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Newt Gingrich is beginning to soar in the polls for many reasons. He is clearly the leader in the debates, which are really question and answer forums, for the Republican nomination. This is decidedly a factor in his popularity among those people who watch them.

His assault on the media’s hypocrisy concerning how they treat Democrats as opposed to Republicans is something to which people are drawn. This is something which people have been talking about for years and have not been able to do anything about beyond turning off the MSM news programs. Newt is getting back at the press for the duplicity of the press, a business protected by the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States in order to protect the right of the people to get the facts about what is going on in our government without government interference. The people of the USA know the media isn’t doing their job and they know the media has become an opinion generating machine for the Democratic Party.

People are angry. People are fuming at the President, at Congress and at the way their freedoms are being whittled away incrementally. They are angry at SCOTUS for legislating from the Bench. People are tired of being dictated to, of having their elections overturned by activist judges who are not elected.

But there is something much more subtle about his popularity that stems from this anger: it’s the way his vicious attacks on President (and I use that word loosely) Obama are seen by citizens. Newt is the only candidate to not only go after the media and the government, but he unequivocally goes after Obama in a way that people can’t. Common citizens, (actually, we’re subjects now,) are not allowed to vent the anger we feel openly in a public forum against the President and what he’s doing to our country without the old RACIST label being attached to them. People want to beat someone up for all the draconian actions this government, especially Obama, have taken against WE THE PEOPLE. The anger runs deep and it is frustrating to the people of this country to not be able to physically take their anger out on someone. It is not only pleasing to people that Newt is harassing the press, but that he is aggressively beating Obama’s policies to a pulp and it’s satisfying to those who can’t get up on a stage and speak their minds. The fact that firearm sales have skyrocketed is indicative of people’s fears and anger. People are ready to fight in the streets to protect the Constitution of the United States. Newt appears to be doing this for them in a verbal barrage calling legislatures, and the press, on their inequities.

This is probably the most important election we’re going to have as a country since the Constitution was adopted by the original Thirteen States. The Civil War elections weren’t even as important because that didn’t decide which direction our country would take on so many different levels of political tangents. Lincoln had to contend with the split of the country and yes, it was a Constitutional Crisis but he didn’t have to be concerned about massive government spending, Social Security, Welfare, wars in several different countries waged by a small number of American volunteers or any of the other issues we as Americans face today. The most important of the issues we are facing is whether or not we’re to remain a country that practices Free Market Capitalism or become a full blown Marxist state using fascism first, and gradually leading to communism. And Newt isn’t afraid to bring this argument to the debates right now, or those in the future with Obama.
Newt is fulfilling a psychological need of the general populace in this country. And people trust him to continue if he’s eventually elected as the nominee for President of the USA by the rank and file GOP. After all, after Saturday, January 22nd, 2012, there are still 47 states to vote in the primaries. People see Newt as having the brass balls they want the GOP nominee to have and they have not seen this kind of truthfulness or aggression since Reagan.

Oh, wait, is that 54 states?

As in the last debate there were no new revelations to be made on each of the remaining candidate’s positions.  The real drama in South Carolina revolved around Newt’s surge and how it would affect Romney. With polls showing the two in a near dead heat, Romney seemed to be on the ropes from the start to prove that he is still a front-runner.  He was not up to the task.  This was clearly Romney’s worst show to date.  Gone was his typical confidence and composure as he stuttered through responses on when he would release his tax returns and Romneycare.  Romney produced many cringe-worthy moments during the debate, but none so noticeable as when he actually referred to his own controversial healthcare legislation as ROMNEYCARE!  No doubt Romney will be chastising himself relentlessly over non-alcoholic, decaffeinated beverages for the next two days. Rule number one in politics: you NEVER repeat the meme your enemy has pinned on you. Yikes!  There was blood in the water on that Charleston stage and all three of Romney’s opponents sensed that.  He was attacked more directly than he has been all season and he did not fare well.  The combined onslaught may just turn out to be Romney’s downfall in South Carolina.  This was not his night.

Santorum started off the evening a bit weak but seemed to pick up steam as the debate progressed.  It was clear that this stage was his last stand. He pulled no punches and went after both Newt and Romney with targeted attacks.  Santorum is polling last in South Carolina now with Perry out of the race.  This is most likely his last chance to seize some of that Iowa momentum and make a case that he is the best choice for the nomination.  Santorum worked hard to establish himself as the best conservative alternative to both Romney and Newt.  It will be up to the voters of South Carolina to decide if he accomplished that or not.  Regardless, Santorum let it all hang out.  If he goes down, it won’t be because he didn’t throw everything he had at his opponents.

Ron Paul was…Ron Paul.  What is left to be said about Ron Paul?  Ron Paul hates the Fed.  Ron Paul hates big government.  Ron Paul is passionate about the constitution.  Ron Paul wants to end all wars/conflicts and all involvement in foreign affairs.  Ron Paul wants to pay down the debt by cutting military action.  You may love Ron Paul.  You may hate Ron Paul.  Whatever your opinion of Ron Paul may be, it cannot be denied that Ron Paul is always consistent in all things Ron Paul.  But Ron Paul won’t win.  Because he’s Ron Paul.  Sorry, Ronulans.  Cue the crazy hate mail in 4..3..2..1.

Newt won this debate in the first three minutes, but his Achilles heel has always been his intellectual arrogance and perhaps that arrogance was a bit too pronounced at points.  Some voters may be turned off by that.  Santorum was a close second.  He fought like a man with nothing left to lose. Even if he goes home after Saturday the man deserves major kudos for going from someone who most Americans had never heard of to one of the final four candidates in a particularly bloody GOP primary battle.  He has earned my respect in this process.

