Gingrich Vows to Stay in GOP Primary Race and Calls for Brokered Convention
After his second place wins in both Alabama and Georgia this Tuesday night, Newt Gingrich vowed to stay in the race all the way through the Republican nomination process and called for a brokered convention if Romney fails to receive the adequate number of delegates to secure the party's nomination before then.
Which has many in the media asking why Gingrich is still staying in the race unless he's trying to make sure Mitt Romney secures the nomination, since the one person he's pulling the most votes from is Rick Santorum. Gingrich refusing to drop out has made many, myself included, wonder if his billionaire backer Sheldon Adelson is just doing his best to make sure Santorum cannot win the nomination with continuing to fund Gringrich because he does not want to see Santorum win the nomination and would rather have Romney in there if his candidate cannot win.
I guess we'll find out before long when we see if Gingrich gets out shortly despite what he said here.
Here's more from TPM -- Gingrich Calls For Open Convention Against Romney:
Addressing supporters in Alabama, Newt Gingrich made an open call for the Republican nomination to be decided by a contested convention, with Mitt Romney blocked from winning a majority of delegates.
"So you have my promise, at a time when I hope this evening we have ended any news media talk of the inevitability of their handpicked candidate. at a time when we can forget about trying to nominate a Massachusetts moderate.
"And start talking about: When the primaries are over, and it's clear no one person has won, who would do a best job of representing America, governing, and winning the election against Barack Obama."
I'm still trying to figure out whether any of these candidates who are hanging in there actually really want a brokered convention as Newt was calling for here and they are just running off of pure ego despite their slim chances of winning the nomination, or whether they're staying in the race on purpose to help Romney because they know they'll split the votes from the Evangelical Christian right base of the party and they're playing their supporters for fools. I think Gingrich is in this to make sure he raises his profile and his ability to make money later no matter what happens. His other motivations... I'd love to hear some feedback on.
I've just always assumed his motivations for getting in the race in the first place were the same as Palin pretending she was going to get in, and that's to raise the price of speaking engagements later and more time on Fox "News" pretending anyone should care what you think about much of anything.
What's astounding is that if they are staying in to help Romney, what they've managed to do in the mean time is really harm Romney by moving him so far to the right that he's going to have trouble getting elected in the general election. It all just looks like insanity to me if any of them truly care about Republicans having a chance to defeat President Obama, but maybe I'm missing something with the big picture here. I think they're actually lucky that most voters and our corporate media aren't paying as much attention to what comes out of all of their mouths on the campaign trail on a daily basis as the blogs like ours have.
I'll just finish with saying, here's to a Republican brokered convention if that's what the party really wants. I'll be sitting on the sidelines with the popcorn.
