
Mitt Romney with former Florida Gov. Charlie Crist. Romney’s “Charlie Crist” problem is this: Romney’s chief campaign strategist and several of his most senior campaign staff were Charlie Crist’s top political advisers — the same ones who crafted Crist’s moderate, ignore-the-tea-party strategy epitomized by Crist’s famous “hug” of President Barack Obama. That strategy led Crist, once the most popular Republican governor in the nation, to defeat. Caption & Image Credit: NewsMax
By: Edmund Jenks – West Coast Editor
With barely enough time to soak in the resounding and unexpected win in the South Carolina primary by former insider turned outsider, Newt Gingrich, NBC News Rock Center with Brian Williams is conducting the first of two televised GOP field debates before the Florida primary.
The primary result in South Carolina (Newt – 40% vs Mitt – 28% … a 12% spread) put egg on the faces of many recognizable Republican leadership faces, the most recognizable of which was the 2008 presidential election’s Republican nominee, John McCain, New Jersey Governor Chris Cristie, and past Republican Political Party leader, Hailey Barbour. This potential Republican ‘ruling class’ drubbing may continue in Florida if the most recent polls from Rasmussen are to be believed:
This excerpted and edited from Rasmussen Reports -
2012 Florida Republican Primary
Florida GOP Primary: Gingrich 41%, Romney 32%
Monday, January 23, 2012
Less than two weeks ago, Mitt Romney had a 22-point lead in Florida, but that’s ancient history in the race for the Republican presidential nomination. Following his big win in South Carolina on Saturday, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich now is on top in Florida by nine.
The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of Likely Florida Republican Primary Voters, taken Sunday evening, finds Gingrich earning 41% of the vote with Romney in second at 32%. Former U.S. Senator Rick Santorum runs third with 11%, while Texas Congressman Ron Paul attracts support from eight percent (8%). Nine percent (9%) remain undecided.(To see survey question wording, click here).
[Reference Here]
Further, the liberal press is having a field day trying to raster and vector their definition of Gingrich to the point that they are dredging up ghosts of the past … by over 40 years – EXAMPLE:
JON MEACHAM in TIME, “Meet Newt Nixon: Forget Reagan. Gingrich’s real political analogue is another angry striver: Richard Nixon”:
“Like Nixon, Gingrich is smart, with a wide-ranging and entrepreneurial mind. Like Nixon, Gingrich is a striver who seems insecure around traditional establishment figures even though he has achieved much more than nearly all of the politicians, editors, and reporters he seems to at once loathe and fear. Like Nixon, Gingrich is fluent in the vernacular of cultural populism, brilliantly casting contemporary American life in terms of an overarching conflict between ‘real’ people and distant ‘elites’ …
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“There is another element of the 2012 story with antecedents in 1968 that is yet to play out. ‘Watching George Romney [the father of Mitt Romney] run for the Presidency,’ said the then Governor of Ohio, James Rhodes, ‘was like watching a duck try to make love to a football.’ I’m not entirely sure what that means, except that it was an undertaking that did not quite work.”
(ht: Mike Allen – Politico Playbook)
With three winners in three primaries, pretzel logic from elites of all stripe pervades the first round of primaries and continues on to Florida. The Republican elite love to claim that Mitt Romney is the most electable candidate for presidential nominee, but this flies in the face of the fact that now, after South Carolina, Mitt has only won 9 of 25 electoral races he has been entered and campaigned in … as per Rush Limbaugh. Further, NewsMax reports that Romney’s advisers in Florida were former Governor Charlie Crist’s GOP defecting political advisers … gotta’ love them ‘moderates’.
Lastly, the vote in South Carolina reflects the fact that Conservative Republicans are tired that no Republican candidate ever takes the Democrat Political Party and it’s supporting power arms in the Mainstream Press, the Courts, and Labor Unions to task … does Romney? – NO … does Santorum? – NO … does Paul – NO … does Gingrich – YES!
