Hold onto your hats and fasten your seat belts — the Republican race for the presidency is in for an ugly and very bumpy ride!
Although Rick Santorum and Ron Paul remain in the race, the contest between on again/off again front runner Mitt Romney and his bad boy nemesis Newt Gingrich is heating up and getting nasty.
8 days before the crucial Florida primary, all 4 men met in a debate last night that was filled with pot shots and personal attacks. At stake is not only Florida’s 50 convention delegates (the most to date), but also a sense of momentum in arguably the most tumultuous Republican nomination battle of modern times.
Gingrich’s huge win in South Carolina last Saturday has caused Romney to rethink his tactics in hopes of reinvigorating his lagging campaign. So Romney wasted no time last night in utilizing rapid-fire attacks to say Gingrich was hired by mortgage giant Freddie Mac as “a historian” and for advocating health care policies while being paid by health care companies.
“You’ve been walking around this state saying things that are untrue,” an irate Gingrich replied, saying he had advocated policy positions as a concerned citizen, not because of consulting contracts. That isn’t lobbying, he said.
“You can call it whatever you like,” Romney shot back. “I call it influence peddling. It is not right.”
Both men are battling for the very soul of the Republican party. Although one of them may end up with the nomination, the Grand Old Party may never be the same!
<span>DJ:"Both men are battling for the very soul of the Republican party". </span><span></span><span>Uh-huh. Which tells you all you need to know about the current state of the *Soul* of today's Republican party. </span><span></span><span>I've been thinking: The main reason </span><span>NONE of the so-called "A-listers" opted to throw their hat in the ring this time is simple. None of them_NOT Jeb Bush, NOT Chris Christie, NONE of them_are in Pres. Obama's league and they d*mn well KNOW IT.</span><span></span><span>They saw what Sen. Obama did to the "Clinton Machine" which by nearly all account, INCLUDING the Repubs, had been considered to be the most formidable politcal "Machine" of our time. They know they're no match for Pres. Obama. </span><span></span><span>Add to that: GOP "A-listers" know they would have to pass the muster with their party's VERY own toxic and lunatic *BASE* (rank-and-file Repub voters) BEGINNING with meeting THREE main criteria: </span><span></span><span></span><span>1. HATING the "OTHERS" comes quite natural to you. And…. </span><span></span><span>2. at the top of your HATE-list is the "Marxist/Socialist/Communist/Nazi/Affirmative-Action/Food-Stamp/BLACK/Kenyan/Muslim/AntiChrist" in the White House. And…. </span><span></span><span>3. You can't wait to "curb-stomp that BLACK monster/bloody him up/take him down/turn him into a teary-eyed girlie-man/humiliate/denigrate/DESTROY him" EVERY chance you get_and most certainly during the Presidential debates. SEE; Newton Leroy Gingrich.</span><span></span><span>Commenter @ Ta-Nehisi Coates-TheAtlantic.com:</span><span>The truth is painful. The GOP is running such a terrible slate of dreadful candidates because they all, more or less, accurately represent and articulate mainstream GOP thinking. Full stop. The chickens are roosting in the corner of the whirlwind they have painted themselves into. […] </span>
This is gonna be real funny to watch. Both of these guys are gonna come out swinging and in the end there gonna knock each other out. Republican party needs to split up and become like 3 different partys.
Okay folks. The PANIC wheels are REALLY coming off the wagon…Lol.Jennifer Rubin @Right-Turn: "An Open Letter to Republican Leaders"Dear Govs. Haley Barbour, Mitch Daniels, John Kasich, Bobby Jindal; Sens. Jon Kyl, Marco Rubio and Jim DeMint; and Reps. Eric Cantor (R-Va.), Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), and Mike Pence (R-Ind.):You’ve each declined to run for the presidency or even endorse one of the final candidates. It’s understandable that you’d decided not to run for president. It’s nasty business. You could wind up looking like Simon Legree or suffer a brain freeze on national TV. It’s punishing and harder than anything you’ve done in your lives. And endorsing? Why that requires an expenditure of political capital, some risk taking. Your guy could lose, and there where would you be?But here’s the thing: The voters in their infinite wisdom have just given a huge boost to perhaps the only GOP candidate who could shift the spotlight from President Obama to himself, alienate virtually all independent voters, lose more than 40 states and put the House majority in jeopardy. […]Read:http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/right-turn/po…And in OTHER related news….Andrea Mitchell@MSNBC: "Romney advisor told me elites will dump him if he loses Florida"“I talked to a top Romney adviser tonight who said, ‘Look, if Mitt Romney cannot win in Florida then we’re going to have to try to reinvent the smoke-filled room which has been democratized by all these primaries. And we’re going to have try to come with someone as an alternative to Newt Gingrich who could be Jeb Bush, Mitch Daniels, someone.’ Because there is such a desperation by the so-called party elites, but that’s exactly what Gingrich is playing against,” Andrea Mitchell said on NBC tonight after the debate. [….]Read: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2012/01/23…H/T: Hotair.com
LOL! I'm sorry DJ, I promise NOT to post another comment in this thread today but I simply MUST share this: NationalReview -Tues. Jan 24, 2012: "Draft Jeb Bush" <span>"A charismatic and accomplished governor can save the Republican party."</span> Excerpt:"Enter the last dream date that Republicans may have at their disposal. His name is Jeb Bush and this time, there is a feasibility around the idea that seemed unthinkable months ago."….written by Artur Davis (former Democrat now Independent)Read: http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/288986/dra…Lol. The responses posted on National Review have me in tears from laughing so hard.
Never a need to apologize. I encourage you to post as often and as much as you want. Your posts are very educational and thought provoking and truly add to the discussion.Regarding your post about Jeb Bush, I have a story coming out tomorrow on that very subject. Stay tuned…