In a previous post it was reported that Rick Perry suspended his presidential campaign and endorsed Newt Gingrich. That post also provided the full Gingrich statement about the endorsement.
Below is the video of Rick Perry endorsing Gingrich and why.
Gingrich statement below:
“I am humbled and honored to have the support of my friend Rick Perry. His selflessness is yet another demonstration of his deep sense of citizenship and commitment to the cause of limited government, historic American values and greater freedom for every American.
“Governor Perry will continue to be a leader for the cause of conservatism, especially for more American energy and for implementing the 10th Amendment across the country.
“South Carolinians have a chance this Saturday to nominate a bold Reagan conservative who will offer a dramatic contrast with President Obama this fall in the general election.
“I ask the supporters of Governor Perry to look at my record of balancing the budget, cutting spending, reforming welfare, and enacting pro-growth policies to create millions of new jobs and humbly ask for their vote.
[Update]The Right Scoop has the entire video of Perry's announcement, 11 minutes.
Two polls released today show the Newt Gingrich second surge in full swing as he edges Mitt Romney out of first place in South Carolina polling.
Public Policy Polling (PPP) has Gingrich ahead of Romney by 34 percent to 28 percent.
Newt Gingrich led Mitt Romney 34-28 in PPP's South Carolina polling last night, the first of what will be three nights of tracking. Ron Paul at 15%, Rick Santorum at 14%, Rick Perry at 5%, and Buddy Roemer at 3% round out the field.
This is not a case of Romney imploding. His support has been pretty steady in the 28-30% range in our South Carolina polling so far. But Gingrich has risen from 23% to 34% over the last two weeks, benefiting from declining support for Santorum and also from undecided voters moving into his camp.
It's clear that the debate Monday night did a lot to help Gingrich's prospects in the state. 56% of voters say they watched it, and with those folks Gingrich's lead over Romney is 43-27. Romney still has a 29-22 advantage on Gingrich with those who didn't tune in.
Rasmussen, using likely GOP primary voters in their sample, has Gingrich ahead of Romney by two points, yet two days ago, before the South Carolina debate which earned Gingrich the first standing ovation at any debate, Romney held the lead by 14 percentage points.
While CNN and other reports say that sources tell them Rick Perry will be dropping out of the GOP race for the presidential nomination and will be endorsing Newt Gingrich, it appears that Gingrich is already apprised of the situation and has message via Twitter"Honored to have the support of Gov. Perry. I humbly ask his supporters to join our campaign so we can defeat Obama. "
Via The Politico, we see Romney up seven points in South Carolina unless voters are asked to volunteer the name of a candidate they will vote for without prompting, then Gingrich stays within two points of Romney.
Gingrich has momentum: When voters are asked to volunteer the name of the candidate they plan to vote for without being prompted by a list of names to choose from, Romney’s lead over Gingrich slips to 31 percent to 29 percent. Among those who say they will “definitely” support their candidate of choice, the two are essentially tied, with Romney at 23 percent and Gingrich at 22 percent.
Gingrich's second surge in the polls might very well be the reason behind the new line of attacks coming out against him regarding personal information from a previous marriage.
As a Perry supporter, I am sorry his campaign did not do better than it has, but with the dwindling poll numbers, he is obviously doing what he believes is best for the Republican party as a whole.
For that I salute him. [Update] Perry: "I am suspending my campaign and endorsing Newt Gingrich for president of the United States."
[Update] Newt's full statement on Perry endorsement, via email:
“I am humbled and honored to have the support of my friend Rick Perry. His selflessness is yet another demonstration of his deep sense of citizenship and commitment to the cause of limited government, historic American values and greater freedom for every American.
“Governor Perry will continue to be a leader for the cause of conservatism, especially for more American energy and for implementing the 10th Amendment across the country.
“South Carolinians have a chance this Saturday to nominate a bold Reagan conservative who will offer a dramatic contrast with President Obama this fall in the general election.
“I ask the supporters of Governor Perry to look at my record of balancing the budget, cutting spending, reforming welfare, and enacting pro-growth policies to create millions of new jobs and humbly ask for their vote
Thanks to The Washington Examiner for the video below. The Examiner found the anti-Romney videos that the Huntsman campaign deleted from their YouTube channel.
We went and found a few of the "lost ads," including the weather vane ad, the flip-flop monkey ad, and of course Huntsman's hint that Mitt Romney should be running for president the Waffle House.