Participating in the NBC Rock Center debate event from Tampa Bay, Florida: Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, U.S. Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas), former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum.
The following audit trail of real-time postings are 140 character (or less) responses and reactions found on Twitter in this and this is a process of reporting termed “Tweet-By-Tweet”!
BEGIN
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START OF DEBATE – Rules: 60 seconds/30 seconds
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jdhenchmanJoe Henchman – TiVo tells me that tonight’s Republican debate is actually “Fear Factor: Leeches & Shaved Heads & Tear Gas Part 1″
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AlexPappasDCAlex Pappas – First question of the night goes to Gingrich on electability
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LibertyLynxR – Another debate? What time? Why? How? And then the State of the Union tomorrow? It’s too much. No one can possibly survive this.
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secuppS.E. Cupp – Brian Williams opens the debate by pointing out that Ron Paul is only candidate not to have won a primary.
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TPMTalking Points Memo – Newt saying he “took responsibility” and left Speakership on his own, wasn’t dragged out at all
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politicalmathPoliticalMath – How does Romney connect? With a high-speed LAN! Get it?!?
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EdMorrisseyEdMorrissey – so the debates are now a forum on ads and campaign attacks. Yeah, that’s valuable.
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DLoeschDana Loesch – Romney likely won’t mention Gingrich was cleared.
#FLdebate
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hughhewittHugh Hewitt –
#hhrs #tcot “The members of his own Congressional team moved to replace him and 88% of Republicans voted to rebuke him”
#hhrs
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secuppS.E. Cupp – Counting down seconds before Ron Paul or Rick Santorum interject to ask if they can play too.
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Finally … Santorum, Paul must be in the on-deck circle
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rightstaceStacey – Mitt -stop Newt-bashing! — how does that help America?
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TPMTalking Points Memo – Romney on Gingrich: An “influence peddler” in Washington
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mattklewisMatt K. Lewis – I kind of miss the applause.
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politicalmathPoliticalMath – Santorum: “Any kind of prediction is going to be wrong” Except for that one.
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And finally … Ron Paul
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politicalmathPoliticalMath – Ron Paul: “If you’re looking at the kids these days, I’m a huge winner.” Yeah, the AAYP beats the AARP every day of the week.
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FlapGregory Flap Cole – Ron Paul hammers Gingrich on not being re-elected to Speakership = Newt did not have the votes and he didn’t! Ron Paul for historian
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craig_crawfordCraig Crawford – Brian Williams told debate crowd they can’t react, should have handed out gags with NBC logo
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GaltsGirlMichelle Ray -
@PWKennedy Everyone should snort beer during GOP debates. It’s the only thing that makes them tolerable.
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mattklewisMatt K. Lewis – Romney pivots from talking about his taxes to talking about the American people’s taxes. Nice segue.
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brooksbaynebrooks bayne – romney is proud of paying lotsa taxes. weirdo.
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politicalmathPoliticalMath – Romney: “I don’t a dollar more taxes than I owe” Good line.
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DonIrvineDonIrvine – What kind of a question was that? He’s wealthy and pays taxes.
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secuppS.E. Cupp – Mitt on attacks on his wealth: Yes, I was surprised to see Republicans pick up the weapons of the left.
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GPollowitzGreg Pollowitz – Romney should say, “my tax return will show I paid what I owed, unlike Geithner, Sharpton, Daschle, Rangel…”
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DonIrvineDonIrvine – I don’t think this debate is going to change anyone’s mind, but it should stop the bleeding for Romney.
#FLdebate
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jdhenchmanJoe Henchman – Gingrich on his Freddie deal: “I offered strategic advice, largely based on my knowledge of history, including the history of Washington”
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craig_crawfordCraig Crawford – One-Percenter Smackdown: Bain vs. Freddie Mac
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Crawford is an idiot … Freddie MAC is a one-percent that was funded by the taxpayer and ended up killing our economy, and it is still there screwing the American people
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EdMorrisseyEdMorrisse – “Ill say this in Florida” I don’t think Medicare Part D is terribly unpopular there.
