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Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney supporters should address a few key issues

By: mikeparanzino (Diary)  |  January 23rd, 2012 at 12:31 AM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

I am undecided so far this presidential cycle (other than pledging to work hard and vote for the GOP nominee against Barack Obama). Ronald Reagan is not running, and I am to the Right of all the major candidates. So I have left the primary battle to others and will decide for myself by April 3, the date of the Maryland primary.

But as I watch this crazy political year unfold, I am struck by some unanswered questions that supporters of Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich have not adequately addressed. (I am focusing on the two frontrunners here.)

Mitt Romney

My unanswered concerns about Mitt Romney are these:

1- Romney has grown more conservative over the last 20 years. Is this political expedience or has he just grown smarter about the world? Romney supporters like Ann Coulter might say this does not matter, since the likelihood of him switching back again is remote – but I think it matters greatly in terms of selecting judges and the deals he will make with Senate Democrats (either because they are still the majority, or filibustering from the minority) on budget, entitlement and tax matters.

2- Related question: how can we be sure he will appoint conservative judges as good as Scalia, Thomas, Alito and Roberts throughout the federal courts, and put his presidency on the line to appoint such judges to the Supreme Court? If one of the Court’s current liberals creates the next Court vacancy and there is a GOP president, the entire Democratic Establishment will take this nation to the brink to protect Roe v. Wade. Union strikes, OWS/Obamaville violence, all out smears from the Democrat MSM – it will get ugly, and the pressure to “compromise” intense. We’ll need a very strong president not to cave and select a Souter in the name of domestic tranquility.

3- How can we be sure he will fight to repeal Obamacare in its entirety, and why has he persisted in his defense of Romneycare? (Did he not read Game Change, which recounts in stunning detail how Hillary Clinton’s steadfast or stubborn refusal to recant her support for the Iraq War cost her the nomination and thus the presidency?) How will Romney contrast his continued support for Romneycare against the unpopular and unconstitutional Obamacare, one of Obama’s biggest vulnerabilities?

4- After all these years running and all the money he and his allies have spent on his behalf, why can’t he seal the deal with GOP voters? What if he just does not “wear well” over time? What if he can’t energize independents this fall the way he has failed to captivate the GOP this primary season?

Newt Gingrich</strong

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  • dajeeps

    The Gingrich questions I can take a stab at, but I don’t know the answers to all of them.

    1) There is no guarantee for either candidate in this area. There have been many glib assertions made that these voters are Romney’s to defend, but I wouldn’t be so certain about that simply because of his background and the kind of money Obama has to make the most of it. I think Gingrich has a chance to win them with head to head match ups between common sense solutions, articulation of conservative and free market principles, and the epic fail of far left radicalism. I also think its a mistake to assume that these people are generally willing to vote for Obama even if they aren’t that impressed with our candidate. My husband is indy, and many of our friends, and they are as anxious to get rid of Obama as I am.

    2) “Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay Less” pg. 165. He never supported cap and trade. He wanted to keep the democrats from doing it and instead use market solutions to solve our energy problems, which is why he did that spot with Pelosi – to get her cooperation. But it didn’t get cooperation from Pelosi, and it ticked off conservatives. He also testified to congress against cap and trade in 2009. The video is posted on his campaign website.

    3) No. I can’t defend that attack video from his super PAC, but I think it folds a bit into the answer to question #1, and has very little to do with attacking capitalism. There’s a difference between free enterprise and free market capitalism, and I think the video should have been framed around the difference in economic philosophy between Romeny and Gingrich. Romney is all for markets with socialized losses, supported the bailouts, and Gingrich did not.

    4) All I can say about this one is I hope he learned from his mistake. At least he has that mistake to learn from, and none of the other Republican leaders do because they are too timid and end up caving.

  • dajeeps

    He took millions from them while he was still in the Senate, even surpassing career donations to other politicians who had been in Congress for decades – even more than Chris Dodd and Barney Frank. Ever since he became President, he has been shoveling hundreds of billions in tax dollars into them, with very little progress on reforming them or getting rid of them.

    I don’t know what kind of “consulting” Gingrich did for them. There’s never been any evidence he knew the kind of mess they were making. Until we know what the specifics were, it’s hard to judge. But since they didn’t get into trouble until a few years later, and they didn’t become tax liabilities until they were in trouble, it seems like nothing more than stuff that has been taken way out of context for the purpose of smearing him into being involved with their demise.

  • nocontest

    Good honest questions because this is about winning. Both candidates are flawed but Newt is the only one who can really hurt Obama.

    Romney just can’t do it. I think we all agree that there has to be some better candidates out there but have decided to wait this one out.

    If we lose in November it’s because we didn’t offer the best candidates to the American people.

    Are these candidates the best we can offer?

  • http://www.TheObamaCalendar.com mikeparanzino

    The new frontrunner in this race (as of before the 2/23 debate) is Newt Gingrich, so let me reiterate one point that I have not been able to find any analysis of from Gingrich supporters.

    We are hearing that Ronald Reagan was unpopular when he ran in 1980, and thus Newt, who invokes Reagan, is in the same boat. But let