Miracles Keep Happening Every Day

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What were the odds, huh? Michele Bachmann becomes the fifth Republican presidential candidate to turn down the Donald Trump/NewsMax debate, meaning that on Dec. 27, it’s Newt Gingrich vs. Rick Santorum. This is like the Philly palooka Rocky Balboa getting a shot at Apollo Creed. And Rick’s OK with that:

“Many of my opponents jockeyed to be the first to fly up to New York and use Donald Trump for a photo op and no doubt try and secure an endorsement. But when Donald wants to moderate a debate — they refuse to attend. That’s what’s so wrong with politics today — hypocrisy. At this critical time in our nation’s history, just weeks before Iowans cast this important vote — many of the other candidates want to hide behind TV ads and mail pieces. We plan to be there front and center in person to debate Newt directly, and if it’s just the two of us, we’re fine with it.
“There’s no doubt that any of us are better than Barack Obama — however, we can’t afford to put up a person who can’t clearly articulate a vision or has a glass jaw or an unprincipled past. Donald Trump knows business and knows global markets — and we all know he’ll be able to bring in a broad audience. And let’s be honest, at least Donald Trump will have more in common with the candidates than with the vast majority of past moderators.”

Lisa Graas credits Santorum’s “moral reasoning.” I’d call it a miracle. What were the two things Santorum needed? Publicity, and a chance to show himself the equal of the front-runners.

Boom! He’s got it.

What else does he need? Money.

We’ve had miracles every day since that earthquake in Vanuatu.

UPDATE: “Perry bets the house on social conservatives.”

Yeah. Too little, too late. Iowa’s biggest evangelical leader endorsed Rick Santorum a week ago.

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66 comments

  2. Encouraging Trump is a mistake.  I understand why Newt and Santorum agreed, but the other candidates were right to say no.  Trump may do something harmful like run as a third party, why encourage him during the GOP primary process. 

    If Rick can make hay from this, good for him.  It might prove interesting like the Gingrich-Cain Lincoln Douglas debate was–but I would be exceedingly cautious about the Donald.  He is not our friend. 

  6. Gingrich and Santorum WILL have a deadly serious discussion about Iran, and both men will surely demonstrate they possess the moral and intellectual qualities necessary to deal with the Iranian regime, and deal with them once and for all.

    And Trump will surely elicit from them their views on China and OPEC.

    This is going to be a great and serious discussion of the issues.

    And those who spent time running down Trump for hosting it are going to look like assholes.

    And Trump is going to make sure they’re shown up as assholes.

  8. I kind of prefer Bachmann, but I think she made a colossally bad decision here.  However, Santorum’s a solid guy…and I’m happy he’s getting the chance to prove himself with a smaller field.  If he can stay tough, and avoid coming off as thin-skinned, this could be an unbelievable game-changer.

  9. Those that said no were brain dead.

    Just wait and watch how utterly serious Trump is going to be, he’ll be as serious as a heart attack.

    Those morons have overlooked that behind the glitz and the glamour of the casinos, of his real estate empire, of his multi-billion dollar holdings, there exists a man who loves his country and his utterly infuriated at what Obama has been doing to it.

    Romney and the establishment screwed up yet again.

  10. It was just another instance of the establishment laying down the law, and Romney tacking in accordance thereto.

    Gingrich meanwhile breezily blew off the establishment, fully understanding that Trump isn’t going to blow it.

  14. Romney’s people reached out to Bachmann and persuaded her to follow their lead, and their “lead” was in accord with the dictation of the establishment.

    The establishment doesn’t want to lose control over ALL debates, they get to select the issues, the questions, they get to make sure homoism gets 10 minutes in every domestic debate.

    WHAT IF Trump does a great job?

    Imagine if Trump gets in there, does such a great job, that the party begins to clamor for him to host MORE debates.  Then the establishment’s monopoly on issues, on moderators and on simple placement of who stands where goes up in smoke.

    Some of the people on this website and others, who delude themselves that they’re Conservative, are out there nonetheless voicing establishment talking points about Trump, about who he is, what he’s done, and they don’t even know it.

  15. Santorum was savvy to jump all over this debate, and if Trump hauls in additional viewers, it COULD, could mind you, propel Santorum in a way that nothing else ever could.

    And Santorum isn’t some intellectual slacker, he’s as well abreast as anyone else on Iran for instance.

    Gingrich might, just might, find himself with more than he anticipated.

    It will be interesting to see whether all three are merely sitting at some round table, having a lengthy conversation, or whether there will be podiums positioned in a way to assist a somewhat confrontational tet-a-tet.

  16. Trump and Gingrich are two reptiles grown from the same stump of tail… but Santorum knows Gingrich.  He was _there_.  It will be fascinating to see how their respective histories match up.

  19. Bullshit.  Trump voted for Obama in 2008 and may be a covert GOP spoiler.   I can understand Rick taking advantage of the situation, but anyone who trusts Trump is a fool. 

  20. Anyone who promotes Trump is just asking for trouble in the general election–especially if Trump decides to go third party. 

