>>> we're back with decision 2012 and questions of whether newt gingrich is a goner. the republican presidential candidate has gotten rid of his campaign manager , a third of the staff and cutting back the campaign schedule because he is low on delegates, cash? he plans to reach out to delegates one-on-one in an effort to win the nomination and at what he believes will be an open convention come august. in a radio interview this morning newt gingrich defended this strategy.
>> until mitt romney has 1,144 locked down solidly i owe it to the people that helped me for the last year to represent their views and values and i find it fascinating, none of you guz call a football team or basketball team and say why don't you drop out? that's exactly why we're downsizing and we need to be able to stay in.
>> we will bring in our political panel. steve , i want to read something from salon, the dilusions that sustain newt gingrich . they say what he is doing is accommodating a certain amount of reality without acknowledging it. this way he saves face and money while still getting to insist that he is a candidate for the nomination and he simply is pivoting to a new phase of the can daes sigh and doesn't have to sell his critics they're right, meaning the critics that want him out and saying he can't win. what is the big strategy he is talking about here?
>> i think what newt is alluding to is there is still an uphill climb to get to 1,144 delegates by mitt romney . michael steel that devised this system, he was on your network a couple of weeks ago, and he said it would be very difficult for romney to get to 1,144. i spoke last week with someone with rick santorum 's super pac, and they have a strategy in line, the santorum campaign, of infiltrating a lot of caucus states that have non-binding contests and trying to up the delegate count and take delegates away from mitt romney . the margin for error to get to 1,144 is still very slim, not a slam dunk by any means.
>> you believe this is still a reasonable chance for newt gingrich to be a player here?
>> yes, i think anybody, when i do the delegate math here, and i think the key date is april 24th . that is the key date. that is the pennsylvania and new york primaries are that day. i think rick santorum has to win his home state of pennsylvania and has to stop romney from getting all 95 out of new york f those two things happen, this race is going to go until at least june 5th because the calendar in may is very friendly towards rick santorum . so if we're talking about mitt romney coming within 100 to 250 delegates either way of clinching this nomination, and you're newt gingrich and sitting there with maybe 100, 150 delegates, you bet you might still have leverage.
>> okay. a.b., are you in agreement with steve here?
>> i think steve just outlined the reasons that newt gingrich should get out and endorse rick santorum .
>> that's what i thought.
>> if you truly want to make the case for mitt romney , and i think many members of the republican party want to see barack obama defeated in the fall and even those who have given to newt gingrich are starting to wonder how we're going to get there. i don't know that they still want him hanging around trying to bust up a convention . we don't even have brokers for brokered convention , so what he would do is try to really weaken mitt romney at the convention by trying to peel off delegates and make hay. if rick santorum is a real threat to mitt romney , help him out. if not, let's just i think that most of the people supporting newt gingrich would want instead of this kind of big convention jihad, a real effort to get a nominee together and consolidate behind him so he can actually have a fair fight against obama.
>> so, steve , are you for the big convention , quote, jihad that a.b. just referred to, you're a supporter of newt gingrich .
>> i would love a convention jihad as a matter of fact.
>> i don't think i ever heard that in my life put this way. go ahead. wow.
>> i wouldn't use that sort of terminology, by the way. i might say on open transparent debate if you will or a battle royale , but i think there are a lot of conservatives that are not sold as a whole. i think public policy polling put out numbers that 53% of republican voters would like somebody else to vote for or change their minds from whom they're currently voting for. romney has shown consistently he cannot win non-morman middle class voters in battle ground states which is death to you in a general election . i think there is a lot of conservatives that would love the idea of saying, hey, we played this out for a year, nobody distinguished themselves, let's get everyone together on the same page and go to a convention , and find out who we can actually rally behind. i don't think there is anything unattractive at all.
>> to steve 's point when you look at the numbers out, washington post poll shows mitt romney 's unfavorable numbers at 50%. last week it was 42%. i want to play what ar lan spechter said about mitt romney this morning on morning joe . let's play mr. spechter.
>> what mitt romney will appear in october, bill rofls had it right, he said that mitt romney has changed positions more often than a pornographic movie queen.
>> a.b.?
>> boy, well, look, i think that the problem for the republicans is that they didn't like their choices and they had a weak field. they know that even if you go destroy a convention that romney is trying to get to as the nominee, and you blow it open, that newt gingrich is not going to not choice of the republican party . he has not been. he won south carolina and that was terrific and won georgia but he is not going to be the choice of the republican party . so really the question is is it rick santorum ? does he have a better shot in the general election ? is he a better nominee or is it mom? if you go there to stop mitt romney , you are not a loyal republican and not trying to help a republican beat president obama . those numbers for romney are not good. he has a general elections problem. he needs to get started now healing the wounds with the women voters and all of the other groups that have really have been turned off by the republican primaries . however, you have to make a point late in the game, it is in longer january 10 , at what point are we blowing a republican's chance against the president and at what point do we have to help him?
>> real quick, steve .
>> can i address that? can i address that?
>> i don't think i have a choice now. go ahead.
>> i am sorry. i didn't mean to interrupt. you know, i think that it is not the voter's obligation to decide whether or not this candidate meets my value system . it is the candidate's obligation. mitt romney has out spent his opponents 10-1. he spent $17 million trying to destroy newt gingrich in florida. he out spent rick santorum , 6, 7, 8:1 in illinois, michigan, ohio. this is his job. it is his job to say to the republican base i am your champion. it is not the base or any other voter's job in the republican or the democratic party to say how much of a pretzel can i con tort myself into to sacrifice my soul? that is romney's job>> he has a 2:1 delegate lead over the other guys and that never changes. in the end he will have the math.
>> i promise that's the last word. thank you both for joining me, steve . thank you as well, i appreciate you both. thank you. i will see you tomorrow probably.
Source: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/newsnation/46883316/
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