Saturday, January 21, 2012

Newt Gingrich Crawls Back

Despite his poor rankings from the Iowa Caucus and New Hampshire Primary, it appears candidate Newt Gingrich has pulled back to the forefront of the race following his victory in the South Carolina Primary.

Gingrich attributes his win to his performance in recent debates. Though attacked by negative ads from other candidates, in subjects including his controversial "open marriage" proposal to his ex-wife, he pulled through with cheers and applause. As he remarked, he did not need to spend sums of money in advertising to win a primary; it was his ideas that counted.

Endorsed by Rick Perry and Sarah Palin, the former Alaskan governor, Gingrich attracted votes from many conservatives and religious citizens. In addition, exit polls indicated that he was backed by those concerned with the economy: 42% who picked Gingrich to the 28% who voted for Romney. It appears economic policy is just as important as the moral and ideological values candidates wish to bring to office. This game-changing victory may well aid Gingrich in Florida, where he next prepares to embark upon a series of campaigns.

1 comment:

Kimi Hashizume said...

In certain aspects I agree very much with Ivan, especially in the fact that "it appears economic policy is just as important as the moral and ideological values candidates" have. However, on a side note and relating to Gingrich in Florida and other campaigns, I think he's going to have a run for his money, given that over the past few months he's kind of been flailing, not to mention making such ludicrous comments: child-labor laws are "stupid." His comments seem to be racking up too; on Friday his comments were terrible, I thought personally. First off, on Sean Hannity's radio show, he called Obama's response to a question about the Trayvon Martin shooting "disgraceful" and "appalling." Although some may wonder if that's exactly true, if anyone has seen or read Obama's comments, Gingrich's are a bit far fetched. Later, he also went so far as to suggest that Obama is to blame for the persistent belief that he is a Muslim, and making the comment that "I think it is very bizarre that he is...concerned to apologize to Muslim religious fanatics while they are killing young reporters...while at the same time going to war against the Catholic Church...I think it's a very strange value system." To me that statement was an eyeopener, despite his ability to gain headlines as a result, it was kind of ridiculous, I personally think. Reverting back to the original Florida topic and his other campaigns, though, I do think the primary victory can help, in addition he's got a Ph.D. as off topic as that may sound, many may think him to be a Serious thinker or a so called "ideas man" or "ideas machine." And as bad as this may sound, some may give him a pity vote after he has basically handed over every last trace of dignity--repeating his phrase about asinine in an attempt to gain approval from conservatives.