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WOLFEBORO, N.H. -- Saturday evening is a big night for Newt Gingrich. Not only is it just three days before the New Hampshire primary, it also marks the first presidential debate since the barrage of negative attacks against the former House speaker in Iowa kicked into high gear.
“It’s fight night. We’re excited,” Gingrich spokesman R.C. Hammond told a small group of reporters following a Gingrich event here.
Standing in front of a large military tank with a fighter jet hanging from above, Gingrich wasted no time before taking a jab at GOP rival Mitt Romney.
“I look at this tank lovingly because I remember Michael Dukakis,” he said as he started his speech inside The Wright Museum on WWII history. (Dukakis was the 1988 Democratic presidential nominee, who was featured in a picture riding in a tank.) “And it’s just a reminder that governors of Massachusetts don’t always make good presidential candidates.”
Gingrich gave one of his most energetic speeches on the trail Saturday afternoon before a crowd of at least 400 people. And as a historian, the museum was an ideal setting for him. This impassioned townhall performance from the former Speaker comes has he is struggling in recent polls in New Hampshire and nationally. He has to finish strong here and win South Carolina to have a chance at becoming the Republican nominee.
“We have 2 weeks to clarify in South Carolina that he [Romney] is a Massachusetts Moderate and that he has a whole series of experiences and values that are the opposite of the South Carolina Republican Party,” Gingrich told reporters following his event in the same resort town as Romney’s summer home. “If we succeed in doing that he won’t win in South Carolina. If we don’t succeed, he might win.”
Debates have always been a strong suit for Gingrich but the last presidential debate was more than three weeks ago on Dec. 15 in Sioux City, Iowa. Since then, he has moved far from front-runner status, finishing just fourth in the Iowa caucuses earlier this week. Potential good news for the Gingrich campaign? Two debates in 12 hours this weekend.
Gingrich told reporters after one of his largest events since his poll numbers began to drop that he will prepare for this debate as he has all along.
“Drink a diet coke, call Maggie and Robert [his grandchildren] and get their sophisticated coaching advice,” he said, adding he will try to remember the tips of “slower, smile, shorter, clearer.”
Gingrich said not to doubt his strategy of not talking to paid consultants before debates as he has “two debate coaches with a winning streak.”
Even though it’s “fight night” for the campaign, Gingrich may not directly attack Romney – at least not by the way he defines going negative on an opponent.
“I'm not going to go after Mitt Romney. I may define the reality of a Reagan conservative and a Massachusetts moderate,” he said. “I don’t think telling the truth in a happy and pleasant way comes across as negative, it may come across as the truth … may have to ask Gov. Romney how he feels describing accurately his record.”
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If that rich snob Romney does't buy the election then those bias right wing nuts on the Supreme Court will " elect " him.
Someone read the Vanity Fair magazine @ mitt. He does not believe in freedom of your faith, unless your morman. It's totally male dominated. He wears a mask and is controlling..yuck! He does not have have values for single parents either.
Go get em Santorum...
He's a religious freak...only in a bad way.
What I found entertaining was how Santorum when pressed by the folks at New England College about his stance on same sex marriage, used the excuse that that would open folks to justify marring more than one spouse. I don't see how electing someone who is "LDS" can even be on the plate of Conservatives. I was kind of waiting for the inter racial quote but i guess he is not totally stupid. I like how they claim that America was founded by Christians, I am married to an Anasazi descendant and their people we not Christian. Father gave that religion to the Jews. What he gave to the Anglo's they rejected and some will say suffer the consequences of those choices. Just my 2 cents worth.
Will the real Mitt Romney please stand up. Stop using talking points and show us what you got.
We need to elect Newt, a man with an inellect who knows how weak America is getting. China, N.korea and Iran love a braindead Demo like Obamma.
yea, Its like a 5 year old kicking your a**. We are not as weak as you think. even with a 10 or 20 percent cut in overall budget. How many satellites look at planet earth and how many look away? That tells you the real issue. One humans will probably never solve.
