A Mitt Romney win in S.C. won’t force him out, Newt Gingrich hints
This morning from Florence, S.C., GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich called into the syndicated radio show of Laura Ingraham. Clearly a fan, she wanted to know if Gingrich could clear some space in his schedule to arrange for the departure of his two non-Romney rivals.
“Is there not a time when you and Rick Perry and Rick Santorum can have a conclave?” she asked. Could not Rick Santorum be offered a cabinet position in a Gingrich administration? she posited.
“First of all I don’t think you can’t legally do that. It would be truly wrong to offer someone a cabinet position for their behavior,” said a wary Gingrich.
“We certainly can communicate, and we do communicate with each other. But it’s pretty hard to ask a guy to give up his ambitions,” the former U.S. House speaker said. Especially, he added, when he’s likely to be the beneficiary.
“Everybody agrees that I’m the one with the most staying power and most resources,” Gingrich said. And went on to list his advantages in Florida. Marco Rubio’s former campaign manager and such.
In essence, former Georgia congressman was quietly backing away from his Sunday statement, made on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” that a Romney win here on Saturday would mean the end of his campaign. It’s not something Gingrich can say too loudly, because it would undermine his current apocalyptic message to South Carolina conservatives: Vote for me Saturday, or crown Romney the nominee.
- By Jim Galloway, Political Insider
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151 comments Add your comment
Look before I leap...
January 17th, 2012
4:02 pm
@centrist 3:32P
Obama is not collecting a Senate pension. He is not eligible to collect under FERS rules
The last return I saw (2010) showed the Obama’s earning just over 1.7M and they paid over 450K in federal taxes (over 25%).
When he leaves office, his POTUS pension comp is determined by the pay rate of Cabinet members.
The Obamas DO have expenses, a home mortgage, private tuition for the children, food and clothing. However, Obama gets a 50K/yr non-taxable expense account – not sure what is covered by this but I would assume clothing and food are probably covered.
The Obamas are obviously well to do and they pay a considerable sum in taxes.
They are NOT nearly as well off as Romney who has a net-worth exceeding $100M.
Tom(Independent)
January 17th, 2012
4:17 pm
Idiot Watcher@3:23 – I was not referring to Pres Obama as a non-citizen, as I think he is. I referred to his connection to Kenya, where his family was from. Kenya is a very poor country, who has to rely on foreign aid to exist, do we want the US to become anything like that? I think not. I hate it that we provide foreign aid to so many countries when we have such a bad ecomony and people not working in this country. It is way past time tp put Africa, Kenya, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Mexico, etc at the bottom of the list until our citizens are employed and our economy is good!!
Centrist
January 17th, 2012
4:27 pm
Continuing the nitpicking of Obama’s income and expenses – he made over $5 million the year before last, has many magnificent taxpayer paid vacations without tax consequences, a huge White House mansion with servants galore paid by taxpayers, gourmet meals with many chefs paid by taxpayers, free luxury airplane, helicopter, and limousine transportation – all these perks are tax exempt. He has a very generous lifetime pension, allowances, and tax free taxpayer staffs which are untaxed perks awarded to him. I don’t begrudge this – just pointing out that pretending he is much more ordinary than Romney is a lot of hooey.
Obama is 14 years younger than Romney, so he will amass a lot of assets by the time he is Romney’s age, and will also be collecting income taxed at those lower capital gains when he gets there.
honested
January 17th, 2012
4:31 pm
Returning to the notion of Nut Getrich leaving the campaign.
Nut will be there until the last free meal is served!
Independent voter
January 17th, 2012
4:32 pm
Tom why you and your republican friends was not complaining when the country was fallen apart when Bush, Cheney in office. President is doing more enough to put this country back on track.
Do you understand he is dealing with a do nothing congress and the teaparty congress.
When he first got office the republican he will be a 1 term president and they going make sure he fail.
How would you feel someone told you that as president. The country is watching these do nothing congress and how they treating our president.
That why american middle class feel they treating Obama bad because of his race.
Jim
January 17th, 2012
4:41 pm
Independent Voter: It’s amazing to me how uninformed you are.
Attack Dog
January 17th, 2012
4:44 pm
Mitt won’t release his tax returns, Newt won’t release his Freddie Mac contract. I think they are about even. I wonder how many jobs Mitt and Newt have created from their “personal” income over $1 million. Five years ago, at least Mitt did produce some GOP jobs when he spent $35 million of his own money running for POTUS.
Attack Dog
January 17th, 2012
4:46 pm
Newt has been making over $2 million a year but only has a net worth of $6 million? Where is the fiscal conservativism in that?
Look before I leap...
