Newt Gingrich wins South Carolina primary
Newt Gingrich surged to victory Saturday in the South Carolina primary, riding a pair of strong debate performances to overtake Mitt Romney and stop his seemingly relentless march to the GOP nomination.
NBC News called the race for the former House Speaker almost immediately after the polls closed, a repeat of what happened 11 days ago in New Hampshire, but with a much different result.
Former Massachusetts Gov. Romney appeared headed for second place, with former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum and Texas Rep. Ron Paul trailing behind.
The results were a fitting addendum to a rollercoaster campaign, marking the first time ever that three different contestants have won the first three Republican contests.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/la-pn-gingrich-wins-south-carolina-primary-20120121,0,1995778.story
Mosaic
(1,451 posts)I think this stinks.
yardwork
(61,408 posts)Mosaic
(1,451 posts)Plus I hate rw horse races. I was hoping for Romney, an unelectable challenge to the president, to win. My opinion.
Lasher
(27,497 posts)I am supported by this belief by current polls.
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2012/president/president_obama_vs_republican_candidates.html
rocktivity
(44,555 posts)Especially if he continues his scorched-earth alienation of women, gays, minorities and the poor. Romney is the one who scares me more.
rocktivity
golfguru
(4,987 posts)This guy is unbelievably strong debater. He won SC purely on debating skills. He spent less than half in SC compared to Mitt.
Obamacare
(277 posts)but, every poll shows Obama beating Newt. On the other hand, Obama and Mittens are neck and neck in the polls. This is a very good thing, if Newt gets the nom, indys would vote for Obama over Newt.
Mosaic
(1,451 posts)I've been watching pundits say similar things. Newt keeps coming back from the dead so I'm still concerned.
golfguru
(4,987 posts)then the debates happened. Rest is history. I fear Newt more than anyone else against Obama. He is the best debater I have seen in 50 years.
primavera
(5,191 posts)The candidates the Repukes have fielded are so far to the right, they make even the shrub look like a moderate by comparison. It's like watching a parade of escaped inmates from a maximum security psychiatric facility. And these wackos have to be taken seriously as potential candidates for the nation's top office? This country has truly gone insane.
golfguru
(4,987 posts)always thinks every one around him/her is insane!
DCBob
(24,689 posts)He might just get lucky and hit his target.
grantcart
(53,061 posts)Neither Romney nor Gingrich are going to survive this.
stubtoe
(1,862 posts)prior to the general election campaign season.
Bet they didn't expect to be spending as much as they have been so far.
joshcryer
(62,265 posts)It'd be a nasty campaign but Obama would wipe the floor with him.
tblue37
(64,979 posts)his main opponent was Gingrich--a man so fervently disliked by most Americans that they flocked to support Clinton against him, even when Clinton did something that actually bothered them.
underpants
(182,271 posts)more racism and Callista to scare off the female voters in the middle!!
Thank you GOP!! you have been in disarray since 2006 and it shows.
tawadi
(2,110 posts)And some interesting tidbits about it: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/post/how-newt-gingrichs-past-marriages-may-be-helping-him-in-south-carolina/2012/01/21/gIQAwlIiGQ_blog.html
Doctor_J
(36,392 posts)the adultery thing seems to be working for him
Who knows?
CTyankee
(63,768 posts)towards such behavior...
if you know what I mean...
47of74
(18,470 posts)CBHagman
(16,968 posts)Now it's not just Cobb County, GA, that really ought to undergo mass drug testing.
harun
(11,348 posts)Guilded Lilly
(5,591 posts)Ah, one of the most disgusting, negative candidates has won in a state whose twisted conservative dirty campaign tactics is well documented and pretty much ridiculed by the rest of the country. So now we give the Newtant attention whore plenty of attention while the smart, knowing voters of this country can sit back and smile because this is rather Much Ado About Nothing in the long run but feeds into the Reality Show mentality of the drama obsessed media and the trash-talk loving sheeples of America!
But...this whole primary is more than a circus. It is a dangerous, calculated process to try and insure a brokered convention.
The Republican powers-that-be know the existing candidates are a pathetic joke. They pull strings and promote ludicrous press and watch while they try to guarantee that there will not be enough votes on the first ballot of the convention and all *earned* delegates (you know the ones chosen by the PEOPLE) are let loose to change their votes, superdelegates (NOT representing the people, but specifically The Party) step up and in, and behind closed doors they decide who will be THEIR chosen candidate...successfully eliminating the PEOPLE"s voice and desires.
This Republican Party has absolutely no interest in what the people want or need. In fact, they hold the citizens in sneering contempt. The nation is being classically played so that the elitist and souless greed masters of politics can rule their tawdy power-obsessed world.