  21. Santorum has nothing to lose.  Gingrich however should stick to the Lincoln Douglas debates and leave the short fingered vulgarian out.  

  22. Trump isn’t running for President.  He just likes the publicity:  he could never give up the business of business, making the deals, funding the projects, making the ideas no one believes in but him work.  He couldn’t be out making money while running for or being President.  It was a threat designed to get attention, and it worked, didn’t it?

    Trump was never going to make a fool of himself by acting up as moderator, either.  He will have his serious business face and demeanor on – it’s another opportunity to build the Trump brand, not an SNL guest spot.

    It’s a mistake for the field to avoid this debate.  Sure, Trump has some dumb ideas on trade (because he’s never dealt with it in his business) and on China specifically, but it would provide a great opportunity for Republicans to explain the principles which should govern. He couldn’t be more hostile than most of the media moderators anyway.

    Especially for those struggling to get into the playoffs, so to speak, it’s a shot.  If it’s just Rick vs Newt, viewership may be down a bit, but Gingrich is the guy with everything to lose and nothing to gain.  If Santorum chooses to hold his feet to the fire for his record, the Gingrich honeymoon could begin to end.  And if Santorum is the David who slays Goliath the Frontrunner, he would stand to benefit the most from Newt’s return to Earth.

  25. So, have you bugged Romney’s offices, or Bachmann’s?

    But I agree there is no reason to expect Trump to act oddly in this format.  He’s no idiot – the man was in or on the verge of bankruptcy twice, and both times came back to be a billionaire again.

  27. I suspect Trump will mind his manners.

    He probably understands that if he gets saucy, either Gingrich or Santorum will probably have the testicular fortitude to shut him right down with something along the lines of “I came on here to talk to the American people, not to kiss the ass of a four times bankrupt corporate welfare queen with a dead possum on his head. So pray shut your blowhole until and unless something sensible is about to come out of it for the first time.”

  28. Yeah, it is called too big to fail.  Trump is a skilled self promoter, but a Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, Andrew Carnegie, or for that matter, a Bill Gates or Steve Jobs he aint. 

  32. It could have been ‘Who is the real Conservative?’ debate.  My 3 leaners could have duked it out.

    Wish Michele would have signed up.

  34. Yea, “vulgarian,” because with Paul, Cain and Huntsman, our whole selection process has just been the zenith of professionalism and dignity.

    And how can we possibly NOT have a member of the Liberal media interrogate our candidates.  I mean the VERY THOUGHT is an outrage.

    Far better to go with Wolf, et al. 

  35. Again with the delusion that Trump, who is ALREADY one of the most known Americans out there, is still desperately searching for name recognition.

    He’s got all the name recognition he’ll ever need and he’s savvy enough to know it.

    This was just ANOTHER example of the establishment setting the tune and Romney dancing to it.

  36. I’d be interested to see how many people get the ION Channel.  The MSM won’t give it much coverage, just like they didn’t with the Cain / Gingrich Debate.

    Perhaps we bloggers need to get the word out.

  41. I’ve been for her too, but I’m starting to realize she might have been running for Romney’s VP the whole time. It’s the only thing that explains the way she’s been running her campaign. She’s attacked everybody but Romney, when ironically if she would concentrate on knocking him out of the box, and managed to do so, she would be the main beneficiary, even now. She would be seen as the great conservative dragon slayer. I’m afraid she might be somewhat clueless when it comes to running a national campaign. Her style is too parochial, which is a shame.

  44. You are very welcome, and thank YOU for reading it, Bob!
    I hope your decision will put you on the same team as me, Stacy, Datechguy and Lisa Graas, (and hopefully the great Ladd Ehlinger Jr. too) because together we could really wreck up the narrative of the MSM, the RINO GOP snobs and the so-called “smart people” who think they have some sort of business telling us what to think, and we can wreck it up but good. 😉

  45. ION is actually the remnants of the old PAX TV, which had local outlets – often full-power – in most major markets.  They have 67 stations now.  If there’s one near you, your cable company probably carries it as basic.

  46. I think Trump is going to announce his own run at the end of the show. He’s made this contract with ION television, so what would have happened if nobody agreed to be there? As it is there’s only two. It would fit with Trump’s sense of showmanship and the absurd for him to say, “I’m hereby declaring my candidacy for President of the United States”, probably as an independent. I also think he’s going to have background sounds during this “debate”.

  50. If the rest of the field had come in, this would have been a great event for Newt.  He could have held court over Huntsman, Paul and Bachmann while the cameras and Trump tried to pretend Santorum wasn’t really there.

    Now?  Santorum HAS foreign policy cred, he HAS corruption-fighting cred, in fact, he had it before Newt ever showed up with his Contract on for America.  And he knows what Newt actually did while they were both in office. (“418 bills co-sponsored with Pelosi, Newt?  Seriously?”)

    Honestly, I’d be surprised if Newt doesn’t come down with a bad cold or something, IYKWIMAITYD

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