that never happened before. History also repeats itself. Time to let go of Iowa 1st in the nation. Insanity defined: repeating things over and over and expecting different results.

not Romney, Santy and Paul are not going to go anywhere. Last night was a nightmare, I am very disappointedthat Perry did not come to even 4th. MSM and the Obama machine were successful in destroying the candidate who could’ve beat him on Nov. MSM and FOX helped this happened from very beginning when Perry announced his candidacy.

I believe it’s ‘most stupid’ you meant to say. But you are absolutely right: because it hasn’t been done before does not mean it can not happen. As they say, anything’s possible…wasn’t Obama elected?

I can’t believe you could find this level of time.
Really.. thanks.
Mark

Santorum as the conservative alternative to Romney is a rude joke. It is unfortunate that the Evangelicals dismissed Perry so quickly in this regard.

And Santorum as a conservative? I can never forget how he lent his weight, in concert with GW, to defeat the largest conservative rally for a republican in this country, namely in the state of PA in 2004, to save that repulsive RINO Specter for another 6 years in the Senate.

That primary proved there’s a huge untapped reservoir of conservative strength that perennially stays home rather than support an establishment GOP that has made it their party’s policy to abuse, marginalize and otherwise ignore conservatives.

One thing I love about Perry – he has no love for Rove. And he would take on that faction of the republican party that is simply content to maintain their perks and comfy positions at the public trough in favor of economic growth, energy development and reduction of government, starting with the repeal of ObozoCare.

Well done, Dr. Sklaroff!

your stupid thinking is honest let alone believable considering Newt was against cap and trade and still is. You lack the integrity to comprehend that the Pelosi ad was only about global warming which is separate from cap and trade. Newt said it was wrong thing to do. No real proof of gun control.

In fact, Newt Gingrich has had a long love affair with the anti-gun crowd:

*** Newt supports the Brady National Gun Registry – He stubbornly continues to support the anti-gun Brady Bill, which created a national gun registry;

*** Newt supports a national biometric thumbprint database for gun purchasers – He thinks you should be forced to undergo fingerprinting before you are allowed to purchase a firearm;

*** Newt supports the Lautenberg Gun Ban – He voted to strip law-abiding gun owners of their 2nd Amendment rights for life, simply because they spanked their children or did nothing more than grab the wrist of a spouse;

*** Newt supports the “Criminal Safezones Act” — He stood shoulder to shoulder with Nancy Pelosi to turn every school in America into a “criminal safe-zone,” where law-abiding adults are disarmed and defenseless while gun-toting thugs are free to commit horrific atrocities like the Columbine Massacre.

Now Newt is trying to sell himself as a “pro-gun conservative.” But with more than three decades as a public figure, Newt is the quintessential political chameleon, shifting his views to reflect whatever is popular with the chattering political class.

a Humpty-Dumpty physique. Seriously, he looks like he has never exercised a day in his life. I think there are legitimate issues about whether he is physically prepared for the rigors of campaigning for and executing the duties of the hardest job in the world for the next 5-9 years.

What do you say to a candidate who, like Romney, has invested time doing actual campaigning in Iowa, New Hampshire, etc.?

“Sorry, the party establishment has decided that candidate x who hasn’t been campaigning should be our nominee”?

That would be ridiculously unfair.

As long as Perry stays in the race, the Republicans who feel that beating Obama is the most important critereon have a better shot at getting Romney the nomination.

With Perry out of the race, the extremists who care more about ideological purity, or who are motivated by baser motives, can consolidate around someone like Newt Gingrich or Rick Santorum, both of which have very little chance of beating Obama.

I actually had my copy of “Road to Serfdom” out for my Perry stump speech last night. I was totally going to use that analogy!

We had a Perry Strike Force volunteer show up though, so I let him talk instead. Nice man who knew the Perry family personally, flew to IA from TX with his 10-ish y.o. daughter and 2 other family to work for Perry.

Perry org split them up and sent him on a 2-hour drive from DSM to our small town. No other campaigns had any reps there, just local folks talked for Santorum and Paul. Nobody else spoke for any other candidates, which slightly surprised me to be honest.

