Quotes of the day

“So is it probable that Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich, currently at each other throats providing colorful sound bites for Team Obama’s future campaign commercials, could eventually join forces, help unite the Republican Party and become the GOP ticket in 2012?

“Is this the best ticket to lead a nation that is trying to “right” itself and stop the trends toward national and global decline?

“Their skill sets and personalities could not be more different, but they could blend together and become a formidable force of constructive change.

“Both Romney and Gingrich are experienced, qualified to be president and for a divided party, represent the marriage of the establishment and conservative wings, something that is necessary if the GOP is to survive in its present form.”

***

“‘I think Tea Partiers may have listened to the first debate where we discussed the speaker’s compensation from Freddie Mac, for instance. And he said, I think he said that he got $300,000 from Freddie Mac and it was to work as an historian. And as time has gone on we find out it’s $1.6 million and he worked as a spokesman for, in providing support for Freddie Mac,’ Romney said. ‘I think as tea partiers concentrate on that for instance, they’ll say, wow, this really isn’t the guy that would represent our views.’

“The tea party, Romney said, is ‘anxious to have people who are outside Washington coming in to change Washington, as opposed to people who stayed in Washington for 30 years.’

“‘And I believe on the issues, as well, that I line up with a smaller government, a less intrusive government, regulations being pared back, holding down the tax rates of the American people, maintaining a strong defense, and so many Tea Party folks are going to find me, I believe to be the ideal candidate,’ Romney said. ‘I sure hope so.’”

***

“Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich held a conference call for Iowans this morning to fight back against attacks on his campaign and to ask to for caucus volunteers. Gingrich is not campaigning in Iowa this weekend and reportedly took time off the trail for private events…

“‘I saw an article that said there’s been so many negative mailings, so many different hit pieces and so many negative ads that we just decided that we would [hold the calls] from now to the caucus on a regular basis,’ Gingrich said…

“Gingrich went on to refute what he called attacks on his conservative record. Gingrich previously said he had balanced the budget all four years as speaker of the House, but as several fact-checking organizations pointed out, he was only responsible for two of those years and could not take credit for the years after he resigned. Today, Gingrich changed the tone of his campaign line, saying he led the efforts.”

***

Via the Examiner.

***

“[O]nce every three-quarters of a century or so, the delegates to an American political convention deliberate, and their deliberations produce a notable and impressive outcome. It could happen again in 2012. It could fall to the Republican delegates convening in Tampa, after they have cast their committed first ballot vote and failed to produce a majority for any candidate, to act as a real deliberative convention. It could fall to them to use their judgment to select the best possible nominee for their party and the best possible president for their country…

“It could happen because it’s quite possible no one will emerge from the January primaries with a commanding lead in the delegate count, or a compelling surge in popular support. Four or more of the existing candidates could then continue to split votes—and delegates—through February and March. It would be even more likely to happen if someone new were to respond to a draft and enter the race belatedly, announcing his entry as early as mid-January or as late as early March—missing some primaries, to be sure, but getting on lots of ballots and getting lots of votes in April, May, and June. In any case, it might well happen that no candidate will have a majority of pledged delegates when Republicans enter the doors of the St. Pete Times Forum in Tampa in late August…

“It’s a new political era. Perhaps that era will feature once again a real, deliberative convention—where the delegates, with the ghosts of Lincoln and FDR looking on, choose, on a second or third or fourth ballot, a compelling nominee and a consequential president.”

***

“‘I’m not holding out hope, but I do think it’s a remote possibility,’ Brooks said of a [Jeb] Bush candidacy. ‘I do think the Republican Party is not going to nominate Newt Gingrich. If he emerges from the primaries, the early primaries as the front-runner, someone’s going to step in.’”

***

“One of the biggest risks of making a bold prediction and later having to walk it back is that it takes several episodes of confrontation to live it down. This is probably the third or fourth appearance in which Ann Coulter has tried to explain how she went from predicting a sure loss for Republicans under nominee Mitt Romney to fully endorsing him, and explaining that she now sees President Obama’s ‘glass jaw’ exposed. Speaking to Fox News’ Uma Pemmaraju, she added a reason for why the Tea Party can’t see his appeal: ‘they’re looking at who is going to go around bombastically demanding to see Obama’s birth certificate or calling him a Kenyan.’”

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