The Professor is on the move again. He has a sugar daddy funding his PAC and is preparing a can of whoop-ass for Mittens. He just released an ad for South Carolina hitting Romney for being pro-abortion and his PAC will release their “King of Bain: When Mitt Romney Came to Town” campaign documentary on Wednesday. The elbows are getting sharper and GOP potentates are getting nervous over criticisms of Mittens for earning millions by screwing American workers. Some like Kristol are in the public hand-wringing phase–more will follow him.
Meanwhile folks attribute motives of rage and vengeance to the Professor and very few folks see any method to his madness. And yet, this is Newt’s best play to win the nomination. If Romney can’t stand up to the intense bashing and drops in support, then folks in wingnutopia will thank Newt for exposing the squish before President Obama had a chance to crush him–and if Mittens is brought low, then the only choices left will be Newt, Ron, John and the Ricks. The Professor is betting that he’ll win that fight. This line of attack is a smart play and his best chance to become the Republican nominee. It is also a very low risk strategy for Newt–there are no hits to his reputation that could damage his future earning power. He will always be able to run a new grift and this confrontational path just might win him the GOP nomination and fantasies of being elected President.
And best of all, if it doesn’t work out Newt will be fine. He’ll have branded himself as a fighter who tried to stop the Party from making the mistake of nominating a squish like Romney. If Mittens takes the hits and wins in November folks will just say it was Newt being Newt and thank him for toughening Romney up. OTHO, if Romney is beaten by President Obama, Newt will get to say he tried to warn folks–that he tried to save the party–and was just a lonely prophet. Regardless of any outcome Newt’s stock and earning power will increase. His grift will keep going.
I expect him to come in fourth tonight–maybe even third. However it turns out, he’ll call himself the comeback kid and keep on keepin’ on. At a certain level semi-pro grifters like Romney must just be in awe.
Cheers
redshirt
I’m quickly becoming inspired to be a Grifter when I grow up. Where do I sign?
WereBear (itouch)
@redshirt: NEVER SIGN ANYTHING! unless you have fake I.d. to back it up.
Thus endeth the first lesson.
Calouste
Winner of the NH primary has already been declared and there isn’t even a thread for it yet.
DCLaw1
FEEL THE HUNTSMENTUM
IM
That is the end of Perry, or not?
Egg Berry
I do believe the media are hoping the horse race continues (USA Today):
Spaghetti Lee
@Egg Berry:
I’m hoping the horse race continues. The more infighting and uncertainty the better.
DCLaw1
@IM: Perry and Gingrich will leap into the air, then fuse into Santorum as his left and right arms, forming CONSERVATRON.
CONSERVATRON will then unsheathe a majestic, shimmering Sword of Principled Righteousness and swing it in a great arc at the dreaded usurper, Mitt Romney. The blue blood shall darken the hills and beaches of South Carolina, and the people will rejoice.
Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)
@Spaghetti Lee:
How’s that?
Killjoy
@DCLaw1:
Too gross, didn’t read
DCLaw1
lolz
IM
@DCLaw1:
This anime is crossing into hentai – fusing into santorum, really.
Calouste
Interesting is that Paul is seriously outperforming the polls so far. He was polling at 17-18 and he is now at 24-25.
Hill Dweller
Nate Silver projecting Willard will get 35% of the vote.
Waldo
@Spaghetti Lee: Agreed. I keep catching myself rooting for the Not-Mitts, who are all actually worse than Mittens himself.
ChrisNYC
I just was dying to send Rachel Maddow an email when Steve whatever his name is from McCain’s campaign was on his high horse lecturing Gingrich about his betrayal and how he was so damaging the party. Disappointed that no one on that panel said, “So you finally realized that Gingrich has no principles and no loyalty to anything but his ego?” The affair/impeachment should have been a bit of a clue.
Villago Delenda Est
@Calouste:
NH is supposed to be a libertarian “test bed”…a bunch of libertarian types (including one I’m acquainted with…he personally destroyed in less than 18 months the community ISP I helped run for 6 years) moved to NH there in the hopes of establishing just how smart they are… apparently, by forcing every law to have a reference to the Magna Carta.
So there are lots of Paultard crazies in NH to pad his vote totals.
JGabriel
Damn, this isnt’t even close:
Dog On Car taking a wide lead out of the starting gate with That Dog Is Not The Federal Government’s Responsibility in second place, and Dog Stew rounding out the top three.
.
Veritas
ROMNEY WINS!
That’s it, ladies and gentlemen. The one-two knockout punch of double IA-NH victories means Romney is all but assured of the nomination. This is the first time in HISTORY both contests have been won by a non-incumbent! Incredible!
Now, he will turn his fire to Obambi…
Cat Lady
Kristol’s using that Mittens stuffed with money picture? Really?
ChrisNYC
So looking forward to Mitt saying the fin crisis was caused by all those nasty home buyers, aka voters. Maybe he’ll even just say, “Come on, you’re just envious that I made millions and screwed you.”