Obama and liberal lovers, just try to breathe deep, because we haven't seen the tip of the ugliness and stupidity iceberg yet. Maybe we should take the next few months to subscribe to Netflix and catch up on some great old, well written TV shows....like West Wing
DonCoquixote
(13,615 posts)and as someone whol is going to be stuck in Tampa for the convention, I can tell you it will be a long, hot summer. I am already trying to be sure I am out of town that week.
Yikes
JJW
(1,416 posts)to win state.
Kablooie
(18,571 posts)zanana1
(6,084 posts)Newt v. Obama? No contest. Newt's ignorance, racism and loony ideas will all come out, hopefully after he's been declared the Republican presidential candidate. Also, he has a temper. We can all watch him implode.
BlueDemKev
(3,003 posts)I'm not getting in the middle of their primary, but I agree this could be the greatest gift we could receive.
d_r
(6,907 posts)KamaAina
(78,249 posts)It took him until just a few weeks ago to start insulting African Americans!!! And this after he'd done the same thing to Hispanics, gays and lesbians, and even our own women troops for years!!!
h/t Wyatt Cenac and The Daily Show
alphafemale
(18,497 posts)Really???
Kingofalldems
(38,360 posts)DCBob
(24,689 posts)Gingrich inspires them.. Romney puts them to sleep. So who do we want to face in November?
freshstart
(265 posts)lets put an end to that.
Glass Steagall and Newt.
http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=a_ggAAAAIBAJ&sjid=zHMFAAAAIBAJ&pg=5940%2C5613132&dq=glass+steagall+newt+gingrich&hl=en
Major Nikon
(36,814 posts)I find it rather amusing. Newt has a 57% disapproval rating. Nobody wins a general election with such a rating, and as the public starts to remember all of Newt's fuckups, his rating isn't going to improve and may get worse.
golfguru
(4,987 posts)over 8%? Watch 3 things...unemployment, gas prices and foreclosures.
thesquanderer
(11,953 posts)onehandle
(51,122 posts)INdemo
(6,994 posts)the winner and even Romney people used the exit polling to determine the results estimate....Ok now then why in 2000 and 2004 when exit showed Kerry won and in Florida Gore won and there have been other polling (off year elections) where Democrats were poling ahead but did not win..The corporate media rode this horse for a couple years that exit polling was not accurate..but guess that is only when a theft in progress and Democrats are in the lead...(Wisc another example)....Just a thought
Iliyah
(25,111 posts)their privileged repugs so therefore exit polls matter. Dems not so much.
jeanmarc
(1,685 posts)I hope Newt wins Florida as well. Let this Republican nomination become a quagmire.
BlueDemKev
(3,003 posts)....Until the primary season's over, that is....
Response to BlueDemKev (Reply #31)
Herlong This message was self-deleted by its author.
workinclasszero
(28,270 posts)GO NEWT you unelectable serial adulterer, corrupt bastard!
Obama will slaughter newty in the general election! I was worried about Mittens but Newt is a gift from freeptard/palin worshipers to the democrats!
AshevilleKate
(35 posts)I really was disgusted (at first) to live so close to so many folks in South Carolina who don't seem to understand the low down nasty scummy whoremonger that just won their primary....but then, I came to see the manure that Newt spews will give a certain Democrat the greatest fertilizer ever! I see this as a positive for our incumbent, though I think sometimes I have had regrets about Barack.
So with the Republican dung in full speed, and the fact they cannot seem to join forces with each other or stop backstabbing in their own party, we come up smelling like roses -- 'cus bullshit sure produces great blooms, and the Republican party has been laying it out pretty thick!
harun
(11,348 posts)That has to put one hell of a smile on Obama's face.
A complete split of the GOP.
madrchsod
(58,162 posts)the republicans will back him no matter what his personal problems with the ladies. he`s not as insane as the rest of the republicans and he knows his way around washington dc. he`s the only guy that could actually defeat obama.
harun
(11,348 posts)could care less about that.
NCcoast
(478 posts)Of course he's already chosen John Bolton for Secretary of State... Wolfowitz for Defense? Maybe John Woo as Attorney General. We'll need someone from Monsanto for Agriculture.... maybe T. Bone Pickens for Interior... so many good choices. Anyone care to speculate?
NCcoast
(478 posts)Grover Norquist over Treasury
klook
(12,134 posts)erpowers
(9,350 posts)So a group of people who claim to support free market economics voted for a guy (Newt Gingrich) who attacked his opponent because he made his money by using some form of free market economics. In addition, a group people who claim to value truth voted for a guy (Gingrich) who lied throughout the entire campaign. Anyone who has followed politics for a few years knows Gingrich does not really have a problem with the way Mitt Romney made his money. Gingrich just needed something with which to attack Romney.