Mitt Romney lost this debate if for no other reason than the expectations have been so very high for him for so very long.  It was a lackluster, stilted performance that will be sure to weaken him as the primaries get underway on Saturday.

The big loser of Thursday’s debate was John King and CNN.  I suppose he had to ask the question he did at the top of the show but surely he walked away from that spanking he received from Newt with some very red buttocks.  Tsk, tsk, CNN…you should have known better.  Newt is not perfect, but he is perfectly articulate. He was ready and you weren’t.  Checkmate.

 
crossposted at kiradavis.net

Notice that John King finally changes the subject.

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I mean, wouldn’t it have been awesome if each candidate just rattled off their favorite justice?  But, no.  They all had to get long-winded and then not even have the courage to just pick ONE justice.  Most of them hedged their bets with as many as THREE.

What do you think of candidates being so long-winded with what should be a “one word answer”?  And also, if you were on that stage what justice would you have chosen?  (and no, faithful readers, you are not limited to one word with your response)

Even when I was a young Ai, growing up in the MidWest, I had very strong feelings on illegal immigration.  I had grown up respecting the idea of our grandparents coming through Ellis Island, pledging allegiance to our nation, and becoming American citizens.  It was an iconic and romantic image that was imprinted on multiple generations of people in this country.  It seemed logical to think that if our grandparents could come over here on a steam ship and go through the proper channels to become citizens, then surely, our neighbors to the South could do the same. (minus the steam ship part)

I held onto this belief so tightly, that in a championship debate, I once proclaimed that we should have an electrified fence all along our border. (and I was a teenager at the time… I told you I formed this opinion at an early age)  Believe it or not, that (highly insensitive) speech knocked me from the number one spot in the afore mentioned debate.  I’ve never forgotten that day, but… I digress.

So, from elementary school until my mid 20′s, I held a very hardline stance on illegal immigration.  I was against it.  I considered it a national security risk.  And I thought it was one of the greatest examples of government incompetence that so many people could come through our borders so easily.  Not to mention, the drain it puts on our resources as illegal immigrants milk our social services.

To be honest with you, I still believe a lot of the things I just typed, but my stance isn’t as hardline anymore, and I’ll tell you why.  I finally lived in a border state.  Two, actually. Texas and California.  And I don’t mean the northern parts, either.  I mean ground zero.  Southern California and San Antonio.

What finally changed in me was that I saw the scope of what we’re dealing with.  When I lived in Indiana or Missouri, it seemed pretty “easy” to spot illegal immigrants.  I worked, for a while, in the restaurant industry, and we all knew which employees were here illegally.  Not only did our non-citizen coworkers tell us that they were illegal, they often clung closely together and spoke hardly any English at all.  They stood out like a sore thumb.

Not so in Texas or California.  Even after more than five years of immersion in this culture, I cannot definitively tell you who in my community is here legally or otherwise.  The population is dense in the first place.  Los Angeles County is said to have a population of nearly 10 million people. (that’s larger than the population of any STATE I grew up in by the way)

And while the illegal immigrants I knew in the MidWest clung together and seemed “obvious” to me, the illegal immigrants in many border states blend in freely with the whatever community they inhabit.

This past Sunday, as a thought experiment, I challenged a friend of mine to a “game” of sorts.  We sat in a crowded IHOP and tried to figure out who we thought was there legally or illegally.  After ten minutes, we gave up without deciding on a single worker or patron.  There was just no way to know without demanding that people start randomly showing I.D.  And really, is that the society we want to live in?

You see, when we, as conservatives, demand that our politicians vow to deport each and every (illegal) immigrant, it is no different than when the Left demanded Barack Obama close Guantanamo Bay.  All we are doing is putting our candidates in a position where they have to promise something that cannot be delivered on, and then they look like a “liar” once they take office.  We have to stop doing that.

I still believe that illegal immigration is a national security risk.  I still believe that these aliens put a drain on many of our government resources.  And I still believe that our government is extremely incompetent for not having a better handle on this.  But I now realize that forcing our politicians to promise to round up and deport 11 million people is not a realistic task.  We’ve spent several weeks out of this primary making demands that cannot and will not ever be met.  And to make matters worse, all this does is further galvanize another minority group into feeling like they HAVE to vote Democrat, because Republicans are “against” them.  I’m really at a point where I feel like this immigration litmus test is not productive.

When reading this, please don’t believe it’s a piece that’s “pro amnesty”.  I’m not even getting into that part of the conversation at the moment, and even if I was, there are so many differing ideas of what “amnesty” is that it would take more typing than I’m willing to do at the moment.

All I’m saying is that we cannot round up and deport 11 million illegal immigrants, unless we’re willing to approach it with a WW II level of zeal that involves spying on our public and possibly even setting up internment camps.  The amount of resources it would take and the level of ill will it would produce wouldn’t even be worth it.  We absolutely need to stop the flow of illegal immigrants, and we need to work on deporting the ones that are here, when we find them.  But requiring our candidates to promise to round them all up is ultimately a waste of everyones’ energy, and I wish it would stop.

We need to control our country’s borders; that’s an indisputable truth.  All I’m asking is that we do it realistically.

What do you guys think?  Is this the Rick Perry Texas Dream Act all over again?  Does Newt Have a point?  Is this going to hurt him in the polls?  What are your thoughts?  Let us know on Facebook and in the comments below.

What do you think?  Was that the most awesome thing you’ve seen this week?  Or was it the most awesome thing you’ve seen in your lifetime?  Let us know how you feel in the comments below? (President Newt?)

Especially take note of the moderators face at the end of the clip.  She might be Newt’s next wife. (I’m pretty sure he impressed her)