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Newt Gingrich has a Nashua moment in the SC debate

By: RealQuiet (Diary)  |  January 17th, 2012 at 01:45 AM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

Of course I am referring to the famous line, “I paid for this microphone Mr. Green!” that Ronald Reagan delivered to a high-minded moderator in Nashua, NH in 1980.  This response drew a boisterous response from the crowd and some out of their seats.  The moderator tonight was Juan Williams on Fox News whom tried to play the race card on Newt and here is what happened:

My apologies for not being computer savvy enough to embed a YouTube clip.  However, I think Allahpundit over at Hot Air sums it up nicely.

Between this, the exchange with Ron Paul on Bin Laden, and the zinger about 99 weeks being an associate degree, I’m thinking he might have turned South Carolina from a solid Romney lead into a nailbiter. Has any candidate at any debate had the crowd more riled up than this?

Here’s the bit with Williams plus, via Breitbart TV, the OBL question. I hope Juan is reporting this as an in-kind contribution to Gingrich 2012. Exit quotation from Tom Bevan of RCP: “Newt really is the Honey Badger.”

My take on this is I think Newt has turned the South Carolina race on its head with this performance.  It’s the kind of nightmare George H.W. Bush had to endure in 1980 that may unfold for Mitt Romney in the days to come.  Even though Romney is up huge in Florida, if Gingrich pulls off a win in South Carolina with Santorum and Perry (it pains me to say that regarding Perry) likely bowing out, there will be a real two man race for the nomination.  It would startle the voters in Florida and they would get curious as to why Romney lost South Carolina when everyone thought he had it wrapped up. Even worse for Romney, the excitement that Newt generated in that crowd in South Carolina could spread like a brushfire among conservatives.  I’m not saying this is going to happen, but it very well could.

Newt might be the Honey Badger but I think he’s a political Lazarus.  He keeps rising from the dead.

COMMENTS

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  • beric

    When Newt went after Juan there. It outdid all of his previous moderator contests, IMO. I liked what I said elsewhere: “Newt does better with liberal moderators”. So bring out the MSNBC debates: it gives us an inkling of what Newt will be like in general, debating Obama; i.e, he’ll totally crush Obama.

    • Common_Cents

      Gingrich should hope anderson “giggle” cooper is a mod but its prob john king.

      Why doesn’t CNN have Erick as a debate mod?

      • goodgovernance

        yell out “Anderson! Anderson!” when he gets flummoxed, again.

        • http://www.examiner.com/x-1597-Charlotte-Law--Politics-Examiner Mike gamecock DeVine

          http://www.hughhewitt.com/blog/g/fbf03c3e-3cdd-490a-b7e9-779e26671473

  • http://908StraightSt.wordpress.com/ mbecker908

    • http://908StraightSt.wordpress.com/ mbecker908

      And RQ, here’s how you do it.

      1. Find the vid at YouTube.
      2. Click the “Share” button below the video.
      3. Click the “Embed” button.
      4. Check the “Use old embed code” box.
      5. Select the size for the video.
      6. Press [crtl] & “c” to copy the embed code.
      7. Return to your post, position the cursor where you want the video.
      8 Press [crtl] & “v” to paste the embed code into your post.

      • RealQuiet

        Very much appreciated :)

    • APA Guy

      Three debates with Newt dropping the hammer on Obama will be all the American people need to see. He lays conservative principles out in a manner the likes of which I haven’t seen in a very, very long time.

  • Finrod

    I don’t want to go into the 2012 general with our nominee being the crap sandwich that is Mitt Romney.

    • Dave_A

      I still don’t see where you guys think that Newt can run without getting ‘Jerri Ryaned’ out of the game…

      3 affairs.

      He’s dead in the water against Obama…

      To make it worse, he’s not actually any more conservative than Romney….

      • reggie182

        It won’t matter to them. it’s known already. People didn’t care that a woman who claimed that Bill Clinton raped her passed a lie detector test. Anything Newt has done isn’t the same ball park.

      • reggie182

        It won’t matter to them. it’s known already. People didn’t care that a woman who claimed that Bill Clinton raped her passed a lie detector test. Anything Newt has done isn’t the same ball park.

  • Repair_Man_Jack

    I’ll have more on this puppy later…

  • Melody Warbington (rwm52)

    since the Honey Badger was stopped in his tracks last time he played. Let’s hope Newt plays like A.J. McCarron, He prepared for the game, set the tempo, controlled the timing, had no turnovers, dissected the defense and called the plays accordingly, and ultimately led the team to victory,

  • clowngirl

    This could really be the game changer we needed.

    If Newt picks up the kind of momentum – and consolidation that should reasonably be expected then the tables could turn very quickly.

    Romney could, by the end of the week, go from being the guy who historically won the first two contests and looks good to win the third to (after the recount in Iowa) being the guy who spent millions, resorted to smearing his top opponent and still lost to a guy with no practically no funding who 2 weeks before Iowa looked to be largely irrelevant, won a primary in a center left Northeastern state that he’d be highly unlikely to pick up in a general election, and lost in the south when he had all this momentum – to a guy who, according to the media, has been self destructing for a month and a half.

    I had to laugh when I read an article that argued that even a close second in South Carolina practically assured Romney the nomination.

    I agree with Newt’s analysis. If he wins South Carolina, he’ll win Florida, then surely beat Romney and be the nominee.