January 17th, 2012
4:47 pm
Tom(Independent)
January 17th, 2012
4:17 pm
Idiot Watcher@3:23 – I was not referring to Pres Obama as a non-citizen, as I think he is. I referred to his connection to Kenya, where his family was from. Kenya is a very poor country, who has to rely on foreign aid to exist, do we want the US to become anything like that? I think not. I hate it that we provide foreign aid to so many countries when we have such a bad ecomony and people not working in this country. It is way past time tp put Africa, Kenya, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Mexico, etc at the bottom of the list until our citizens are employed and our economy is good!
Obama’s father was from Kenya, his mother was from Kansas.
In addition to his Kenyan heritage, he is also of English and Irish descent.
But to address your comment regarding ending all foreign aid until our economy recovers and all Americans are back to work, consider this:
Even with our current economic doldrums, we are still one of the wealthiest countries in the world.
Our GDP per capita ranks anywhere from 15th to 10th.
We are 54 times better off in that ranking than Kenya.
We provide aid for 3 basic reasons; Humanitarian, Political and Investment.
Much of the aid we provide is in goods and services, meaning the US buys (from US suppliers) goods to give to Kenya and Pakistan and Mexico (BTW Africa is a continent, not a country). So some of that aid benefits us as well.
And sorry to totally burst your bubble, but 33% of our public debt is owned by foreign nations. We have been getting “foreign aid” for decades.
Centrist
January 17th, 2012
4:54 pm
Just when I was thinking we were aligning Look before I leap… posted “33% of our public debt is owned by foreign nations. We have been getting “foreign aid” for decades.
Terming the highly rated producing mortgage paying interest (U.S. public debt) as being a charitable contribution (foreign aid) from other nations is economic stupidity.
Independent voter
January 17th, 2012
4:54 pm
Jim everyone see how the do nothing congress is treating Obama and the teaparty is going to make the republican lose the house. I am very inform how president is mistreating and while the republicans candidates are showing they true color. I whether have Obama my president then any of these clowns as my president.
Newt and Romney are going make the republican lose white house. Gov Christie was on Oprah show saying great things about president Obama as president.
Obama Sucks
January 17th, 2012
4:57 pm
Obama is a total disgrace as the president. And he should be made to show his college papers and grades. Why not the democrats asked a war hero (McCain) who served his country about his birthplace. The democrats want it both ways when it benifits their candidate. The democrats are just corrupt.
Frederick Douglass
January 17th, 2012
4:57 pm
Tom(Independent) @ 4:17
“I referred to his connection to Kenya, where his family was from”
WTF! The president was reared in the US of A, he only had minimal contact with his father, and with a 50% divorce rate in this country, many kids can make that claim. Tell us how by virtue of being part Kenyan, and not having lived there, does that mean he’s turning this country into another Kenya? So following your logic, since Rick Santorum’s dad was from Italy, he’d have all of us eating spaghetti. If your statements weren’t tongue in cheek, you’re one fry short of a Happy Meal.
Independent voter
January 17th, 2012
4:58 pm
The republican are hating on president Obama because he caught Bin Laden first.
President Obama have great foreign policy non of these republicans could do things Obama doing with foreign policy.
Look before I leap...
January 17th, 2012
4:59 pm
@Centrist 4:27
Let’s just forgo the airplane/limo/helicopter vacation BS as they are red herrings and you know it.
Will Obama come out smelling like roses post POTUS – sure. Will he have some leeway to invest? Sure.
The bulk of Obama’s income will still be earned income (books, speaking fees and pension) and taxed accordingly.
Romney will earn more in investment income than Obama can ever hope to earn en toto.
Obama is closer to the average Joe than he is to Romney. Romney has a $250M head start.
Independent voter
January 17th, 2012
5:02 pm
That why president Obama going to win 4 more years because of these non qualified candidates.
Huntsman the only one had a brain who could prolly do good as president. I would have voted for Huntsman.
Obama Sucks
January 17th, 2012
5:03 pm
independent (code name democrat) voter, The Harry Reid Senate is the do nothing Senate. The Congress has voted for many bills and drafted many others but King Harry won’t let them be vote on with a yes or no because he said ” If I don’t approve of them I won’t let them come to the floor to be voted on”. So you comments are false. And you should do you homework before you blogg falsehoods. Congress is working while Obama plays golf and Michele spends your money and King Harry blocks work from being done by the Congress. FACT!
Jim
January 17th, 2012
5:05 pm
Attack Dog: Newt authorized release of his Freddie Mac documents: It was Freddie and Newts previous company that refused to release them due to “others” having confidential information released.
DannyX
January 17th, 2012
5:07 pm
“…will release his return in April”
Lol, his “return,” not his returns! What does he have to hide?
Jim
January 17th, 2012
5:08 pm
Independent Voter: LOL !!! Do nothing congress???? How about the do nothing Senate, who is sitting on 15 jobs bills submitted and passed by the House?