Pat, I agree with you completely. It's time to elect an intellectual and not a bleeding heart. Repeal Roe Vs Wade? Government has no right to interfere with a woman, her husband (if married) her doctor and her religion in the decision to have or not have an abortion. This is not for me or my government to decide.I would not have one nor would I want my kids to have one, but I thank God I was never in a position to have to make that decision. To have another baby and not be able to feed the kids I have? Nobody has a right to tell a woman what her decision should be. Those pols who feel like Romney about Roe vs Wade are so priviledged that they cannot understand the needs of certain poor women.
lets see...obama's military actions were to focus the military on threats like n korea, china, and iran, and away from decade-long nation building exercises like iraq..and you call HIIM "braindead" while whining about the threat of china, n. korea, and iran? lol.
someone here is braindead, but it isn't obama. :)
seriously?: hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha - that is kind of funny...
still waiting on the zombie apokolypse
I would never vote for Romney: my vote is not to be bought with mass
advertisements, but with the quality of ideas and value of character.
There are many better more qualified and real
conservative candidates
running. He has too many faces on important issues. He has too many opposite
answers to issues depending on the political winds. There is
already an
economy stopping Democratican in office, so why would I replace
with Romney,
( and waste my vote for a Republican
in name only)
How about giving Newt Gingrich equal time to be seen and heard? It appears that ABC-TV favors Mitt Romney. Where is the non-participation of the press? By picking sides, they are editorializing instead of journalizing.
Ginga: I agree. I watched the first half hour of the debate, during which time Mitt Romney did most of the talking, but said nothing of substance. He reminds me of an insecure middle-school child; he can't answer a question without complaining about President Obama. He can't even answer a question about his own qualifications without bashing President Obama.
Newt Gingrich is the only knowledgeable, calm and reasonable candidate. He can whomp Obama good.
newt is calm? lol, you don't have any idea about him, do you?
Mary, Thank you. The press favors Obama and fears Newt Gingrich. They see Romney as the one Obama can beat and so they are trying to sway the public to vote for him. that is why we see lots of Obama and the other weak sisters and little of Newt. This tells me that we must elect Newt Gingrich if we want to defeat Obama. The press has shown us the way.
lol, polls show that romney is the biggest threat to obama, not newt.
your whole theory is therefore bogus. I love how every time there is a negative article about a candidate, it somehow turns into "the liberal media fears candidate X blah blah blah". Sometimes there just are negative things to say about candidates..I know its crazy, but true. :)
"Mitt Romney grabbed a lead Thursday against Barack Obama in a hypothetical head-to-head general election poll as the president fell to his widest losing margin against the potential 2012 GOP candidate.
Newt Gingrich appears to be going in dramatically different directions in the polls, as the latest Rasmussen Reports national survey finds President Obama expanding his lead over the former House speaker, even as the latter's popularity among GOP voters continues at high levels.
"The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey of Likely Voters finds Obama earning 49% of the vote, while Gingrich receives 39% support
The Rasmussen Reports poll found Romney ahead of Obama 45% to 39%
Ginga: I agree with your comments about the amount of time given to Mitt Romney during the debate, and that it seems to be the "conventional wisdom" that Mitt Romney is the one to beat President Obama. However, I don't think that Newt Gingrich is the "only knowledgeable, calm, and reasonable candidate who can whomp Obama good." I grant you that he's smart, but hardly calm and reasonable. In my opinion, Jon Huntsman is the best of the GOP candidates. I support President Obama, but I would not bne upset if Jon Huntsman was to become our next POTUS. I cannot say the same about any of the other candidates.
GET THE BIG CHECK OUT OF POLITICS
BUDDY ROEMER is a republican running for president. Buddy has more impressive credentials than several of the other candidates but has been kept out of every national Republican debate. Buddy's credentials were superior to those of Mitt Romney, Rick Perry, Michele Bachmann, Herman Cain and Tim Pawlenty all who were allowed multiple chances to make their main points on the national debate stage. How their message resonated resulted in a position in the poles that followed. Many of the excuses for not letting Buddy Roemer into a debate centered round poling percentages but never letting Buddy Roemer into a debate affected his poling percentages.
