# Gingrich, We Hardly Knew Ye. . **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [June 9, 2011, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gingrich-we-hardly-knew-ye/584898 "2011-06-09T19:14:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 12
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2011, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gingrich-we-hardly-knew-ye/584898/222 "2011-12-25T03:36:43Z")
> [@Lobohan](#): > > What’s your cat’s position on gay marriage? Whatever you want it to be! I’m thinking of renaming her to ‘Romney’. ---
**Author:** ![squeegee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/squeegee/32/14537_2.png) [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2011, 5:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gingrich-we-hardly-knew-ye/584898/223 "2011-12-25T05:49:03Z")
Dumb question, but who besides Rommeister _did_ qualify to be on the ballot in VA? The news feeds are all about Newt, I’m having trouble gathering this tidbit. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2011, 6:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gingrich-we-hardly-knew-ye/584898/224 "2011-12-25T06:03:49Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > Like Newt Gingrich at a buffet, **Snowboarder Bo** will be here all week, folks. Oh, I’ll be here a lot longer than that. 😃 I’ll bet I’m here long after Newt is just a hazy memory 'round these parts. ---
**Author:** ![MsWhatsit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eb8c5e/32.png) [@MsWhatsit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsWhatsit)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2011, 6:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gingrich-we-hardly-knew-ye/584898/225 "2011-12-25T06:15:35Z")
> [@squeegee](#): > > Dumb question, but who besides Rommeister _did_ qualify to be on the ballot in VA? The news feeds are all about Newt, I’m having trouble gathering this tidbit. Romney and Paul. Four candidates submitted signatures; two were DQed. (Perry and Gingrich.) Edit: I believe that none of the other candidates even bothered to submit signatures, although as you say, it’s sort of hard to figure this out from the extremely shitty news reporting on this topic. ---
**Author:** ![Rhythmdvl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2011, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gingrich-we-hardly-knew-ye/584898/226 "2011-12-25T16:06:10Z")
> [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#): > > I like how he’s blaming the system for his failure. > > That’s exactly the kind of guy I want in the White House. > > :rolleyes: Not just the system–the_Japanese_! > [@](#): > > [“Newt and I agreed that the analogy is December 1941,” campaign director Michael Krull said in a message posted to Facebook. “We have experienced an unexpected set-back, but we will re-group and re-focus with increased determination, commitment and positive action. Throughout the next months there will be ups and downs; there will be successes and failures; there will be easy victories and difficult days - but in the end we will stand victorious.”](http://2012.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/12/newt-failing-to-get-on-virginia-ballot-is-our-pearl-harbor.php?ref=fpa) If not them, I wonder who he is suggesting was behind the sneak ‘attack’? ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2011, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gingrich-we-hardly-knew-ye/584898/227 "2011-12-25T18:42:53Z")
> [@MsWhatsit](#): > > Romney and Paul. Four candidates submitted signatures; two were DQed. (Perry and Gingrich.) Edit: I believe that none of the other candidates even bothered to submit signatures, although as you say, it’s sort of hard to figure this out from the extremely shitty news reporting on this topic. Not overly. New York Post says it straight out. > **[No Newt on Va. ballot](https://nypost.com/2011/12/25/no-newt-on-va-ballot/)** > > The state that brags of being the birthplace of eight commanders-in-chief is making it difficult even for major presidential candidates to get on the ballot. Newt Gingrich — who leads the polls in … > [@](#): > > Newt Gingrich — who leads the polls in Virginia — can’t get on the Old Dominion’s Super Tuesday ballot because he failed to collect the required 10,000 signatures from registered voters, the state’s Republican Party announced yesterday. > > Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s bid to get on the ballot was rejected Friday. > Michele Bachmann, Rick Santorum and Jon Huntsman didn’t bother submitting petitions before the Friday deadline. > > The only candidates now expected to appear on the ballot are Mitt Romney and Ron Paul. Basically, these are the ballot access requirements in Virginia to appear on the primary: 1. 10,000 petition signatures statewide 2. At least 400 from each congressional district 3. Petition circulators must be registered or eligible to vote in Virginia 4. Signatures must be gathered using the Board of Elections form, or a doublesided reproduction (single sided stapled forms are not accepted) 5. Forms are specific to city, county, and congressional district 6. Only qualified voters may sign a petition 7. Every petition has to be sworn and notarized. In short, Virginia has some pretty strenuous ballot access laws. From Ashby Law’s description: [http://www.ashby-law.com/better-things-to-do/](http://www.ashby-law.com/better-things-to-do/) They also point out this: > [@](#): > > And then there’s the Republican Party of Virginia, which is tasked by law with the responsibility of certifying which candidates have qualified for primary ballot access. RPV has effectively raised the statutory requirement of 10,000/400 by a factor of 50% this year by offering this safe harbor: The Party first will conduct a facial review of all petitions, and candidates who submit at least 15,000 signatures and 600 from each congressional district will be presumed to have met the statutory 10,000/400 requirement. Candidates who submit 14,999 or fewer, however, will undergo signature-by-signature scrutiny of his or her petitions—something no statewide candidate in recent memory ever has had to endure. ---