And Gov. Christie NEVER said that Obama did some great things.. put the pipe down.
Jim
January 17th, 2012
5:09 pm
Obama Sucks: Right on target.
Independent voter
January 17th, 2012
5:11 pm
Jim go to Comcast On Demand and listening what Christie said about president Obama you will be shock.
Jim
January 17th, 2012
5:11 pm
Independent Voter: Wake the heck up. lol Obama is the worst President EVER in history. A vote for Obama is simple acknowledgement of being totally dumb.
Jim
January 17th, 2012
5:12 pm
Independent Voter: Christie is backing a Moderate for President… Christie himself is a moderate. BUT… give me a direct link to what you are saying and I will check it out. I seriously doubt it lol
Look before I leap...
January 17th, 2012
5:13 pm
Centrist
January 17th, 2012
4:54 pm
Just when I was thinking we were aligning Look before I leap… posted “33% of our public debt is owned by foreign nations. We have been getting “foreign aid” for decades.
Terming the highly rated producing mortgage paying interest (U.S. public debt) as being a charitable contribution (foreign aid) from other nations is economic stupidity.
In my haste to post before my next conference call, I neglected to include a qualifying statement:
It would’ve read;
The foreign debt is admittedly not “foreign aid” per se, but it represents 2 critical issues. It is 5 trillion dollars less we would have had to fund federal government spending and it is the single biggest reason our national debt is racing to the stratosphere.
It’s funny, I just returned from a weekend in NYC and I stayed just off Times Square where I had a bird’s eye view of Seymour Durst’s debt clock. For all the neon lights and jumbo-trons, it is the most trans-fixing site in Times Square.
Jim
January 17th, 2012
5:15 pm
Independent voter ” Christies comment “That’s a very dangerous politician.”
He simply said that Obama was not to be underestimated because he was a skilled politician. Aka… Great liar.
Centrist
January 17th, 2012
5:16 pm
Look before I leap… posted “Romney will earn more in investment income than Obama can ever hope to earn en toto.”
Obama has earned multi millions every year for the last 6 with few expenses while living quite well. I would expect he has a pretty impressive portfolio which will grow on its own along with many more years of large contributions to further increase its value. Will it match Romney’s portfolio in 14 years when he is then the same age? We don’t know, and how is this even relevant?
My point has been that both are very wealthy and pay taxes according to the system that both Republican and Democrats have set up. Unlike both Obama and Romney and other truly wealthy families pay less in marginal tax rates than the 35% for wage earner families and small business earning above $380K, and whose effective tax rates are much higher when as their exemptions and deductions are phased out.
Obama is nothing close to the average Joe in income/ net worth and hasn’t been since he was a community organizer.
Frederick Douglass
January 17th, 2012
5:17 pm
Jim @ 5:11
You write pretty well for a four year old, because apparently you weren’t born when the illustrious George W. Bush was president.
Tom(Independent)
January 17th, 2012
5:17 pm
Not to get personal, but I am a 60+ yr old Vietnam vet, retired and living a decent lifestyle. I support Presidents Kennedy(Democrat) and Reagan(Repub), those type men I feel comfortable leading our country. I do not care for Obama nor the Bushs, they are responsible for this countries tremendous debt. I worry for my children and grandchildren futures. It’s seems as though a lot of you bloggers don’t care about that and are only concerned about themselves. Some of you are nothing but a bunch of Occu-tards, just wanting to tear things down without offered any solutions to make things better. ABO- Anybody But Obama is the way I feel now!!!
Obama Sucks
January 17th, 2012
5:20 pm
Look before you leap, Why? Just jump. BS Obama is not like the average America. He’s a mulitmillionaire that made his money off the taxpayers backs, George Soros handouts, and thru the sell of his BS books. That he didn’t fully write.( The real authors Davis and Ayers). Also his “angry black women” wife is a total idiot. As for Biden what a total idiot this ptuz is. Biden is so cheap and so corrupt. He’s Obama’s “White Boy Toy”. Obama didn’t get Bin Laden the military did. Obama approved the killing of his Muslim Brother Bin Laden. Good job on that Mr.President. This President was suppost to be the great uniter but because of his racist liberal socialist ldealogy he is not only the foodstamp president but will go down in history as the worst president in modern American History. Carter is now a real number 2.
DannyX
January 17th, 2012
5:20 pm
“How about the do nothing Senate, who is sitting on 15 jobs bills submitted and passed by the House?”
How about the do nothing Senate! New PPP poll has Reid approval at 23%, McConnell even worse at 17%! Same poll has Republican favorable rating at 29% vs 44% for the Dems.
Gallup has a poll out this week that shows only 27% of voters now identify as Republican, a huge drop from the 2010 election.
