For them, the natural inclination is to assume the best about big-name Republicans, and to treat any negative stories about them as the usual garbage from the liberal media. That will change once they start hearing national conservative leaders calling Newt a “farcical character” and questioning his conservative bone fides, as Club For Growth’s Chris Chocola and others did in the Washington Post article on Newt’s policy positions this morning.A handful of personal attacks during a primary campaign is, in my opinion, not very significant. How many people in the nation (outside of the 1%) know who Chris Chocola is? How difficult would it be for Gingrich to turn the Club For Growth's preference for Romney against Romney?
Yes, if it snowballs and we reach a point where the right-wing media and Republican establishment lets loose on Gingrich, they'll almost certainly knock him out of the race. I suspect that would have happened, but for the fact that many of them aren't enamored with Romney. (I suppose it's possible that they are slow to react because they're in a state of shock that a significant percentage of Republicans take Newt Gingrich seriously as a candidate, but that would mean they somehow missed all of the surges that came before Gingrich's.)
It's all about winning. The decision about whether to take Gingrich out of the race, to let him compete for a while, or to back him over Romney will not be driven by a substantive analysis of either candidate - it will be driven by the polls.
Wasn't Herman Cain tight with the Club for Growth? Sure enough.
ReplyDelete"Herman Cain is surging in the polls because his clear message of limited government and economic freedom is resonating," said Club for Growth President Chris Chocola. "Cain has articulated a strong vision for putting America back on the path to prosperity. A clear message promoting economic growth, like the one Herman Cain is presenting, is essential to defeating Obama. Republican primary voters ought to give Herman Cain a close look. We are."