Blacksheep214
(877 posts)turns my stomach and his plastic wife makes it worse.
I had to turn it off!
How bad is it? I'd rather watch Larry the cable guy jam his arm up a cows butt!
I don't like Larry either.
Maybe we aren't evolving after all!
in venere veritas
(89 posts)want to disprove evolution they can use Newt Gingrich as the example. At least they will be able to come up with a coherent argument for once.
Politicub
(12,163 posts)I'm pretty shocked that he won in SC.
I believe President Obama will trounce whoever the eventual nominee is in the general, but we Democrats need to work our collective asses off to make sure we have a good lead.
unkachuck
(6,295 posts)....to feel sympathetic for the rich Mormon from Massachusetts....once again he's been neutered by newt....
....considering the rich Mormons' wealth, you would think he would have an easier time buying the presidency in the Party of Greed....
Crunchy Frog
(26,548 posts)I hope to see this become a long, knock down, drag out primary, the nastier the better. By the time it's over, I hope they've all been shredded to ribbons.
harun
(11,348 posts)and arrogant.
Odin2005
(53,521 posts)Beacool
(30,244 posts)Gingrich is a vile man and his former lover, and current wife, is not first lady material. Neither one will ever live in the WH.
I guess that the Republicans have given up taking the WH in November.
Well, it's their funeral.
existentialist
(2,190 posts)It looks to me like Newt gets 23 delegates, and Romney 2 (from SC's 1st district), but I've been unable to find any confirmation.
Does anybody know?
Deep13
(39,154 posts)pam4water
(2,916 posts)I guess all you have to do on win in South Carolina is have the loudest self righteous huff on Nation TV? And bamb you're in.
existentialist
(2,190 posts)Yes.
Many Democrats are happy because they believe that Gingrich would be easier for Obama to beat.
They may be right.
There is also something to the idea that the longer and harder fought the Republican primary then the more scars, injuries, hard feeling and exhausted resources will leave the Democrats with better chances not just in the race for president, but generally.
But at the same time Newt is so awful that it does kind of scare me that he can win anything anywhere.
Rosa Luxemburg
(28,627 posts)existentialist
(2,190 posts)I remember reading some months ago that Gingrich's largest supporter is the principle owner of the Sands Casino in Las Vegas.
Rosa Luxemburg
(28,627 posts)alp227
(31,959 posts)GREENVILLE, S.C. Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney came within minutes of bumping into each other at Tommys Country Ham House here on Saturday morning.
But though they never crossed paths at the restaurant, hundreds of supporters of each candidate shared long communal tables and debated their mans merits while waitresses juggled plates of eggs, bacon and grits.
Newt, he seems real, said Jamey Dixon, who made up his mind after the debates last week. He answers the questions, he has good ideas. Mitt is kind of a flip-flopper, more of a politician.
But David Haake, a Romney supporter, said Mr. Gingrich was too combative and too polarizing to govern. Newts message and style appeal to this combative and conservative state, Mr. Haake said. It may carry the whole South. But Im sorry, its not a national message.
full: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/22/us/politics/many-voters-moved-to-gingrich-with-just-days-or-moments-left.html
Alcibiades
(5,061 posts)Born in Charlotte, raised in South Carolina, where my family is from.
This is cultural. Romney would say anything to win, but he does not know what to say. Gingrich is a Georgian, and he knows how to appeal to southern conservatives: point out to them that, unless they vote for him, the federal government will step in and give everything they own to black people. It has been the same technique since reconstruction, even though the party using this tactic has changed.
This is the SC GOP primary. Old. White. Unreconstructed. These folks voted for George Wallace happily. Thankfully, Newt will be their last hurrah: they are simply aging out of the population.
I still fear Romney most.
fujiyama
(15,185 posts)I couldn't see this state voting for a Mormon candidate.
Also, this state is filled with hypocrites and Newt fits this sanctimonious and self righteous atmosphere perfectly. I also haven't seen so many women cheating on their husbands as I did before coming out here. Serial adultery, unplanned pregnancies, and high divorce rates seem incredibly common...The level of education is relatively low and many are easily swayed heavily by cultural factors (i.e. they go to church on Sundays and the pastor warns of the evil of abortion and gays and the evil liberal secularist agenda). Many would love a theocracy (and have no use for separation of church and state), not so much out of hatred or blatant intolerance, but a clear clueless insensitivity and lack of common sense. Racism isn't quite as rampant as I might have figured, but I'm sure it's more of a problem outside of the larger metro areas where confederate flags are much more common. It doesn't surprise me that the state ranks so low on many indicators (education, health care access, etc).