Btw, 1,000,000 Wisconsin voters signed the Walker recall petition, lol.
Yea Republicans are on a roll……BACKWARDS.
Jim
January 17th, 2012
5:21 pm
Frederick: You must be a liberal… most libs “assume” something about an individual, and then strives to make it truth by spouting it over and over.
I blame Bush for spending. But he was a spend-thrift compared to your Idol Obama. lol
Jim
January 17th, 2012
5:22 pm
Danny: Typical “Spin”. Your numbers are wrong. But maybe someone might believe you. lol
DannyX
January 17th, 2012
5:23 pm
Is that all you have Jim?
Jim
January 17th, 2012
5:24 pm
Danny: http://hotair.com/archives/2010/12/01/republicans-now-outnumber-democrats-rasmussen/ Just to show you are wrong.
http://www.gallup.com/poll/145463/democratic-party-drops-2010-tying-year-low.aspx
Jim
January 17th, 2012
5:25 pm
Danny: Nope. I provided proof, and not rhetoric like yourself.
honested
January 17th, 2012
5:26 pm
DannyX
Is it a roll backwards, or an all out backflip into the abyss?
Jim
January 17th, 2012
5:27 pm
Danny: One more for you.
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/mood_of_america/partisan_trends
That’s Jan. 2012. Your post is bogus. Apologize.
honested
January 17th, 2012
5:27 pm
jim,
You do realize that quoting raz-munchken numbers only provides a good long belly laugh, right?
DannyX
January 17th, 2012
5:28 pm
Jim, what is the Republican plan? 3 short years ago they left this country in a mess. How do they plan on paying for still unfunded socialist Med Part D? The two wars they left unfunded? The Bush tax cuts? The Dept of Homeland Security?
Whats the plan?
Jim
January 17th, 2012
5:28 pm
For a Lib like yourself, ANY fact gets a belly laugh. Facts just don’t phase you people.
Jim
January 17th, 2012
5:29 pm
Danny get off your Dem talking points, educate yourself, do some homework, and you will find the answers for yourself.
Jim
January 17th, 2012
5:31 pm
Question: Has Obama addressed any of those issues? lol Now that’s funny…
Obama Sucks
January 17th, 2012
5:31 pm
DannyX, No but I second that. Jim is correct. Why do you support Obama who has been a total disaster as the president? What has this man done for the Nation except spend and waste money, grow the debt by TRILLIONS of dollars, play golf, give us obamacare, and spend taxpayers money for him, his wife and family to go on million dollar vacations. That we all paid for. What is his record?
Look before I leap...
January 17th, 2012
5:32 pm
@Centrist 5:16
My point has been that both are very wealthy and pay taxes according to the system that both Republican and Democrats have set up. Unlike both Obama and Romney and other truly wealthy families pay less in marginal tax rates than the 35% for wage earner families and small business earning above $380K, and whose effective tax rates are much higher when as their exemptions and deductions are phased out.
Obama is nothing close to the average Joe in income/ net worth and hasn’t been since he was a community organizer.
I did not say Obama was close to the average Joe, I said he was CLOSER to the average Joe than he was to Romney. So to paint Obama as some kind of wealthy elitist is to color Romney as a virtual wealth deity.
And my point is… Romney earns about 5 times what Obama earns and paid 10 points less in taxes. I am not blaming Romney for that. Obama earned 5 times what I make and paid 6 points less than I did. I am not blaming Obama for that either. But with those numbers, Obama is closer to me than he is to Romney.
honested
January 17th, 2012
5:34 pm
Yes guys, lets go back to the depths of the shrub depression and lose a few hundred thousand jobs a month for months on end.
Lets start some more unfunded wars for no apparent reason and waste a few more trillion dollars.
Yep, I can see what you think is a ’successful’ president and with the diametric opposite provided by a real President why you would be so upset!
Jim
January 17th, 2012
5:35 pm
BTW: The “Republican Plan” was Cut, cap, and Balance. Harry Reed tabled that, along with 14 other “Republican plans”.
Tell me: What is the Democratic Plan? Educate me.
double
January 17th, 2012
5:36 pm
Michele just turned 48-looks 40.All the perks the president has started with Obama.None before had these..Jealous
Jim
January 17th, 2012
5:36 pm
“Lets start some more unfunded wars for no apparent reason and waste a few more trillion dollars.”
Does 3000 deaths of American in the Twin towers ring any bells for ya?
DannyX
January 17th, 2012
5:36 pm
From RESPECTED Gallup ..http://www.gallup.com/poll/151943/Record-High-Americans-Identify-Independents.aspx
Republicans 27% of all voters down from 2010 elections.
Democrats remained steady at 31%.
Rasmussen, LOL