florida, it s a house of cards and the whole thing crumbles. isn t newt still trying to win up at the panhandle? the southern part of northern florida where where you keep talking about food stamps playing to white resentment. yes, it s partly that but even among these establishment republicans that i was talking to today, they can t stand barack obama. on many levels. they want him out. and even for moderate establishment republicans, they are surprise league fierce when talking to him on a street corner in an affluent part of sarasota. they want him out. they wish that mitt romney had the ability to fight the way newt gingrich does. and the problem mitt romney also has is, yes, they are surrogates and independent spending groups but in a debate you have to carry the argument yourself. newt gingrich relishes this. he s had 20 years of it on the floor. he s had 25 years of it in congress. mitt romney doesn t know how to do it very well. here s the man we re talking
person under attack. it it will be interesting. this is one they loved how newt responded to their attacks in iowa. newt grabbed it. he didn t handle it well. he didn t handle it well the first time. let s see what happens when we drop a meteor on had him. the second thing though is how does newt go forward in this a little bit that says, okay. on saturday night i thought he responded with an odd speech. it was not a victory speech. it was still somehow showing a grievance. showing the anger. i thought it was aimed at the states. he didn t act like a nominee. he still has to win florida. what i don t get on the romney people. they make the case that it s the long game. they are act figure they lose florida, it s a house of cards and the whole thing crumbles. isn t newt still trying to win the panhandle?
western conference, there s a lot of people over there who are trying to get that vote. i would put newt you have newt in the eastern conference, i would put him kind of in between. i think he s trying to get that social conservative tea party vote, too, though he is clearly a member of the establishment. he s the momentum guy at the moment. he s the next guy in line after donald trump, michele bachmann, and herman cain, the kind of anti-romney conservative. i think to the extent that there s a momentum candidate, conservatives are looking for someone who isn t named romney, who can win the nomination and be credible against barack obama, that s probably newt gingrich. i want to point out, chris. but there was a pew poll conducted last week. people who named herman cain as their first choice, their second choice split between romney and gingrich. it s not as simple as gingrich gets all of the herman cain supporters. i think they will probably go a lot of different places. but i think
correspondent for politico, and ron reagan is an author and political commentator. joe, it seems to me that they ve maybe lucked out here. they re going to have a tough campaign ahead, but here they are, going after mitt romney with the idea, maybe we can help weaken him so newt can overtake him. we d rather take on newt in the fall. or weaken him so much that even if he beats newt, romney staggers into the general election a weakened candidate. are they that smart, that lucky, or both, joe? well, it seems like it s a combination of both. but certainly, it reminds me of two boxers mixing it up before the under card is even finished. we don t even know which opponent president obama s going to face. keep in mind, we have three debates between now and the end of december, and another nine or ten in the next calendar year before the nomination even gets settled. i think the white house is trying to adopt a very proactive strategy here. number one, to define romney before romney gets to
of postpolitics.com. and susan page is washington bureau chief for usa today. chris cillizza, i guess i have to ask you, quite simply, who wins if cain loses? if he has to drop out and become, for the rest of his life, as we call him, citizen cain, not president cain? i think the obvious and probably right answer, chris, is newt gingrich. because as you point out in your western conference, there s a lot of people over there who are trying to get that vote. i would put newt you have newt in the eastern conference, i would put him kind of in between. i think he s trying to get that social conservative tea party vote, too, though he is clearly a member of the establishment. he s the momentum guy at the moment. he s the next guy in line after donald trump, michele bachmann, and herman cain, the kind of anti-romney conservative. i think to the extent that there s a momentum candidate, conservatives are looking for someone who isn t named nominee, who can win the nomination and be cre