Keep the video above in mind while reading the news below.
The timing of the news might be unexpected but the reports in the media that Jon Huntsman is ending his bid for presidency isn't all that surprising in and of itself. He polls low, his campaign is the one that never surged high then flattened out, he simply stayed at the bottom across the board.
The news that Huntsman will elect Mitt Romney, after calling him "unelectable" is a little more surprising, yet that is exactly what reports are indicating.
The news of Huntman pulling out was confirmed by his campaign manager, Matt David, in an interview Sunday evening, where he stated "The governor and his family, at this point in the race, decided it was time for Republicans to rally around a candidate who could beat Barack Obama and turn around the economy. That candidate is Gov. Mitt Romney."
Ed Morrissey over at Hot Air is spot on in his analysis of what this means for Romney:
I used the usual joke in the subhead, but does this really help Mitt Romney? Huntsman’s core of voters in New Hampshire were Democrats, people who didn’t like the Tea Party, and people who generally approve of Barack Obama’s job performance. Where would these voters have gone in this primary without Huntsman anyway? Perhaps a few might have migrated to Ron Paul, but that’s hard to imagine. Romney will graciously accept the endorsement, but it’s not going to change his position much in the next few states anyway. Romney’s better off with more people in the race, not fewer.
I have to agree.
Huntsman has been last in the polls since the start of the GOP campaign season and hit 5 percent in exactly one poll, other than that he stayed in the one, two or three percent range this entire time.
My candidate of choice, Rick Perry, despite vows to continue on after South Carolina, no matter how he does there, should probably be the next to drop out. It is doubtful he will get the momentum back that he carried when he first entered the race and narrowing the field to just Santorum, Gingrich, Paul and Romney, in all probability, would make the race to nomination more competitive.
The video below comes after the moderators of ABC's GOP debate started pushing questions focused on gay marriage, then Newt Gingrich pointed out that no one ever asks about the flip side of that particular issue.
I just want to raise the point about the news media bias. You don’t hear the opposite question asked. Should the Catholic Church be forced to close its adoption services in Massachusetts because it won’t accept gay couples? Which is exactly what the state has done. Should the Catholic Church be driven out of providing charitable services in the District of Columbia because it won’t give in to secular bigotry? Should the Catholic Church find itself discriminated against by the Obama administration on key delivering of service because of the bias and bigotry of the administration? The bigotry question goes both ways, and there’s a lot more anti-Christian bigotry today than there is concerning the other side and none of it gets covered by the news media.
Shortly after Gingrich’s attack on the media, Texas Gov. Rick Perry pivoted from a question about whether he would consider a third-party run to promise that if elected president he would end what he called “this administration’s war on religion.”
“When we see an administration that will not defend the Defense of Marriage Act, that gives their Justice Department clear instructions to go take the ministerial exception away from our churches where that’s never happened before, when we see this administration not giving money to Catholic charities for sexually trafficked individuals because they don’t agree with the Catholic church on abortion, that is a war against religion. And it’s going to stop under a Perry administration.”
Speaking of liberal media bias, Matthew Boyle over at The Daily Caller highlights the problem George Stephanopoulos had during last night's debate, with fairness.
[Update] For those interested, Wapo provides the transcript from the whole Saturday night debate.
Just days after Rick Santorum surprised the country by taking second place in the Iowa caucuses behind Romney who won by only eight votes, Rasmussen finds he has bounced right into second place nationally.
Former U.S. Senator Rick Santorum, coming off his photo finish with Mitt Romney in the Iowa caucuses, is now in second place among Republican voters in the race for the party’s 2012 presidential nomination.
The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey, taken the night after the caucuses, shows Romney again in first place with support from 29% of Likely Republican Primary Voters, followed by Santorum with 21%.
Many wondered if the Santorum surge would start and end in Iowa.
Guess not.
For those that are completely anti-Romney, they might want to take a look second look at Santorum.
Allen: “These are members of your staff.” Perry: “You got a name?” Allen: “Who say –” Perry: “You got a name?” [pause] Allen: “You won’t listen to –” Perry: “You got a name?” Allen: “Uh.” Perry: “If you don’t have a name to tell me this individual said this, then I don’t take that as a corroborating source
There is more after the initial exchange, watch the whole thing.
For any that doubt the "liberal" label given to Mike Allen and The Politico, remember he and two others we know about, were members of the now dismantled Journolist which caused some Politico writers major embarrassment.
