The Spectacle Blog
Rick Santorum is leading the polls in Tennessee, which holds its primary Tuesday. Newt Gingrich is running a distance third there, and his state campaign co-chairman saw the writing on the wall:
State Sen. Stacey Campfield, co-chairman of Newt Gingrich’s campaign in Tennessee, announced today he is quitting that position to support Rick Santorum in the Republican presidential race.
The Knoxville Republican made his announcement in a post on his blog. In an interview, Campfield said he believes that conservatives need to unite behind a single candidate and that Santorum is best positioned to defeat “establishment Republican” candidate Mitt Romney.
If Santorum can add Tennessee to Ohio and Oklahoma on “Super Tuesday,” it will consolidate his position as the conservative alternative to Romney. The question is whether Gingrich will stubbornly stick it out after Tuesday, where Georgia is the only state he has any hope of winning.
Meanwhile, as Ed Morrissey notes at Hot Air, polls indicate that Romney is likely to win today’s GOP caucuses in Washington state.
mjs_pa| 3.3.12 @ 4:02PM
romney lies and freedom dies.....Romney to Obama, 2009: Embrace the Individual Mandate
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v.....e=youtu.be
RJ| 3.3.12 @ 4:10PM
Looks like a pol jumping ship to get on the winning side. I remember a political drawing that my first boss had on his wall. It said, if you see a crowd, grab a sign and walk in front of them. So many of the political class are not really leaders at all.
NVA Patriot| 3.3.12 @ 4:22PM
Mr. McCain - I know far too much about Santorum - he will lose VA and he is a union loving political hack always has been and always will be.
I have asked on every blog I can What has Santorum accomplished? I get no answer back other than geeat family man and gee he's pro life and pushed through evey prochoice hack judge he could, compared to Newt who actually CUT government.
Sorry you're all angry about Scozzofava and him sitting on the couch with Nancy - it beats Santorum lying in bed and doing the bidding of the establishment when hew had the chance to actually govern conservative and FAILED MISERABLY.
John Drake| 3.3.12 @ 11:20PM
Mr. Other McCain writes: "If Santorum can add Tennessee to Ohio and Oklahoma on 'Super Tuesday,' it will consolidate his position as the conservative alternative to Romney." You're right NVA Patriot, it's too bad Santorum isn't conservative. He agrees with the liberal vision for giant and intrusive federal government; but he instead wants to put socially conservative content into that liberal vision. That's not conservative. Nor is it wise to grow the federal government so the next liberal in office can use it even more effectively to pursue socially liberal ends.
Bill Hussein O'Stalin| 3.3.12 @ 5:33PM
And if Romney does win in Ohio we'll see Chapter Two of He Won, But He Cheated, or He Won, But (Fill in the BS Blank.)
Dai Alanye | 3.3.12 @ 8:00PM
The tale if Romney wins will be that he bought another one. This tale has the advantage of being true.
In Ohio we're now going through what other states have experienced, a barrage of negative robo-calls distorting Santorum's record and policies. After a good dozen for Romney one high-class call came through which qualified me before giving a spiel for Rick. None for Gingrich as yet.
I'm sorry to say another sellout for Romney has appeared, Jay Sekulow of the American Center for Law and Justice. Sekulow based his call on the need for conservative Supreme Court justices. There is obviously no reason for him to favor Romney over either Gingrich or Santorum, so he's certainly been bought, another paid shill for Romney. No more donations to your outfit, Jay.
I'm getting my own back by calling for Santorum, and receiving a generally positive response while assuring Ohioans that Mitt is a loser as well as a fake conservative. I choose not to follow the script the campaign recommends, since I've made political calls many times before.
Strangely, the names I'm been given so far are all outside my county and even outside my area code. A small percentage aren't even Republicans. No excuse for this, since the county boards of election have voting lists available to anyone who wants them.
PS: I'm using the phone name of Bill Stalin, Joe's American nephew, just to get some laughs.
RJ| 3.3.12 @ 8:25PM
Thanks for the information about Jay Sekulow. Pressure and benefits are often put on prominent political figures. It is one of the reasons why I generally don't pay too much attention to endorsements.
florin| 3.4.12 @ 8:36AM
Oh how desperate you Dems are to have anyone but Mitt Romney run against Obama...