#FLDebate
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mattklewisMatt K. Lewis – Gingrich says he is proud to have advocated Medicare Part D.
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BREAK
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lesliecarbonelesliecarbone – Gingrich defends Freddie for helping ppl get houses
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Back From Break – Santorum – Mortgage Crisis Question
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LarrySabatoLarry Sabato – Newt pushing his role in Medicare Part D in FL. May sell among seniors. But Tea Party won’t like it. Dubya debt.
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craig_crawfordCraig Crawford – Looks like a wash to me between Mitt and Newt. But wait, advantage Romney, he does his own laundry..
bit.ly/zELxyz
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EdMorrisseyEdMorrissey – You know, the NBC game show that preceded
#FLdebate had trap doors beneath contestants. Did they bring any to this debate?
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DonIrvineDonIrvine – Romney is far more prepared tonight. Gingrich is a tough opponent on the debate stage.
#FLdebate
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Paul jumps in
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EdMorrisseyEdMorrissey – PAUL: “Here we have a bunch of guys sitting in a room deciding what the interest rates should be.” Sounds a lot like a brokered convention.
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CommentaryCommentary Magazine – RT
@jpodhoretz: how would you fix the home sales crisis in 30 seconds! — Brian Williams on policy
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gopsaverDave Johnson – Hearing Hugh Hewitt pimp for Romney has been painful. Primary’s have a way of separating RINOs from Conservatives.
#hhrs
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EdMorrisseyEdMorrissey – Good answer from Romney and Gingrich on this question, Romney especially on regulation
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ryanbeckwithRyan Teague Beckwith – I feel bad for people who aren’t on Twitter while watching this debate. It’s like supertitles at the opera.
@fldebate
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jdhenchmanJoe Henchman – Williams: Castro’s dies, what do you do. Mitt: say hi to new rulers. Newt: overthrow him first. Paul: Newt needs to move past the Cold War
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mboyle1Matthew Boyle – Newt: I don’t think Fidel’s going to meet his maker. I think he’s going to go somewhere else.
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hughhewittHugh Hewitt – Williams’ posed the Cuba question in a left-wing fashion: Straight forward questions seem impossible for MSM
#tcot #hhrs
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wpascoeBill Pascoe – The 3 AM phone call from Cuba will be made on a rotary phone bought from AT&T during the Batista regime.
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ToadonaWireL – “I have a little bit of work to do yet on foreign policy” Ron Paul….??
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FlapGregory Flap Cole – RT
@BrentBozell: 9:45 — 45 minutes into the debate and Williams still hasn’t suggested a SINGLE negative thing about the Obama admin
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IngrahamAngleLaura Ingraham – This is Rick S’s moment 2 cut a deal. He will never have more influence/leverage than he does now.
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RadiobloggerDuane Patterson – finally – the iran question. mitt says iran closing straits of hormuz would be act of war, blasting obama for shrinking navy/military.
#hhrs
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brooksbaynebrooks bayne – lol, right?! RT
@DavidLimbaugh: Why don’t you ask Obama this about Hormuz Strait at a press conference?
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mmshowalter1Monica Showalter – Mitt sounding presidential on the Strait of Hormuz. Like his condemnation of the shrinking Navy, good one, Mitt!
#FLdebate
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politicalmathPoliticalMath – Politifact rates the “smallest navy” claim as “Technically correct, but f___ you anyway”
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JRubinBloggerJennifer Rubin – brian williams aks a convuluted question about china and cuba.. i think santorum misundertood but who can blame him?
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TobinCommentaryJonathan S. Tobin – Gingrich rightly answers about war weariness by saying America never wants war. Says Obama shows weakness.
#FLDebate
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BREAK
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RadiobloggerDuane Patterson – nobody wanted a war in world war ii, congressman paul. nobody wanted a war with afghanistan. sometimes, they are necessary.