With the Iowa caucuses set for January 3, 2012, two of the GOP candidates, Jon Huntsman and Rick Perry couldn't be further apart regarding Iowa.
The Rick Perry campaign produces a video titled "Win Iowa" (shown below)
On the other end of the spectrum we see, via RCP, that Jon Huntsman spoke with NH Host Paul Westcott on WGIR AM 610 and 96.7 the Wave, and said Iowa will be "forgotten in a day or two," and believes the Iowa caucuses are "irrelevant."
Iowa is not the be-all-end-all of the GOP primaries/caucuses but each and every state is important and stating publicly that Iowa is irrelevant just days before their caucus goers head to vote, isn't exactly the smartest political move a candidate can make.
As was discussed the other day, Rick Perry and Newt Gingrich turned in the required 10,000 plus names to qualify for their names to be added to the Virginia GOP primary ballot, but because they turned in less than 15,000 names, the Virginia GOP put those names through a verification process and disqualified both Perry and Gingrich. (Both turned in over 11,000 signatures)
Romney and Paul were the only two the Virginia GOP certified to be listed on the March 2012 primary ballot.
Yet, Romney, by virtue of how many names (over 15,000) was allowed to bypass the verification process.
It was recently reported that the verification process had not been utilized in previous elections and was determined to be used for the 2012 elections, in November of 2011.
Which brings us to today's news from MSNBC's First Read, who reports Rick Perry has filed a lawsuit against Virginia to gain access to the GOP primary ballot.
While some experts say the lawsuit faces long shot odds, over at Hot Air it is pointed out that certain federal appellate court rulings have sided with Perry's argument about requirements for petition circulators, to be unconstitutional.
Here’s one case, from the Tenth Circuit, finding state residency requirements for petition circulators unconstitutional; two other federal appellate courts have ruled similarly. The question is whether the Fourth Circuit, which covers Virginia, will rule the same way.
Why didn't Perry approach Gingrich about teaming up for this lawsuit since both candidates submitted over 11,000 names, both were disqualified by the verification process, and both subject to Virginia's onerous rules?
With the recent news that both the Rick Perry and Newt Gingrich campaigns submitted the required 10,000 signatures to obtain access to be put on the Virginia primary ballot but were disqualified during the verification process, this report by BallotAccess.org is extremely relevant.
But what has not been reported is that in the only other presidential primaries in which Virginia required 10,000 signatures (2000, 2004, and 2008) the signatures were not checked. Any candidate who submitted at least 10,000 raw signatures was put on the ballot. In 2000, five Republicans qualified: George Bush, John McCain, Alan Keyes, Gary Bauer, and Steve Forbes. In 2004 there was no Republican primary in Virginia. In 2008, seven Republicans qualified: John McCain, Mike Huckabee, Mitt Romney, Ron Paul, Rudy Giuliani, Fred Thompson, and Alan Keyes.
If this is indeed the first year the VA GOP actually performed the verification process, then comparing any other year to this situation is like comparing apples to oranges.
Changing the rules a month before the deadline is a significant screw up on the party of the VA GOP.
Under the Code of Virginia, any candidate who wants to have their name placed on the March 6, 2012 Republican Presidential Ballot or the June 12, 2012 U.S. Senate Primary must collect the signatures of 10,000 registered voters statewide, with at least 400 signatures of registered voters from each of Virginia’s 11 Congressional Districts.
“Any candidate who submits at least 15,000 signatures of registered voters on valid petitions statewide and has at least 600 signatures of registered voters on valid petitions from each of the 11 Congressional Districts shall be deemed to have met the threshold for qualification and will be certified (provided, of course, that other requirements of State law have also been met)”
“If any candidate submits fewer than 15,000 signatures of registered voters on valid petitions statewide or fewer than 600 signatures of registered voters on valid petitions in one or more of the 11 Congressional Districts, the Republican Party of Virginia will individually verify signatures until the 10,000 signature statewide threshold and/or 400 per Congressional district is met.”
Because Perry and Gingrich only submitted 11,000 plus signatures they had to be individually verified, yet Paul and Romney's signatures went through NO verification process whatsoever because they submitted over 15,000.
H/T to The Daily Caller for pointing out a new video release from Rick Perry 2012 at YouTube titled "Momentum" showing what popular political pundits said after Perry's well received Iowa debate performance.