    If Thursday night brings another Gingrich debate performance of the same caliber as last night’s, we can almost count on it.

    • WillWong

      They might ask soft ball questions to protect Mitt!

      • Common_Cents

        They should have the debate in an octagon!

        • Common_Cents

          hehe

          • WillWong

            are not moderating, I will be watching!

  • Spartan4Life

    He was brilliant and, better yet, inspirational, last night. I think he lost his way these last few weeks and I think he knows it. He lost me when he started complaining about process and making it personal. If he would have stayed on message he wouldn’t be in the soup he is in.

    I tried to like Romney. I really tried. Just don’t think he is what we need right now.

  • RealQuiet

    Hmmmm…I wonder how much of a boon this will be to Gingrich come on top of his great performance last night.

    • snowshooze

      If she can keep a good track record, she keeps her credibility.
      That translates into cash.
      Is she right?
      Could be.

      • pttx333

        was a smart move on Palin’s part – particularly just before the SC vote. In fact, I think it is underhanded of her. Playing the odds as if this is a Vegas scenario? No, that isn’t playing well with me. And it could backfire big time. On the other hand, are there that many Palinistas left who listen to her? She lost a lot of support when she was on that teasing bus tour she did.

        We’ll see. Maybe it is just me.

        • RealQuiet

          I wonder about the size of her political clout nowadays. I just don’t know.

          • snowshooze

            But hey.. it’s work. Get it where you find it.
            I still like her, who couldn’t.
            But I balance that against her interest.

    • gekster

      She said, and I’m paraphrasing here,
      “if I was a South Carolinian, I would vote for Newt to keep this thing going”.

      Her own words from the vid.
      It was posted on another thread also.
      Listen to what she actually said.

      • RealQuiet

        But with husband Todd endorsing Gingrich, this certainly appears to be a implied, yet covert endorsement of Gingrich. I’ve learned not to try to read into anything she says. She’s awfully good at not showing her cards and keeping people guessing.

        • gekster

          But she is right on one thing. The more this drags out, the more we learn about them and thier positions.
          Especially with Romney.
          The longer he has to go, the less chance of his hiding things.

          • RealQuiet

            Newt catches fire when debates happen and that is a threat to Romney. Newt inspires and excites the base, Romney doesn’t. That is Romney’s biggest problem. There is a very real danger to Romney that if he doesn’t wrap up the nomination after Florida, it could be a a very big and growing problem with Newt the only one left.

          • gekster

            :)

          • lineholder

            I think she’s right. I loved the “iron sharpens iron and steel sharpens steel” analogy that she used.

            I just hope it will serve the purpose of generating the kind of enthusiasm that we’ve been seeing in the past few days in SC rather than bringing our side down.

          • Common_Cents

            What Palin isn’t considering is there is not enough money/organization/support for 3 candidates to continue to mount a serious national challenge to Romney.

            That is the problem.

            Once consolidation happens, it takes precious time for a candidate to recruit and organize the troops to build a ground campaign. It will largely be too late.

            I wish Hannity would have asked that.

      • snowshooze

        And she is shining like a diamond.
        Sarah ( God Bless Her ) is as always, great.
        Lookin’ good, babe’!!
        But… she is out of the game.

  • Change Jar Conservative

    With Gingrich as Prez and Santorum as VP and they make that pact before the South Carolina primary.

    Otherwise, we’re giving it to Romney.

    I’ve been around politics long enough to know that the air and money will be sucked out of the race if Romney sweeps.

    • lineholder

      the changes that have been made to the primary process itself will make any difference? Some people have said it could. Others don’t believe it will. Just wondering what your take on it is.

      • JSobieski

        and those factors aren’t getting better.

        People panic, jump on bandwagons, jump off bandwagons—going to proportional take in deleges is like applying the brakes on a car sliding down a large hill covered in ice while going 60 mph.

        • lineholder

          In other words, it could make a difference but probably won’t…unless it’s to send us into a tailspin?

          Before Erick put up that diary last week with the chart in it that explained the new proportional process, I hadn’t really thought about it that much. I’ve just been wondering what the viewpoint of other people might be on this.

          • JSobieski

            and large fries.

            Back in the day, the news was only on 2 hours a day. There was no Internet. Now, people obsess about this stuff. Remember when Perry got in so “late”?

            Human beings (namely the voters and the media who qualify) are impacted by all of this cable news, talk radio, internet, 24/7 coverage such that it is hard for many people to not be overly antsy.

            I am in no rush to end the campaign though. I am hoping all these jokers improve.

      • Change Jar Conservative

        It would make a difference if Romney would have lost in Iowa or would lose in South Carolina.

        But if he’s winning everywhere then people don’t have emotional incentive to give and giving in a presidential race like this requires your emotions to be involved.

  • sunshinek67

    http://hotair.com/archives/2012/01/20/gallup-romney-support-collapsing-to-10-points-nationally/

    here is Newt schooling John King

  • bob08034

    I think.

    I’m predicting Newt in first with 33% or more of the vote. In no small part because it’s going to rain in the Upstate and Midlands. Add that to the fact that he’s on top in the last 5 polls.

    If you were leaning towards Newt, last night he hit at least two homers. If you were undecided about Romney, he didn’t give you a reason to decide.