I think everyone wanted to get it over with as quickly as possible.

Still out of ~100 votes, it was like 41 Santorum and 22 Perry. Not bad compared to other few precincts I know of.

Perry Strike Force was out strong last night, and that was cool to see. Perry did not lose from lack of organization, that much is for certain. Yet in a way that makes the loss sting a bit more – he is the one guy who has the backing NOW to take this thing to the WH.

I follow politics as much as the next guy and I am not sure where you even get this view that the Obama machine destroyed Perry. The Democrats have actually been running ads on television against Romney and speaking out against Romney. They did very little against Perry except in the first few weeks of his campaign when they tried to belittle his accomplishment in Texas and claim those accomplishments for the Obama administration. Other than that, the Obama machine has been much more focused on taking down Romney.

The only person who destroyed Perry was himself and his team, with quite a number of missteps. He was ill prepared for the campaign. I also watch FOX and Hannity and Rush and all the others who having been getting blamed and do not see the bias against Perry that others have been claiming. I talk to Romney supporters and they are made at Fox and Paul supporters are made at FOX and Newt supporters feel their candidate got a raw deal, and Santorum supporters, until recently, feel that FOX would not even give them the time of day.

Time to move on from finding fault with the media in terms of Perry’s downfall. At one point, he was top in the polls in Iowa and nationally, thanks to the media, but made so many missteps that he self-destructed. The media was just there to watch the fall.

And I would put it against your nickle.
And if you had a Buffalo nickle, I’d go fifty cents on that.

Rick Perry is not the type to cut and run at the first set back. He won’t even take NH – that’s moderate RINO country. In fact, RP, if his track record indicates anything, may even feel more comfortable in a come from behind position.

It’s the southern states’ primaries that should reveal his true strength as the field gets whittled down.

A Palin endorsement would be huge – and she’s already hinted that Bachmann should fold. And I don’t believe she would ever back Santorum, in the primaries anyway.

Rick Perry is hardly ready to concede.

Perry has announced he’s still in the race.

and thanks to all in the arena here for Gov Perry. We will await his final decision. Whatever he and his family decide will be the law of the land. They look tired and badly in need of some private time.

Taking EE’s direction, I’ve been watching the coverage for hours with a grain of salt, knowing the paths the media has led us down thus far. It is disappointing to hear the exit interviews of IA voters saying they voted for Mitt because of his ‘electability’. They did not conduct due diligence or they would know that he is probably the must vulnerable to Obama’s strategy. One woman commented (she was interviewed by Willie Geist/Way Too Early on MSNBC) that she went with Santorum because she ‘likes his votes’. Ignorance is a very dangerous thing. Ignorance, lack of vetting and research and critical thinking got us Barack Hussein Obama.

In closing, congratulations, Fox News.

Just out of curiosity, were you at Perry’s rally in Perry on Monday night? If so, my son and I would have liked to make your acquaintance.

I agree with the above poster….I don’t know where you find the time, but I, for one, appreciate the updates and thoughts you post. Thank you.

I am praying that Perry stays in. I think Santorum is just another fly that will make contact with the flyswatter. I just don’t see any substance in the guy. But I will support whoever gets the nomination in order to beat Obama and get his Mob out of Washington.

Were you watching the same primaries I was? Because in our universe, Perry ran an awful campaign, presented himself terribly in most of the preliminary debates, and had members of his campaign actively working against him. It was only in the final stretch that his campaign got its act together. Could he still win? It’s doubtful, but possible. Should we pretend that he performed wonderfully? Not unless you want to pretend that dropping from 40% support to ~10% is praiseworthy.

That Pawlenty chose to quit immediately? This is really silly.

Romney now faces a two front war. His margin in New Hampshire should shrink, he’s in big trouble in South Carolina, and he’s weak in Florida. Gingrich is on the warpath. Romney is far from inevitable. And if Romney loses SC and Florida, we could get new entrants.

BTW, mark Levin is a big Santorum supporter and I expect to see the rest of talk radio jump in too. This is much more fluid than Erick suggests.