**Author:** ![a35362](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3da27b/32.png) [@a35362](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/a35362)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2011, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gingrich-we-hardly-knew-ye/584898/228 "2011-12-25T18:51:06Z")
Does “qualified voters” mean people who might be eligible to vote in VA, even if they’re not actually registered to vote? And how do they check this as they’re collecting the signatures? 😕 ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2011, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gingrich-we-hardly-knew-ye/584898/229 "2011-12-25T19:10:25Z")
It looks like it means “registered to vote in Virginia”. And they check it by asking “Are you registered to vote in Virginia”, I’d imagine. Regarding Perry, according to one person: > [@](#): > > The source said more than 1,000 of Perry’s 11,911 signatures were automatically invalid because the sheets they were turned in on had not been notarized, a requirement set forth by the Virginia Board of Elections. Furthermore the source said the campaign also did not follow ‘simple’ rules such using double-sided petition sheets or correctly licensed notaries. [http://campaign2012.washingtonexaminer.com/blogs/beltway-confidential/perrys-va-ballot-hopes-were-dead-arrival/274906](http://campaign2012.washingtonexaminer.com/blogs/beltway-confidential/perrys-va-ballot-hopes-were-dead-arrival/274906) Here’s a bulletin from the Board of Elections regarding gathering signatures. [http://www.sbe.virginia.gov/cms/documents/Cidates/Bulletins/20120306PrimaryBulletin.pdf](http://www.sbe.virginia.gov/cms/documents/Cidates/Bulletins/20120306PrimaryBulletin.pdf) > [@](#): > > Must be signed by not less than 10,000 qualified voters in Virginia, including at least 400 qualified voters from each of Virginia’s eleven congressional districts, who attest that they intend to participate in the primary of the same political party as the candidate named on the petition. > > Because many people who are not registered to vote will sign a petition, it is recommended that 15,000 - 20,000 signatures be obtained with at least 700 signatures from each congressional district. ---
**Author:** ![Rhythmdvl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2011, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gingrich-we-hardly-knew-ye/584898/230 "2011-12-25T20:01:31Z")
What I really want in a leader is someone who recognizes that laws aren’t important and should be circumvented or put aside when the leader really really wants something. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2011, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gingrich-we-hardly-knew-ye/584898/231 "2011-12-25T20:41:33Z")
> [@Rhythmdvl](#): > > What I really want in a leader is someone who recognizes that laws aren’t important and should be circumvented or put aside when the leader really really wants something. I bet you were happy from 2001-2009 then. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2011, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gingrich-we-hardly-knew-ye/584898/232 "2011-12-25T20:55:48Z")
> [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#): > > I’ll bet I’m here long after Newt is just a hazy memory 'round these parts. You _were_. But that was a couple of months ago. ---
**Author:** ![Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/try2b_comprehensive/32/65_2.png) [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Try2B_Comprehensive)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2011, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gingrich-we-hardly-knew-ye/584898/233 "2011-12-25T21:09:24Z")
Newt should’ve hired a community organizer. ---
**Author:** ![InterestedObserver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/838e76/32.png) [@InterestedObserver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/InterestedObserver)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2011, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gingrich-we-hardly-knew-ye/584898/234 "2011-12-26T01:27:44Z")
> [@Boyo\_Jim](#): > > Be still my heart – could my Republican dream ticket of Paul-Palin happen? As a progressive Independent Obama supporter, that’s MY dream too. A very wet one. 😃 As I see it to date, Romney is the ONLY candidate who stands a chance (albeit still a remote one) of besting Obama. Which is why the Obama team has been focusing on him from day one; not “fear” of him, they simply know what the GOP strategists do…he is going to be the nominee (and even if not, by some fluke, he is the only one to beat…the others will self-destruct). I mean, the GOP party elite have been wringing their hands over the (and I quote)“train-wreck” that is Gingrich. They will do everything in their power to prevent him from representing their party in 2012. The Right is effectively SPLIT, with the moderate mainstream majority of the base rejecting the extremists and the Tea Party, lunatic fringe rejecting anyone slightly left of Hitler. Let’s throw Trump in as a third-party candidate and let the bloodbath ensue. 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2011, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gingrich-we-hardly-knew-ye/584898/235 "2011-12-26T01:37:47Z")
