# Florida GOP Primary 01/31/2012 **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [January 22, 2012, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/florida-gop-primary-01-31-2012/610272 "2012-01-22T03:26:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2012, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/florida-gop-primary-01-31-2012/610272/121 "2012-02-02T16:12:48Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > You don’t think that’s what Romney had in mind when making the statement in the first place? I understand what he was saying. I think a more grounded politician would have made the same point without saying he wasn’t concerned about people who were very poor and placing the very poor on the same plane as the very rich. I don’t think it’s difficult for anyone to hammer Romney on this and it doesn’t “play into his hands.” You say the middle class does need help and you’ll do it with these programs, and the poor face serious hardships - while Republicans are talking about raising their taxes and cutting their benefits. ---
**Author:** ![a35362](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3da27b/32.png) [@a35362](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/a35362)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2012, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/florida-gop-primary-01-31-2012/610272/122 "2012-02-02T16:28:47Z")
> [@Evil\_Captor](#): > > …If the Democratic Party had the LEAST amount of brains they’d get one of their moneybags to siphon a few millions into Newt’s PAC so he can fight Romney more effectively. But … they don’t. A cunning plan, surely. But the Dems don’t have THAT much money. And that kind of game-playing is really cynical; you’d want to make sure your money guy had NO relationship with Obama whatsoever. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2012, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/florida-gop-primary-01-31-2012/610272/123 "2012-02-02T22:50:23Z")
> [@a35362](#): > > A cunning plan, surely. But the Dems don’t have THAT much money. Obama’s supposed to be raising a billion for the election. That’s a lot of money. You could drop, say, $30 mil to Newt and hardly notice it. > [@](#): > > And that kind of game-playing is really cynical; you’d want to make sure your money guy had NO relationship with Obama whatsoever. This is politics, cynicism is coin of the realm. And true, you’d have to handle the money very carefully. ---
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2012, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/florida-gop-primary-01-31-2012/610272/124 "2012-02-02T23:13:08Z")
> [@Evil\_Captor](#): > > Obama’s supposed to be raising a billion for the election. That’s a lot of money. You could drop, say, $30 mil to Newt and hardly notice it. > > This is politics, cynicism is coin of the realm. And true, you’d have to handle the money very carefully. Obama doesn’t even have to do it. Some anonymous billionaire can make loathesome unjustified attacks on Newt Gingrich that people attribute to Romney’s camp. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2012, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/florida-gop-primary-01-31-2012/610272/125 "2012-02-02T23:15:37Z")
> [@Damuri\_Ajashi](#): > > Obama doesn’t even have to do it. Some anonymous billionaire can make loathesome unjustified attacks on Newt Gingrich that people attribute to Romney’s camp. Why bother with unjustified attacks when there’s so much rich, meaty, real-life-historical material to work with? ---
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2012, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/florida-gop-primary-01-31-2012/610272/126 "2012-02-03T17:43:09Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > Yes, we were talking about evangelicals specifically- **Jas09** mentioned Southern white evangelical voters specifically. My impression is that Romney doesn’t do great with conservative voters but doesn’t do horribly, and he’s had more problems with voters who describe themselves as evangelical. Exit polls say that [Gingrich beat Romney among self-described “very conservative” voters in Florida, but it was close,](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/31/florida-exit-polls-women-abandoned-gingrich_n_1245805.html) and [they tied for the evangelical vote.](http://www.bpnews.net/BPnews.asp?ID=37084) That’s only Florida, but if it’s that close between them, then no, it’s not enough to give Gingrich a real shot. Your Florida exit poll only measures those conservatives who participated in the primary. The participation rate this year is actually lower than it was in 2008 and I think that means something. With all the outrage against Obama, I would have thought the participation rate would be significantly higher but Republicans just can’t seem to get that excited by the yahoos they party threw up on the podium. And the problem is that under national scrutiny, noone is really convinced that any of the candidates that sat out would do much better. If Newt or Santorum can make a good case for electability or that electability doesn’t matter, people will leave Romney. Say for example the economy tanks and Obama becomes unelectable. People will leave Romney in droves. Romney wants the economy to be bad enough to hurt Obama but not so bad that electability stops becoming an issue. > [@BrainGlutton](#): > > Why bother with unjustified attacks when there’s so much rich, meaty, real-life-historical material to work with? Because its the unjustified stuff that will help Newt win the primary. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2012, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/florida-gop-primary-01-31-2012/610272/127 "2012-02-11T14:49:43Z")
> [@Damuri\_Ajashi](#): > > I have no idea why this guy is backing Newt quite so much. My understanding is that Israel is a big issue for this guy but I didn’t get the impression that Newt was any more pro-Israel than any of the other Republican candidates besides Ron Paul. > > I don’t know if newt has a chance to win this but this guy Adelson probably knows a good bet when he sees one. If Newt wins, he will owe one guy and he will owe him big. If Romney wins, he will owe it to dozens of billionaire supporters. Maybe its a good bet on a risk adjusted basis. Its only 10 million dollars and at the very least he will have political capital as the guy who was willing to throw 10 million dollars behind a candidate. Noone is going to piss him off. [More on Sheldon Adelson.](http://www.thenation.com/article/166141/sheldon-adelson-and-end-american-anti-semitism) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/florida-gop-primary-01-31-2012/610272.md?page=6)