“Our process is chaotic because Bush left us no heir to win or to be rejected through a cathartic process of locking in gains or moving on from Bush. Yes, this one is Bush’s fault. “

that many Iowans took it out on Perry, as they promised they would, because he stole some of their thunder at the Ames event when he announced in SC?

I watches Perry announce on tv and heard the pundits question if that would hurt him by offending Iowans. Didnt think it at the time I though it was a brilliant move but last night proves I understand nothing about Iowa.

casts their votes on the basis of such flimsy, touchy-feely criteria, then there is a good chance BHO will win again. If people aren’t really focused on rolling back big government, cutting spending in a serious way, killing regulations that are crusing US business and hence the economy, and killing Obamacare, then we may well see BHO repeat. I had hoped that all the bad news we’ve seen since he came into office, including the birth of the Tea Party movement, was an omen that voters were going to be serious this time. Looks like that didn’t happen in the corn state.

I greatly appreciate the personal effort you and others put into supporting Perry on the ground in Iowa. I think he deserved to do much better. I hope he will not drop out because this is a long-haul race now and he still has a good chance if/when people come to their senses and take a serious look at the background/records of all the candidates.

..

…I think Romney will give Obama a run but Obama will beat him, narrowly. I used to say anyone but Obama but now I have to include a caveat for Paul. I think we have become so afraid of Obama’s 2nd term that we sold out. The points about the campaign’s problems are not lost on me though. I don’t want to start pointing fingers but the grassroots supporters knew there were problems almost from day one with the communications staff. Heck, I was begging them on their FB page to help us on twitter. They eventually did. There was no room for error yet there were the debate gaffes. He was still likened to Bush. People that I know and respect politically never even read his tax and economic plan. Who is to blame? I guess Perry will probably say that he is, ultimately. This makes me even sadder.

The TEA Party is a strange enigma.

We erred, I believe, in aligning with the DC GOP so closely after 2010. But it must be remembered that, before OBamaCare, we held little sway outside of local elections. Not until our cause was taken up by a few prominent people (Rush, Beck, Palin…), were we able to impact on a National scale. We are still out there, interested in and actively working our agenda – but our National representation has dissipated.  With our “National Spokespersons” leaving our ranks, it should not surprise that “all politics is local” has again proven true.

It is not so much that we are looking to support a candidate, but we would welcome a candidate that supports us. Look at 2010 on the National level as well as on the local. States have been enacting our agenda this past year. WI, OH, MI, MN… even NY and CA, have been paring back on their over-promises to special interest groups.  Nationally, we have been betrayed yet again; but that is nothing new to us. Most of us will pull the lever for the GOP candidate, but not be too excited by it. We are, if nothing else, realists.  We see those in Congress who claimed a shared agenda, do not; we believe the path our Nation is on only leads to destruction; we now recognize, that Nationally, this behavior will not change by choice. If we can force change from the bottom up, quickly enough, we may succeed in stabilizing our Country. If not, hopefully whatever comes next will at least hear from us as to what went wrong.

So will the TEA Party rally around a candidate? Maybe, but that would become a certainty should a candidate give us something to rally around. After all, besides being realists, we are hopelessly optimistic  about people – a seemingly contradictory stance, thus a strange enigma.

You’ve got to be kidding. Statistically, he didn’t even register a showing: 0.6%, 745 votes while Perry had 10.3%, 12,600 votes.

That’s a loser, pal. Huntsman should just gracefully bow out and say, adieu, adios, bye-bye.

Say, would you be an anti-conservative operative for Romney further attempting to split the opposition vote – or even a democrat?

That man embodies all of the bad instincts of G W Bush with none of his good characteristics.

IF it becomes a two man race, I support Romney all the way.

is at www.spectator.org The writer claims Santorum did well because he invoked the name of Rush Limbaugh and also Sarah Palin is his last-minute ad.

It goes back to the same argument we’ve tried to make here—the media has enormous persuasive power and when that’s combined with an ignorant electorate that won’t wake up and do their homework, we get what we get. Republicans hang on every word coming out of the RNC and Fox News.

