Well, looks like Newt Gingrich’s failure to take at least one southern state in his “southern strategy” was one loss too many for Newt’s big money guy, casino magnate Sheldon Adelson. News is Adelson has written his last check to the Newtster.
Greg Sargent of the Washington Post notes that on MSNBC last night, New York Times writer John Harwood said that Adelson was finished donating to Team Newt and when double checking with the leader of the Newt-supporting super PAC, Rick Tyler agreed that fundraising was going to be difficult going forward.
So, with Newt so far back in the pack, why is he still going at this point? It seems obvious that he wants to keep Romney under the delegate threshold and force a brokered convention.
I’m not sure Newt imagines he’ll be the one picked during such a convention, but he most certainly seems to hope that Romney isn’t the one going to be picked.
Newt himself seemed to say that he’s looking for a brokered convention, too. At his speech the other night he said, “One of the things tonight proved is that the elite media effort to convince the nation that Mitt Romney is inevitable just collapsed.”
At a time where we can forget about trying to nominate a Massachusetts moderate and start talking about when the primaries are over – and it’s clear that no one person has won – who would do the best job representing America governing and winning the election against Barack Obama.
So, Newt says he’s staying all the way until Tampa! It looks like Newt intends to deny Mitt the nomination.
Can he do it?
March 14th, 2012 at 1:57 pm
While ‘conventional wisdom’ would seem to point to Newt just quitting, the one thing we have learned in recent years is that ‘conventional wisdom’ has long since left the American political landscape.
In 2008, Democrats chose Obama, a rookie senator with zero experience at anything over the seasoned veteran, Hillary. Then the American people elected Obama over the seasoned veteran McCain. In 2010, it was open season on all seasoned veterans of politics!
Newt’s new gimmick where people can donate $2.50 to his campaign appears to be catching on. At this point, all Newt has to do is show up here or there and say something significant enough to get picked up by the news. He can run a cheap campaign and maybe walk into Tampa’s convention center with 200 delegates in his pocket.
March 14th, 2012 at 5:04 pm
Yes but for what purpose? Is he doing it for publicity, out of bitterness, fear of letting go, or something else?
March 17th, 2012 at 7:46 am
I’m seeing this from an entirely different perspective. As Newt is a seasoned veteran, he knows that Santorum is beatable and Romney has a better chance of taking down Billy Ray. He therefore stays in and attacks Rommney stealing conservative votes that Santorum dearly needs.
Santorum chose to go the social issues route only those issues are not the top priority of the American people at this time. He may not be able to energize moderate Republicans or Reagan Democrats with these issues.
I like Rick Santorum and believe he can give Billy Ray a run for his money but this election will be about the economy and on that issue Mitt knows best.