Don't get me wrong. There are a lot of genuinely good people out here. And many of them are religious, which doesn't bother me in the least. Many are very friendly and down to earth - and they go out of their way to help you. I've also seen a lot of the expected barriers of segregation and discrimination broken down. I definitely haven't worked with as many black people in a professional setting before, indicating a growing AA middle class. That too in a profession like engineering, where AAs are very poorly represented.
But the hypocrisy and the hyper religiosity (which definitely leads to some intolerance) definitely does bother and irritate me though. Living in the South has been a very interesting experience, after having grown up in the midwest and also living on the Left Coast for some time...
BlueMTexpat
(15,348 posts)It's always good to hear from someone who actually lives in the area. Like you, I believe that Romney's religion was probably his biggest problem in S.C. Religion was likely to some extent a problem for Santorum too.
It is a real shame that even a portion of the US electorate is so preoccupied with religious labels. I would personally like to see religion left out of the political discourse altogether unless one's religious practices have actually caused or inspired harm to others.
I also wonder what Newt's camp promised Perry for his withdrawal just before the primary. He'd already stayed in long enough to compete even if he wasn't among the top contenders and, while I believe that Newt would still have carried the day, the spread may have been less without the switches from Perry.
But I'm loving the disarray among the GOPers. The real winner is President Obama. May that continue!
Blacksheep214
(877 posts)That their wasn't an ordnance to repaint East Tradd St. A section of course known as Rainbow Row!
I was there and loved Charleston. Best crab cakes I've had. (Haven't made it to Md)
But this?
As George Takei (Sulu) might say, Oh My!
Where are the Log Cabin Republicans?
Alcibiades
(5,061 posts)They wouldn't get rid of it just because the rainbow has become associated with the pride movement. Anyway, it's a tourist attraction, and many other folks have emulated the practice. Plus, it's Charleston, considerably more cosmopolitan and less backward than many other places in SC. It's also the birthplace and ancestral hometown of the most thoughtfully subversive progressive of my generation, my fellow Huguenot-American homeboy:
Alcibiades
(5,061 posts)The folks who did not leave the party, the folks who changed along with the Democratic Party, and folks who never had to change in the first instance, to include the black community. School desegregation made a real difference in racial attitudes: when I entered kindergarten in Columbia in 1973, our school had only been integrated for three years, and then only through the intervention of the DoJ, but today there are whole generations that never knew officially sanctioned white supremacy. Many South Carolina families have integrated as well, especially among the working class, to include my own family. Despite the stereotypes, there are plenty of white folks who you might expect to be Kloset Konfederates, folks who speak as though they had marbles in their mouths and are southern to the bone, who are, I believe, far less racist than much of the rest of the country, and who have much more real social contact with black folks than the typical yuppie urban professional we assume to be the typical progressive.
That being said, thee are still plenty of what I call the "George Wallace people" out there. Back when the schools integrated, they pulled their kids out and sent them to the new "Christian Academies" than sprang up like weeds, in South Carolina and elsewhere. A lot of these folks do have money, and wield an outsize infludence in South Carolina politics, especially within the GOP.
RockyMtnGuy
(83 posts)Good gawd, do all these people have amnesia? Have they forgot how much of a douche bag he really is? Just goes to go show the good ol' boys (& gals) will believe anyone who panders to the lowest common denominator.
Herlong
(649 posts)The repbulican party is limping to vict0ry while the democratic party does nothing to stave its conquest.
Kolesar
(31,182 posts)With late-night tallies showing Mr. Gingrich beating Mr. Romney by 12 percentage points, it was no small win.
tabasco
(22,974 posts)Anyone who calls themselves a republican these days is either a sociopath or an idiot.
2QT2BSTR8
(354 posts)US Census puts South Carolina at 4,625,364 people, with 3,544,890 at or above voting age. With 99% of the precincts reporting, only 590,450 people voted for any of the GOP candidates. And of those, only 243,153 voted for Gingrich, or in other words, only 6.86% of the total voting population (rounded up for good measure). I am definitely not worried about ole Newt.
andym
(5,441 posts)Even with his high unfavorables and his sordid past, he is capable of firing up the right. He is also quite a capable debater and is passionate. He can think on his feet. He actually believes his right-wing rhetoric, unlike Romney who appears to be an opportunist. That said, the election will hinge on the economy in the two months before the election.
The best thing about Gingrich, is that it gives cover to Obama to be more populist and I hope he continues to move in that direction. Because if President Obama gets fired up with populism, he will likely win.
existentialist
(2,190 posts)Newt is erratic and inconsistent, and disorganized.
His baggage consists not just of ethical scandals, but of having flip flopped on dozens of issues, including having supported Romney's Massachusetts health care law.
Also, many establishment Republicans know that Romney is unstable, and dangerous not just to Democrats, but to the status quo (them), and to America.