No, crossspatch, you are living in a fantasy world; the choice is not Romney or Obama, at least not yet. Romney is 400 to 500 delegates short of securing the GOP nomination on the first ballot, and he does not have a lock on getting the needed number. Supporting Newt, as I do and as millions of Republicans do, is what we believe is necesary to beat Obama. We don’t believe that Romney can beat Obama. We need a Reaganite conservative ot beat Obama, and that is Newt, not Romney.

Romney gained his front runner status by spending tens of millions of dollars on negative, false attack ads, first and foremost against Newt and then agaiinst Rick Santorum. As Thomas Sowell rightly obseved in his March 19 column, the “strength” of Romney in the GOP primaries in use of negative false attacks ads will be a weakness in the general election in the Fall, that to beat Obama the GOP needs a candidate who offers himself and a vision and negative attack ads are not a vision. Newt does have a vision, and that Reaganite vision is what we need now.

Romney is not a conservative at all. During the period of time that Newt was a “Young Turk” captain in the Reagan Revolution, was a House GOP leader who led the GOP takeover of the House for the first time in 42 years based on the “Contract With America” and was the Speaker who forced Bill Clinton to balanced budgets and welfare reform, Romney voted for liberal Democrats Jimmy Carter, Walter Mondale and Paul Tsongas and refused to sign on to the “Contract With America.” Romney’s only time in public office was as a one-term Massachusetts Governor (2002-2006), and during that one term, Romney was a Northeast liberal. Romney: increased spending (when graded against other Governors according to the 2005 Fiscal Policy Report Card produced by the Cato Institute, Romney got a D); raised fees and taxes by over $740 million; was adamantly pro-abortion rights; appointed liberal pro-abortion rights Democrats to the state judiciary, oversaw Massachusetts being 47th in the country in job growth; appointed litigation-happy environmentalists to key government jobs; flip-flopped on cap and trade, flip-flopped on carbon taxes; and championed RomneyCare (socialized medicine at the state level), which Romney has never disavowed, which resulted in billions of dollars of sky rocketing health care costs ($8.569 billion in the first five years) and which is the precursor to ObamaCare (socialized medicine at the national level). When Romney left office, he had a 35% approval rate/65% disapproval rate. Romney calls his record severely conservative. That is phoney baloney; the facts say otherwise.

Romney may try to talk conservative now, but he has never walked the walk as Newt has. Washington DC is no place for learning to walk the walk of a conservative.

Phil Byler on April 22, 2012 at 4:45 AM

+1000

Romney gained his front runner status by spending tens of millions of dollars on negative, false attack ads, first and foremost against Newt and then agaiinst Rick Santorum. As Thomas Sowell rightly obseved in his March 19 column, the “strength” of Romney in the GOP primaries in use of negative false attacks ads will be a weakness in the general election in the Fall, that to beat Obama the GOP needs a candidate who offers himself and a vision and negative attack ads are not a vision. Newt does have a vision, and that Reaganite vision is what we need now.

Romney is not a conservative at all. During the period of time that Newt was a “Young Turk” captain in the Reagan Revolution, was a House GOP leader who led the GOP takeover of the House for the first time in 42 years based on the “Contract With America” and was the Speaker who forced Bill Clinton to balanced budgets and welfare reform, Romney voted for liberal Democrats Jimmy Carter, Walter Mondale and Paul Tsongas and refused to sign on to the “Contract With America.” Romney’s only time in public office was as a one-term Massachusetts Governor (2002-2006), and during that one term, Romney was a Northeast liberal. Romney: increased spending (when graded against other Governors according to the 2005 Fiscal Policy Report Card produced by the Cato Institute, Romney got a D); raised fees and taxes by over $740 million; was adamantly pro-abortion rights; appointed liberal pro-abortion rights Democrats to the state judiciary, oversaw Massachusetts being 47th in the country in job growth; appointed litigation-happy environmentalists to key government jobs; flip-flopped on cap and trade, flip-flopped on carbon taxes; and championed RomneyCare (socialized medicine at the state level), which Romney has never disavowed, which resulted in billions of dollars of sky rocketing health care costs ($8.569 billion in the first five years) and which is the precursor to ObamaCare (socialized medicine at the national level). When Romney left office, he had a 35% approval rate/65% disapproval rate. Romney calls his record severely conservative. That is phoney baloney; the facts say otherwise.

Romney may try to talk conservative now, but he has never walked the walk as Newt has. Washington DC is no place for learning to walk the walk of a conservative.

Romney is the Republican nominee. If you aren’t supporting him, then you are supporting the Democrats. You might “pretend” to be a conservative Republican and you might be “conservative” but you are being a conservative DEMOCRAT if you aren’t supporting Romney.

Your choices are Romney or Obama, that’s it, it really is that simple. Ron Paul, Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum, Ralph Nader, etc. are not realistic options to people who aren’t living in a fantasy world.

You’re either on the bus, or you are playing for the other side.

crosspatch on April 21, 2012 at 3:19 AM

You couldn’t present the candidates fairly if your life depended on it. You are nothing but a ‘bot.

I could go on, but there really is little point.

His backstabbing of George HW Bush is legendary.

He was apparently caught by his staff in a compromising position with an intern, later his wife, but was married to someone else a the time, while he was attacking Clinton. No, Gingrich never perjured himself but only because his acts were kept quiet and were never exposed to the public but were widely known to members of Congress which is why they mutinied and threw him out as speaker.

