast in numbers will only get exponentially larger, something that national reporters, columnists and anchors will find themselves unable to resist mentioning -over and over again- when Romney supporters crow about what sort of "mandate" they have.
Just saying...
Orlando Sentinel
Central Florida Political Pulse blog
RPOF: Florida absentee ballot requests now more than Iowa, NH vote totals
2012 Florida presidential primary, 2012 presidential election — posted by scottpowers on January, 10 2012 11:17 AM
Absentee ballot requests in Florida now are double the total sought for the 2008 presidential primary and are more than all the votes cast in
Iowa and expected today in New Hampshire.Read the rest of the post at: http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/news_politics/2012/01/rpof-florida-absentee-ballot-requests-now-more-than-iowa-nh-vote-totals.html
That’s the word from the Republican Party of Florida, which argues there is no voter enthusiasm gap this year.
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http://www.newt.org/
http://www.youtube.com/user/ngingrich