Calouste
@Villago Delenda Est:
I’m not surprised that Paul gets a decent amount of votes in NH. What surprises me that everybody is reported at pretty much the same percentage as in the last poll, except that Paul is reported at his poll percentage plus all the undecideds.
dogwood
Newt is a grifter and an egomaniac, but he’s also a government guy. He lobbied for Freddie and Fannie. Frankly if any of these clowns actually could get elected, Newt would be the easiest for Dems to deal with. His delusions of grandeur make him vulnerable. With Newt in the Oval Office Dems could probably pass a jobs bill dedicated to rebuilding every courthouse in America if they would agree to carve Newtus Maximus over every entry. Newt would agree to building high speed rail to Bismark, if we’d put his face on every rail car. Newt’s not in this to dismantle government; he’s in it to fulfill his destiny as a great man.
Quarks
I think someone should talk to Rick Perry and point out that Bob Dole didn’t get any votes in New Hampshire in 1980 either and yet went on to gain the Republican nomination and a great career with Visa commercials.
ETA: Years later, that is. Step out now, while you can, Perry!
Cassandra
@IM:
If he has any brains. Oops.
Splitting Image
Except for John Kerry, whom Mittens resembles in a very, very large number of ways, and will likely resemble in a few more before this is over….
Litlebritdifrnt
Saw this earlier in 2008 Mittens got 33% of the vote, this year he is currently getting 35% of the vote. So to review in FOUR FUCKING YEARS of living in the state and meeting every single voter personally and FSM knows how much money he can only increase his percentage of the vote by 2%? Really, sorry but that is pathetic.
dogwood
What’s the word on voter turnout? How jazzed up are these Live Free or Diers anyway?
ally
The NYT says Romney has “swept” his first two contests. Does that include the 8 imaginary votes that constituted his “victory” in Iowa?
dollared
@Villago Delenda Est: You soooo don’t get how it works. Back when you were running your community ISP, smart frat boys were getting money from their dad and friends, starting small for-profit ISPs, providing terrible service, and then selling them to larger ISPs for large bonuses for themselves and zippo for their shareholders.
What’s wrong with you?
priscianusjr
@Splitting Image:
rikyrah
‘potentates’
BWA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA
Kola Noscopy
When are we going to discuss Obama’s latest hiring of a Wall Street grifter as his Chief of Staff?
B W Smith
@Kola Noscopy: Why should we discuss it, Kola? It appears your mind is made up. He’s been appointed. So neither his appointment nor your mind will change.
Dennis G.
@Kola Noscopy: One should never autobuy the latest Greenwald meme, but if that’s your bag who am I to interrupt your pleasure. Go for it…
cmorenc
@Dennis G:
In the even-broken-clocks-are-right-once-in-a-while department, Bill Kristol actually is correct for once in the linked Weekly Standard Editorial cited in Dennis G’s anchor post for this thread above. Well, all except for the initial brief three-sentence paragraph where he says the attacks by Gingrich, Perry, and Huntsman against Romney’s career at Bain capital are “unfair”, who in highly amusing counter irony, are themselves dead-spot on correct for once. After all, there’s no rule against four broken clocks once in awhile being briefly correct.
But I digress from Mr. Kristol’s rare moment of correctness in the rest of the editorial, which focuses on Kristol’s recognition of the fact that Romney’s claim of private sector/business experience is NOT necessarily a qualification for public office. Kristol cites the comparison of Corzine vs Christie as NJ governor, and Bloomberg vs Giuliani as NY mayor as comparative examples. Kristol even goes on to mock those on the right who mount unqualified defense of Bain Capital as an assault on capitalism.
I’ll appreciate a rare moment of sane grasp of factual reality from even the likes of Bill Kristol, though I recognize it’s about as frequent as snow in Jacksonville, Florida. Happens, but not very often.
smart
Please forgive Congressman James L. Petrigu. South Carolina is a beautiful state with intelligent denizens. Your reference confuses a loving, vehemently non-slavery human. Notice that you referenced a quote from TOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO LONG AGO. Get a life and visit South Carolina. Forget about the darn politics.
OFFENDED.
smart
Please forgive Congressman James L. Petrigu. South Carolina is a beautiful state with intelligent denizens. Your reference confuses a loving, vehemently non-slavery human. Notice that you referenced a quote from TOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO LONG AGO. Get a life and visit South Carolina. Forget about the darn politics.
OFFENDED.
smart
Please forgive Congressman James L. Petrigu. South Carolina is a beautiful state with intelligent denizens. Your reference confuses a loving, vehemently non-slavery human. Notice that you referenced a quote from TOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO LONG AGO. Get a life and visit South Carolina. Forget about the darn politics.
OFFENDED.
Kola Noscopy
Ummmm…to the commenters above: Is it your contention that the new COS is NOT a wall street grifter, or just that he’s an acceptable grifter because Obama selected him?
cmorenc
@Quarks:
Even better than that, wasn’t Bob Dole also hired by Viagra to do some commercials that widely appeared on the major TV networks for awhile?
cmorenc
Is “viagra” a word that automatically trips a “moderation” hold on a comment?
cmorenc
Yes, apparently V*i*ag*ra is a word that auto-trips a moderation hold. Who wudda guessed? What I said above that landed my earlier comment in moderation was: Didn’t Bob Dole also do commercials for V*i*ag*ra ?
Wilson Heath
It’s pure Newton Leeroy Jenkins Gingrich. Kamikaze time!
Judas Escargot
@Kola Noscopy:
DRONED!