Gingrich is a lying, cheating, whining weasel.

crosspatch on April 21, 2012 at 3:19 AM

Newt was criticizing Reagan from the right. You may disagree with his criticisms, but they were valid viewpoints that he was expressing. Reagan was not perfect nor beyond reproach, so Newt’s sporadic criticisms of actions he took are hardly a disqualification for the nomination.

As for GHWB, Newt ended up opposing Bush’s broken promise not to raise taxes. I don’t really see a problem there.

As for Clinton, I don’t know how you think Newt betrayed him.

The assertion that Newt didn’t have to perjure himself about his affair because it was kept quiet that you make is ridiculous. In what setting was he ever going to have to testify about it? How do you know he would lie?

Newt has done far more in his life for the Republican party and conservatism than Mitt Romney ever has, but that does prevent you and a lot of other people from spewing bile at him.

Reggie1971 on April 21, 2012 at 1:50 PM

You’re quite right. The truth doesn’t matter to those that lie, hate and bully. The Romneyscare/establishment repub crowd keeps on kicking and spewing their bile at Newt. Just that they are so obsessed with their hatred for him says a lot for Newt’s conservative credentials.

crosspatch on April 21, 2012 at 3:19 AM

Devastating…

SauerKraut537 on April 21, 2012 at 4:51 AM

Oh please. LOL. Ever heard Romney talk about how he didn’t want to take us back to the era of Reagan and Bush? He wasn’t criticizing him from the right either.

Reggie1971 on April 21, 2012 at 1:54 PM

I give up on the Romneyscare/est repub supporters. There is a reason why they so often sound like the dems, and why their guy Romneyscare governed to the left of the dems in MA.

crosspatch on April 21, 2012 at 3:19 AM

Devastating…

SauerKraut537 on April 21, 2012 at 4:51 AM

Oh please. LOL. Ever heard Romney talk about how he didn’t want to take us back to the era of Reagan and Bush? He wasn’t criticizing him from the right either.

I could go on, but there really is little point.

His backstabbing of George HW Bush is legendary.

He was apparently caught by his staff in a compromising position with an intern, later his wife, but was married to someone else a the time, while he was attacking Clinton. No, Gingrich never perjured himself but only because his acts were kept quiet and were never exposed to the public but were widely known to members of Congress which is why they mutinied and threw him out as speaker.

Gingrich is a lying, cheating, whining weasel.

crosspatch on April 21, 2012 at 3:19 AM

Newt was criticizing Reagan from the right. You may disagree with his criticisms, but they were valid viewpoints that he was expressing. Reagan was not perfect nor beyond reproach, so Newt’s sporadic criticisms of actions he took are hardly a disqualification for the nomination.

As for GHWB, Newt ended up opposing Bush’s broken promise not to raise taxes. I don’t really see a problem there.

As for Clinton, I don’t know how you think Newt betrayed him.

The assertion that Newt didn’t have to perjure himself about his affair because it was kept quiet that you make is ridiculous. In what setting was he ever going to have to testify about it? How do you know he would lie?

Newt has done far more in his life for the Republican party and conservatism than Mitt Romney ever has, but that does prevent you and a lot of other people from spewing bile at him.

You’d think that SOMEBODY in this guy’s entourage would care enough about him to take him aside and tell him the truth

I believe someone probably has. When you see insiders starting to complain to outsiders, that generally says that either the team has tried to reason with him and he won’t listen or that they are afraid of being fired if they speak their mind to the candidate.

I can’t help but wonder if someone hasn’t promised him a large sum if he stays in to a specific date and that is what is prompting him to hang on. Nothing else makes any sense.

Newt is not going to stop, nor should he. Newt is the last conservative standing. What should stop is the pretense of Hot Air that it is a conservative site. Your candidate, Romney, is an empty suit liberal.

Phil Byler on April 21, 2012 at 9:53 AM

Like all institutions, the left infiltrates through use of inclusion. Much as the GOProud group infiltrated the GOP in 2009 and 2010. Romney is just the continuation of the Obamanization of the GOP.

I really love the new conservative debate style that has come about, “Shut the F^CK up”. This should bode very well for the future of the party.

Obama…Romney…Clinton…a dozen or mor steps along the path…An actual conservative.

http://articles.latimes.com/1985-02-08/news/mn-4659_1_vice-president

Considering how the party has treated Newt, I wouldn’t blame him if he left it. I’m pretty damn close to doing the same thing myself. He was at the forefront of the first House majority in forty years, and four balanced budgets, but that doesn’t seem to matter to a huge number of Republcians who are gleefully kicking him while he’s down.

Reggie1971 on April 20, 2012 at 10:21 PM

The beloved Hot Air ‘Newt pic’ is so juvenile. We get it. ‘Hate Newt’ articles, kicking him while he’s down, are kind of getting old now. If Newt is not a threat and so irrelevant, why bother bullying him?

I think Newt should leave the republican party. So should Sarah Palin. The republican party is toast with Romney (Romneycare/Obamacare, antagonist to the conservative base and the tea party) as the nominee. RIP repubs.

Allah,

Here’s something I found locally:

The honorary chairman of Gingrich’s North Carolina campaign pledged to support presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney on Friday, according to the Associated Press. Tom Fetzer, a former state GOP chairman, issued a news release endorsing Romney for the Republican nomination.

teebo on April 20, 2012 at 8:49 PM

Another communications glitch no doubt:)

crosspatch on April 21, 2012 at 3:19 AM

Devastating…