Case in point of media hype: Former RNC Chair, Michael Steele, just congratulated Romney on Morning Joe by indicating Romney’s victory is impressive. He gained no more votes than he did in ’08. What’s stunningly impressive about never being able to break above 25%? If I go see a dr. and am given a 25% chance of beating cancer, that’s not impressive. Romney’s enjoying plenty of victory laps and it seems, only in America, winning 25 out of 100% of votes is something worthy of great celebration.

In NH, Romney will face the attack ads of Huntsman and Gingrich. Huckabee got 11%, the pro-blue-collar thing that gave Buchanan the win in 1996 will play well, and Santorum will win at least 20%.

In SC, Santorum will have no Fred THompson pummeling and splitting the so-con vote. Huckabee narrowly lost there–Santorum will win.

Actually, I have no idea, but there are plausible scenarios.

and we can become our own media.

but my take for “why” is different. the leftist media is terrified that Perry might get traction because he is the one potential Reagan in the field. Note Carvillle coming out this AM to call Perry the worst Presidential candidate ever. Totally ridiculous. Governor Perry had a strong platform, great ads, a tireless campaign – and yes, some gaffes. But Carville wants to see Perry gone – because even now that he is bloodied, Carville recognizes that Perry would be a threat – not just to win the White House but to actually govern in a conservative manner.

I am sorry to say that the Beltway Republican Commentariat is all in on Romney, and undercutting Perry for all the same reasons. They know he is the real threat.

What I have found most disappointing is the Big Three – Rush, Sean and Mark Levin – not coming to their senses and recognizing that Perry was the solution to America’s problem. They dithered and commented and – in Levin’s case, blatantly sucked up to Bachmann and Santorum. A huge lost opportunity if Governor Perry backs away.

I hope and pray he doesn’t. Please, Governor, give it at least one more shot.

I cannot be romanced into hiring anyone.
I do not care if your resume comes on gold leaf.
I care what it says. If it DOES come on gold leaf… that is a strike against you.

If the Tea Party is against government intervention, it will not play well in any state where farmers are dependent on subsidies.

This means that in states like Louisiana, Florida, Iowa, Montana, Alabama, Georgia, Ohio, and Pennsylvania, there won’t be a Tea Party boom.

How can the Tea Party distinguish between farm aid and other types of government intervention? The answer to this question is crucial for the survival of the Tea Party.

In Iowa? Or the inability to organize in Iowa? The message has been that most Americans dislike the tea party. This is in part due to the narrative set forth for over a year that the tpm candidates have held cOngress hostage. Is this true?

He is so liberal that he would alienate voters in all of the states that Bush won in 2004 and a few more.

If Romney doesn’t clean house in 2012, he will certainly lay the groundwork for a Republican takeover of the Senate in 2012 and a White House takeover in 2016.

…The Newt still supports the Individual Mandate.

If you look at Perry’s poll numbers, he had already nosedived by the time of the infamous “OOPS” gaffe….it started well before then in September. I think all the attacks from all sides took their toll on Perry, his inadequate responses to them, seeming weak and ill prepared, and also let’s not forget how much of the conservative media like Fox and talk radio ranged from neutral to outright “anti Perry” which didn’t help as the candidate himself was not responding and answering the attacks …adequately anyway.

I blame Carney and his handlers more than Perry. They should’ve known the condition of their candidate, regarding back surgery and debate prep…those first debates he did NOT look prepared at all. That’s more the staff than the candidate IMO. They should have rested and prepped Perry fully before throwing him into the lion’s den. I think they really, naively expected a much more “gentle” and easy going atmosphere than the one they received.

Perhaps they excepted the “Romney” treatment..big surprise.

It was just poor campaign strategy and execution all the way around. And spending time in New Hampshire when your guy is in single digits?? And running 4th or 5th in Iowa and SC??

It just made no sense.