Buddy Roemer’s message gets to the heart of the problem in our political system which is candidates accept big checks from PACs and that determines where votes fall. FREE THINKING IS PUNISHED IF YOU HAVE TAKEN PAC MONEY.
Since the RNC with the media who sponsors the Republican debates determines who debates, the shut out is due to one or both of them.
The RNC (in this case) has a large number of PACs all set to funnel money toward a candidate who would give them the number of congressional seats for control knowing that also gives them a lever to control that candidate’s vote on their important issues. It is not that the DNC does anything different. The problem is that the PAC has control of the vote. The PAC exists only to promote the agenda of its donors who now can even be anonymous. A single PAC will give to select candidates on both side of the political aisle when it would serve their purpose.
The Media benefits in a way that seems more benign but is self serving in the extreme. When massive funds are going into campaign ads, a lot of wealth gets shifted to the owners of the media. They are willing to take money from whoever has it to give but they want to appear neutral and even-handed. Buddy Roemer’s point of keeping the big check out of politics would be devastating to the media’s source of revenue.
The plain fact is THE VAST MAJORITY OF ADS RUN BY PACs ARE NEGATIVE IN NATURE, LOADED WITH SCARE TACTICS AND HALF TRUTHS AND DARKENED IMAGES OF THE OPPOSITION CANDIDATE IN CLOSE PROXIMITY TO SOMETHING WE KNOW IS BAD. Their purpose is to confuse the voter and obfuscate issues and often gets the desired effects. Truth and fairness are victims. Voters become disillusioned by the spectacle.
The US Supreme court has dealt a killer blow to democracy in Citizens vs FEC. The case’s title should have been Wealthy vs Democracy. Of Course the majority opinion was for wealthy. ZEEK
Oh Laura 476 we did avert four more years of failure of your liking, we elected a brilliant thoughtful President who is able to assess situations and act in a way that benefits the country as a whole.
We're sure you only want circus clowns of the elk that is the offering now presented by the GOP. It does appear that facts slide past you and most of your silly and greedy Tea Bag's full of wind. Oh well no one expected much of you.
I'M STILL LOOKING FOR OTHER
Mitt had his nasty ads about Newt and now Newt will turn the table on Mitt. It reminds me of a three way debate I once viewed. Two candidates were going back and forth saying nasty things about each other. The moderator asked the third candidate, Walter Mondale, which one was right. Walter said "they both are". This group of has beens and misfits deserve each other. The American people need a quality republican candidate or they will lose.
I haven't heard one candidate OUTLINE THEIR PLAN that deals with getting Americans back to work in quality jobs which has been and continues to be the hot button issue. When asked each has the same response which is to cut taxes on the wealthy and remove regulations. If this was a plan to get America working again, why does it have to be paid for by cutting entitlements. Shouldn't the added taxes from full employment pay for it
UNLESSthe jobs they have planned for our un and under employed are all minimum wage jobs which in the end pay so little that they will owe little or no taxes. Isn't that one of their complaints that the low wage earner doesn't participate financially in government because many pay no income tax at all.We need to change the notion the America is just a marketplace for foreign made goods. The foreign goods do have to flow through American middlemen who make sure their profit is substantial. Free trade has decimated our job market and we have to compete for jobs with foreigners but pay traditionally high American prices for needed items.
Where is the candidate that will fix this? ZEEK
The Gingrichs are to ugly to be president...there I said it ...I am against pasty white tub of lards and the desperate hos they marry...I guess I am "racist"
and its amazing that all the other boards on all the other sites have no newt supporters anywhere....so why even give this douche the time of day????
Same old Newt - remember when he threw a tantrum when President Clinton ignored him on a flight on Air Force One? Then Newt went into all out political war and created this hateful, partisan politics U.S. has today. Newt is a man-child who should have stayed retired from politics. I miss the grown ups.
We'er in a mess and i see that if our companies are to come back we'er going to have to give them what ever they'll need tobe wanting to come back home to AMERICA.