#hhrs
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JebBushJeb Bush – Where is the outrage of the human rights abuses in Cuba?
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jeff_poorJeff Poor – Maybe NBC is intentionally making the debate dull so its braindead viewers waiting for a “Friends” rerun think the GOP is boring?
#FLdebate
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Back From Break – Tampa Bay Times and National Journal join in the questioning
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RadiobloggerDuane Patterson – brian williams to santorum on iran: other than all these reasons why not, why bother with them? sheesh.
#hhrs
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Do oil spills hurt Florida? WTF?
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Santorum responds … oil brings tourists to Florida!
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politicalmathPoliticalMath – Off shore oil drilling & spills! If they can’t turn this into a “failed leadership” answer, there is no hope for the GOP.
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politicalmathPoliticalMath – RT
@IMAO_: Oil spills should only happen far away in third world countries so stupid poor people have to deal with them.
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lesliecarbonelesliecarbone – programs so that everybody can read ballots? oh, good grief
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IngrahamAngleLaura Ingraham – Is this local journo a cub reporter from Tampa High School?
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hughhewittHugh Hewitt
#tcot Another lefty question, framed by a lefty, but Newt handles. It is amusing, really, how predictable it is
#tcot #hhrs
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secuppS.E. Cupp – Newt offers great response to question on courting the Hispanic vote but supporting English first. Mitt agrees.
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politicalmathPoliticalMath – Mitt gives a much better answer than Newt on the language question.
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DREAMACT …
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hughhewittHugh Hewitt
#tcot NBC couldn’t find a local journalist who didn’t want to audition for MSNBC?
#hhrs
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IngrahamAngleLaura Ingraham – Here are two local reporters who will be asking you questions based on Democratic talking points.Thanks, NBC.
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hughhewittHugh Hewitt
#tcot Dream Act, what a suprise. I thought she’d bring up “Fast and Furious”
#hhrs
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brooksbaynebrooks bayne – someone remind her that the naturalization act of 1795, STILL codified as law, mandates that immigrants become fully american.
#fldebate
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DLoeschDana Loesch – Does Romney also believe that sugar will self de-subsidize?
#FLdebate
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donbonaddioDon – everglades, yeah that’s a real pressing issue to all those laid-off workers right now
#fldebate
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craig_crawfordCraig Crawford – So far, feeling bad for TV editors forced to find sound bites, guess Newt’s unusually long pause could lead the news
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secuppS.E. Cupp – And I imagine the NBC production meeting today going something like this: “Eh, give Ron Paul the Everglades question.”
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jason_howertonJason Howerton – @
@EdMorrissey “Fast and Furious, spending, debt, EU collapse…? No were good. Ask about the Everglades” – NBC
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Back From Break – Pinchhitter asks Q of Santorum on Terry Schiavo
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hughhewittHugh Hewitt – Terry Schiavo? No, he’s not a lefty. Next up, “Shouldnt we have just moved on after Lewinsky?”
#tcot #hhrs
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politicalmathPoliticalMath – Someone from Florida: Does anyone down there still care about the Terry Schiavo case?
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hughhewittHugh Hewitt – Really? Do not resuscitate directives? Trying to help George Stephanopoulos lose the Dumb Question crown?
#tcot #hhrs
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ToadonaWireL – Terry Schiavo’s parents wanted to take care of their daughter. Her husband had a new relationship and wanted to move on.
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craig_crawfordCraig Crawford – Ron Paul wins Terri Schiavo topic: “Get a Living Will”
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What do we do about SPACE?
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brooksbaynebrooks bayne – ron paul is in touch with the aliens when his tinfoil hat isn’t on. he can get the space technology from them.
#fldebate
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craig_crawfordCraig Crawford – Gingrich space plan: Another Star Trek movie, this time with dinosaurs
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brandondarbyBrandon Darby – Newt on space program (paraphrased): Encourage the private sector to offer awards and prizes for advances in space industry.
