Mr Newt Gets a Surprise Endorsement from the New Hampshire Union Leader. I assumed that NH was all locked up for Romney as he is from the next state over and has summer property in NH and has been campaigning there for 6 years now.
This is surprising news, indeed. Can Mr Newt parlay this into a win in Mitt’s back yard? Time will tell
By Meghashyam Mali – 11/27/11 06:09 AM ETGOP presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich received the endorsement of the influential editorial board of the New Hampshire Union Leader on Sunday, providing another boost to his surging campaign.
The endorsement gives the former House Speaker additional momentum after a month which has seen him vault to the top of national GOP polls.
“We are in critical need of the innovative, forward-looking strategy and positive leadership that Gingrich has shown he is capable of providing,” said the editorial by publisher Joseph W. McQuaid.
“A lot of candidates say they’re going to improve Washington. Newt Gingrich has actually done that, and in this race he offers the best shot of doing it again,” he added.
The Gingrich campaign said it was “honored to have the endorsement,” calling it “an enormous boost to our campaign,” reported NBC News.
The Union Leader endorsement is highly regarded in the early primary state. Candidates often meet with the editorial board and place great emphasis on securing its backing.
The failure to win the board’s endorsement may be a setback for former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney’s campaign which has struggled to win support from Tea party-affiliated voters and the right-wing of the GOP base.
Drew Cline, editorial page editor for the Union Leader, spoke about the board’s decision on CNN Sunday morning. Cline said that the board’s “two favorites were probably Perry, Gingrich.”
He added that the board, which failed to endorse Romney in 2008 as well gave “every candidate serious consideration.”
However explaining his view on the difference between the two candidates, he added that “Romney’s a guy who wants to be liked, a politician who wants to be liked. Gingrich is a politician who wants to be respected.”
“I’m not sure precisely what we get out of a President Romney, who could be a very good president,” he said.
Yet despite the endorsement and Gingrich’s new lead in many national polls, Romney still holds a commanding lead in New Hampshire’s first-in-the-nation primary.
A Suffolk University/7News poll released last week showed Romney winning the support of 41 percent of likely GOP voters surveyed. Gingrich only secured 14 percent, tied with Texas Rep. Ron Paul for second place.
Another poll by the American Research Group last week showed Gingrich closing the gap in New Hampshire but still trailing Romney by 11 percent.
From the Union Leader in their own words:
This newspaper endorses Newt Gingrich in the New Hampshire Presidential Primary.
America is at a crucial crossroads. It is not going to be enough to merely replace Barack Obama next year. We are in critical need of the innovative, forward-looking strategy and positive leadership that Gingrich has shown he is capable of providing.
He did so with the Contract with America. He did it in bringing in the first Republican House in 40 years and by forging balanced budgets and even a surplus despite the political challenge of dealing with a Democratic President. A lot of candidates say they’re going to improve Washington. Newt Gingrich has actually done that, and in this race he offers the best shot of doing it again.
We sympathize with the many people we have heard from, both here and across the country, who remain unsure of their choice this close to the primary. It is understandable. Our nation is in peril, yet much of the attention has been focused on fluff, silliness and each candidate’s minor miscues.
Truth be known, many in the liberal media are belittling the Republican candidates because they don’t want any of them to be taken as a serious challenger to their man, Obama.
Readers of the Union Leader and Sunday News know that we don’t back candidates based on popularity polls or big-shot backers. We look for conservatives of courage and conviction who are independent-minded, grounded in their core beliefs about this nation and its people, and best equipped for the job.
We don’t have to agree with them on every issue. We would rather back someone with whom we may sometimes disagree than one who tells us what he thinks we want to hear.
Newt Gingrich is by no means the perfect candidate. But Republican primary voters too often make the mistake of preferring an unattainable ideal to the best candidate who is actually running. In this incredibly important election, that candidate is Newt Gingrich. He has the experience, the leadership qualities and the vision to lead this country in these trying times. He is worthy of your support on January 10.
UPDATE>>>>
The Gauntlet has been thrown down as it were:
Newt Gingrich To Obama: Let’s Debate, You Can Use Your Teleprompter
“I already said that if he wants to use a teleprompter, then it would be fine with me. It has to be fair. If you [were] to defend ObamaCare, wouldn’t you want a teleprompter?” Gingrich asked.
“Now, just for a second I’m going to go in the detour and I’ll try to explain why I’ve been and he’ll say yes. There are two reasons. The first, is ego. Can you imagine him looking in the mirror? Graduate from Columbia, Harvard Law, editor of the Law Review journal. [Against] the greatest articulator in a Democratic book?”
“How is he going to say that he’s afraid to be on the same podium as a West Georgia College student?”
SMMMMMACK! Now that is how one should go after 0bama.