That Hitler guy was a socialist! He had labor camps to guarantee full employment! And free medical care, complete with Death Panels. What a pussy. ---
**Author:** ![China\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/779978/32.png) [@China\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/China_Guy)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2011, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gingrich-we-hardly-knew-ye/584898/236 "2011-12-26T01:42:43Z")
> [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](#): > > Newt should’ve hired a community organizer. oh, the irony, it burns 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/try2b_comprehensive/32/65_2.png) [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Try2B_Comprehensive)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2011, 7:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gingrich-we-hardly-knew-ye/584898/237 "2011-12-26T07:10:53Z")
> [@China\_Guy](#): > > oh, the irony, it burns 😃 I am glad you liked that one 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Ca3799](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9f8e36/32.png) [@Ca3799](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ca3799)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2011, 11:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gingrich-we-hardly-knew-ye/584898/238 "2011-12-26T11:52:53Z")
Looking here: [2012 Republican Party presidential primaries - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republican_Party_presidential_primaries,_2012), it seems Virginia is worth 50 delegates. Won’t Gingrich (and Perry, I guess) have a hard time winning the primary if he’s heading in 50 votes in the negative? Did he not find this a significant concern? ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2011, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gingrich-we-hardly-knew-ye/584898/239 "2011-12-26T13:10:09Z")
> [@Ca3799](#): > > Looking here: [2012 Republican Party presidential primaries - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republican_Party_presidential_primaries,_2012), it seems Virginia is worth 50 delegates. Won’t Gingrich (and Perry, I guess) have a hard time winning the primary if he’s heading in 50 votes in the negative? Did he not find this a significant concern? I think you mean “a hard time winning the _nomination_,” since Gingrich and Perry now have zero chance of winning the Virginia _primary_ with its 50 delegates, out of roughly 2,400 delegates chosen by state party primaries and caucuses. It certainly doesn’t help Gingrich or Perry, should their campaigns last that long, to lose those 50 delegates, but it’s not exactly an insurmountable obstacle, should there be a sudden groundswell of support for either of them. The sort of requirements the Virginia GOP put on getting on the ballot put a premium on having a viable campaign organization. Gingrich really hasn’t had much of a campaign organization, and Perry’s basically made a decision to toss all his resources into Iowa, figuring that if he doesn’t do well there, his chances of breaking through later are minimal. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2011, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gingrich-we-hardly-knew-ye/584898/240 "2011-12-27T16:58:17Z")
Apparently Newt was for Mitt Romney’s healthcare law before he was against it! [ > [@](#): > > In an April 2006 memo, the former House speaker called it “the most exciting development of the past few weeks.” Gingrich also said the law has “tremendous potential to effect major change in the American health system.” > [@](#): > > Gingrich went on to note that that “we agree entirely with Gov. Romney and Massachusetts legislators that our goal should be 100 percent insurance coverage for all Americans.” ]([http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US\_GINGRICH?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2011-12-27-11-47-43](http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_GINGRICH?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2011-12-27-11-47-43)) I’m thinking that for the yucks factor, a Gingrich-Cain ticket would be amazing. Mind you, not as much fun as a Palin-Bachmann ticket would be, but still worth the price of admission. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2011, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gingrich-we-hardly-knew-ye/584898/241 "2011-12-27T17:19:34Z")
> [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#): > > Apparently Newt was for Mitt Romney’s healthcare law before he was against it! I don’t find that surprising. It was a bipartisan health care law that included some significant Republican ideas until the party tacked hard to the right and everybody had to pretend they’d never supported it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gingrich-we-hardly-knew-ye/584898.md?page=11) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gingrich-we-hardly-knew-ye/584898.md?page=13)