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GadsdenBabsB – they must have stayed up all night to come up with these questions
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BREAK
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BlameTelfordErik Telford – The commercial breaks just might be the most exciting part of this debate…
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toddstarnestoddstarnes – 2nd way Newt could win debate: “For those of u still awake, I want to apologize on behalf of NBC for this comatose disaster of a debate.”
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Back From Break – Williams, lets look at the big picture … what did you do to promote Conservatism? – Romney?
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politicalmathPoliticalMath – Mitt: Boys are conservative. Everyone knows that.
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IngrahamAngleLaura Ingraham – Mitt’s a conserv bc he had a family & was in biz?…& Gov MA…conserv “model.”
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stephenfhayesStephen Hayes – Newt predictably crushes answer on what-have-you-done-for-conservatism. He does speak the language of movement conservatism, Romney doesn’t
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brooksbaynebrooks bayne – ya think there’s much of a difference between the gingrich and romney responses on what they’ve done to “advance conservatism”?
#fldebate
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politicalmathPoliticalMath – Santorum: ROMNEY, NEWT CRUSH FREEDOM!
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EdMorrisseyEdMorrissey – Here’s Santorum’s best pitch tonight on why he’s the conservative on the stage, and not Mitt or Newt
#fldebate
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mboyle1Matthew Boyle – .
@RonPaul – Our problem is there’s now way to define what being sufficiently conservative is
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rumpfshakerSarah Rumpf – Ha! RT
@Reaganista: Ron Paul wants a return of the space program so he and his supporters can rendezvous with Comet Hale-Bopp.
#fldebate
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ErnieFowlkeErnie Fowlke – Newt was just neutered for his conflict of interest in lobbying for pro Medicare legislation.
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stix1972Doug Welch – Ah this is in Tampa. Now I know why the crowd is asleep. Still asleep from all the clubbing the night before
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brooksbaynebrooks bayne – romney thinks he can repeal obamacare. cute. the executive branch doesn’t repeal laws, mitt.
#fldebate
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TheFixThe Fix – Newt has toned down his rhetoric markedly tonight. No “elites”. No “Saul Alinsky”. No TelePrompter hit on Obama.
#fldebate
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KingShamusKing Shamus
#fldebate BrainDead Williams-”Please define this thing you freakish right-wing ghouls refer to as ‘conservatism’.”
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END OF DEBATE
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mattklewisMatt K. Lewis – Well. That was 2 hours I’ll never get back.
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prismsincRic – LOL RT
@AriFleischer: Those on screen tweets are annoying. NBC must think I can tweet, listen, watch AND read at the same time.
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EdMorrisseyEdMorrissey – Romney won the
#fldebate by setting Gingrich back on his heels over Freddie Mac, but won’t hurt Newt much in polls.
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IngrahamAngleLaura Ingraham – Mitt on his game, skated past Newt whose laces were loose 2nite. Prob changes little though.
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hughhewittHugh Hewitt
#tcot Very good night for Romney, very bad for Newt. Newt is in the lobbying/influencer peddler swamp.
#hhrs
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brooksbaynebrooks bayne – everyone lost tonight. you, me, the candidates, nbc… so much fail.
#fldebate
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craig_crawfordCraig Crawford – One-word review for this no-drama Debate: Mitt plods; Newt dodged; Santorum fades; Paul relaxed
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mattklewisMatt K. Lewis – Heh. Newt’s team just sent out a blank email titled: “Mitt Romney’s Top Conservative Achievements.”
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ENDS – State Of The Union Tomorrow!
Post Published: 23 January 2012
Author: The EDJE
Found in section:
2012 Election,
Politics,
Top Story
Tags: Debate, Florida, Florida Debate, Florida GOP Debate, Florida Primary, Gingrich, GOP Debate, Mitt Romney, MSNBC, NBC, Newt, Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum, ricksantorum, Rock Center, Ron Paul, TV Listings, Tweet-By-Tweet, Twitter, University of South Florida
gop debate need to hours does became appointment his participation in this carnival.