Eric F| 3.3.12 @ 6:00PM
I'm never impressed by people who quit when the going gets tough. Reminds me of what Mike DeWine did in Ohio.
Garfield| 3.3.12 @ 6:35PM
Kinda funny that Spectator isn't reporting on the stuff that surfaced concerning Romney pushing for Obama to support the individual mandate.
Brian| 3.3.12 @ 8:46PM
Because of RSM's (Platonic) love affair with Santorum, he's promoting stale polls which place Gingrich as a "distant third" in Tennessee. But the latest polling by Public Policy Polling - to be released in full tomorrow - has Gingrich just a few points behind Santorum:
http://twitter.com/#!/ppppolls/status/176013282895863808
"Surprise of the day- Tennessee looking much more competitive. Santorum still up but Mitt and Newt within about 5-7 pts"
Additionally, Gallup has Santorum in an unprecedented 11 point plunge. It's unprecedented because while other candidates have declined after a surge, no other candidate has done it so consistently, without a single uptick or even day in the last 11 days.
http://www.gallup.com/poll/election.aspx
Santorum is now at 22, just 5 points above Gingrich, who had another uptick to 17. If this trend continues for just a few more days, the 2 candidates will criss-cross and Gingrich will replace Santorum in the #2 position.
Newt is rising.
Santorum's going down.
Brian| 3.3.12 @ 8:50PM
Correction to my comment a few minutes ago:
I said that per the Gallup national poll, Santorum has an "11 point plunge." But it's worse than that. Over the course of 11 days, Santorum plunged 14 points, without a single uptick or even day on the way down. And with every indication that the plunge continues...
Proud Mormon| 3.3.12 @ 9:18PM
Romney wins Wash. St. Congrats Mitt and also Romney leads the national GOP poll. Another kick in the teeth for Tea something or others soon to be extinct.
errd| 3.3.12 @ 11:53PM
PM, do I misunderstand? Because I am not sure you want to talk about kicking the Tea Party (is this what you mean?) in the teeth. If Mitt Romney secures the nomination sometime this spring or at the convention in Tampa, he will only win on November 6, 2012 with A LOT of Tea Partiers support.
I am not saying they wouldn't support him. I am not saying one way or the other how Tea Partiers will behave.
But ANY GOP candidate must have strong Tea Party support, otherwise it is curtains. Surely you know this.
NVA Patriot| 3.4.12 @ 7:34PM
Mitt will likely lose because his team thinks they are going to accomplish GOTV after abusing the Tea Party.
So ask VA Republicans how important Tea was to getting control of the VA Senate.
Head to head, Tea downstate accomplished its mission - McDonnell upstate in NVA - informed all concened of a 2-5 seat pick-up - actuals - 2 downstate (tea) 0 for NVA - Team Romney\McDonnell.
Just doing that old fashoined counting thing vice fancy Romney name calling....
Bob| 3.3.12 @ 10:19PM
GOPuke Romney's nomination does three positive things:
1. Takes Obamacare off the election map
2. Ends the Tea Party reign of terror
3. Tea Party heroine Michele Bachmann will lose her House seat. Pity Michele she just couldn't pass a nursery school geography test otherwise she would have been a fine candidate. She still doesn't know Frostbite Falls is the capital of Minnesota. Bullwinkle told us that.
nibblesyble| 3.3.12 @ 11:12PM
For people to endorse someone and then take it back and endorse another is the height of cowardliness. Like rats jumping ship. If I were Santorum I would say thanks, but no thanks!
PattyMor| 3.4.12 @ 9:46AM
Well, Nibblesyble, there is little honor in politics.
Its a Let's run around and get in front of whatever crowd is leading.
I'm still supporting Newt. He's the only guy who balanced the budget for 4 years in my lifetime. Not Nixon, Ford, Reagan, Bush I, nor Bush II. I'll always place my money on the guy who demostrated that he can get 'er done; not the guy who blathers on why he can get 'er done. We already have one of those in the White House. Mitt was a "big government" liberal in Tax-A- Chusettes. Actions speak louder than words. And quite frankly I don't trust Mitt.