He led the polls for close to a month. He messed up in 2-3 debates largely emphasized and magnified by the media who had already started their story that he would not be a good debater. He also had a barrage of false media narratives to help lower his numbers. I say false because the way they were reported suggested a strong problem for the candidates intelligence. A rock, gardasil, maybe he wouldn’t debate, hes a norther, and of course the proamnesty blatant misrepresentation.

There is no other candidate that even vaguely stimulates me. At this moment I have very uncharitable thoughts towards Willard and hope that Newt does go ballistic on him. As he is a big liar and we already have one Liar-in-chief. I remind myself that God is still in control, no matter what the world thinks.

Thanks.

I just sent an e-mail to Rick Perry’s campaign asking/begging him to stay in the race (I seriously doubt Perry himself will read it). I also just made a donation and wrote in the “event” section, “Please Stay In The Race”.

I don’t know what else I can do – but I could at least do that.

Apparently the stumbles did concern a lot of people. My sense is that the stumbles (and media coverage, including late night TV poking fun at him) were the primary driver of his decline in the polls. I think many people initially favorably inclined toward him were understandably concerned about his ability to take on Obama, and in some cases perhaps also concerned about his mental sharpness (concern re: his being president).

In sales, the salesperson “handles the objection”. If that concern is out there, holding back people who would otherwise be supporters, and if he has a good way to handle it (i.e., “I jumped in and debated before being fully prepared, but you see now I’m solid in debates and ready to beat Obama”), he should handle it as part of his message that he is the “total package” (the checklist approach I described) and others are not.

and he won, as did James Garfield. So it isn’t without precedent. Of course we are talking a different process for Polk, Garfield, and even for the 1952 Dems. Still, it has happened.

The last sentence meant to be “Maybe you’re confusing a majority of RedStaters with everyone”. My mistake.

But I also agree with numbers 2 and 4 above. The message has to be consistent and resonate. Although the center of it all is spiritual I think many voters don’t want to be preached at and most repubs know that the social values wil not carry the general.

Stating it a bit broadly, don’t you think?

Jon talks all the time about respecting religious beliefs and showing a little more tolerance. As you imply, evangelicals will hopefully let it happen because they like the fact that he is electable. Pastors have even urged forgiveness for Newt for heaven’s sake. I honestly don’t see anything else to be concerned about besides winning at this point.

You are one the few intelligent and humorous front-pagers remaining at Red State. I appreciate your biting sarcasm.

Many have worked hard at Red State for access and influence and to build a site where conservatives can spout off or support causes or candidates.

Erick, on the other hand, has sought relentlessly to bludgeon those candidates he doesn’t like (which includes most of the Republican field this year). He uses his status at Red State and as a CNN contributor to attempt to spin stories in a manner that will fit his views. Red State has deteriorated under Erick’s leadership.

Where’s Nick Danger when we need him?

And what are the chances we would have wanted bushs heir? Bush was poison, and one of Perrys biggest problems, with tea parties and independents, was he reminds folks if bush. The argument is lacking.

The only two realistic alternatives are huntsman and Newt. Rather than repeating msm misrepresentations about Newt, we should be correcting the record. Also, if Perry gets a pass on gardasil and heartless comments because ofhis walkback, newts apology for the global warming nonsense should be accepted and moved passed.

The next few weeks will show whether Newt is up to the task. If not, huntsman is the last backup. Ugh, I hate writing that, but the guys record in Utah is at least is conservative as Perrys.

…living in a village. And one day one of them comes by the other’s house, which like all peasant houses in Russia is one floor, no floor, and has chickens running in and out of it. The first Jewish peasant sees that the second one is reading – via a candle, because who has money for oil lamps – this absolutely scurrilous broadsheet saying how the Jews run this, the Jews run that, the Jews run everything. So he asks his friend, “Mordecai! How can you read something like this?”

Mordecai looks at his friend, looks at his shack, looks at the chickens – and shrugs. “I just like to read about how well I’m doing.”

Romney won Iowa by eight and he won at 25%. 75% voted against him. Romney never gets out of high 20s but he does tie Obama in match up polls.

Can he win the nomination with 25%–yes if some states have a winner take all rule.

His support is tepid as his opposition is divided.