Texas governor Rick Perry announced his “strategic retreat” from the campaign trail this morning, and urged support for former rival Newt Gingrich to be the next President of the United States.
How much Perry’s endorsement will shift the balance of power in South Carolina and beyond remains to be seen, but the move will certainly be a crucial component in tonight’s GOP debate just two days before the all-important Saturday primary. Reports indicate Newt Gingrich made a personal request of the Perry camp to endorse him, and earlier this week, those efforts paid off.
If Gingrich has another strong showing at tonight’s debate, he may very well pull out a win in South Carolina, and then move into Florida with both momentum and funding that is sure to pour into his campaign coffers following such a victory.
Look for Mitt Romney to attempt to hit back hard tonight, as well as Rick Santorum to make a play for those Perry supporters as well.
As for Governor Perry – had he not rushed himself onto the campaign trail too soon following serious back surgery, he likely would have faired far better in those initial debates. Certainly his performance onstage the past month has been vastly superior to those earlier events, indicating the effects of that surgery were much diminished. Texas is, as he has so often indicated, a model by which Americans can look to in how to attract and retain business rather the regulatory beast inherent in Big Government that is currently choking the life out of the national economy.
Anybody notice that the candidates who have dropped out of the race, with one exception, have the least baggage?? Just sayin’
There isn’t going to be anyone on the Republican side that won;t have “baggage” brought out by the Obama smear team.
As Rush said today Obama has NEVER won on his own merits. He has always used the route of personal destruction to win and his campaign this year will be the mother of all smears.
He has to take the focus off his miserable record with personal attacks on whomever the Republican nominee will be
There’s a rumor that Mitch Daniels may throw his hat back in despite personal issues that forced him to decide not to run.
This is definitely going to be an interesting few months. It looks like Mitt is going to have to earn this nomination if he really wants it.
It’s all good for the party.
Newt is the best equipped to take on and verbally destroy Obama. People simply have to put his past behind them. For crying out loud – look at Obama’s baggage. Newt will go after him, birth certificate and all!
Agree. Mitt simply does not have the spine or the brain matter to outcampaign the Chicago thugmobile.
Don’t think it a game changer….think Newt’s great dehate rhetoric last Monday was the game changer….probably helped with Rick’s decision, maybe along with Sarah Palin’s quip that she’d vote for Newt (not really endorsing)but in order to keep it going so we can keep on vetting and finding out as much as possible so we won’t have some surprise in October that would harm our chances. I really like Santorum over Newt, but Newt does have that passion and “right words” many times that are really good.
This thing with his ex-wife is not surprising to most of us – old news and he’s admitted most of it all before. Doesn’t mean he hasn’t changed since then and/or would affect his job as President. All I know is we must all unite and vote for whoever our nominee is.
Rick Perry is honorable. I haven’t always agreed with him – especially not on Gardasil, which made my blood boil. However, he apologized for that, saying it was a mistake. Perry is a man who knows how to repent – and that is a respectworthy quality.
Newt, also, knows how to repent. So far, I’ve never heard Mitt say anything but how perfect he is. (And his hair certainly proves it!) Mac Davis’ song, “Oh Lord, it’s Hard to be Humble” must be Mitt’s personal theme song, much as “Stand” is Comrade Odumbo’s personal vengeance-song.
Perry made some notable and valuable points about the Idiot in Chief, and he has my respect for those, too.
This was done for one reason (well 2 really). To prevent Mitt from winning SC and to extend the nomination process so Newt can continue to do dumb things and damage the party. Kind of like what Howard Dean did in 2004 for the Democrats. Some DC insider is behind this, I am willing to bet he was either threatened or bribed to drop out before the primary. I’m betting threatened, this is just too damn weird.
It is not a game changer when someone who is polling at less than 5% in the next state primary decides he has no path to victory and that it’s time to cut the purse strings and go home.
It seems that ABC’s attack on Newt backfired and may have dampened Santorum’s and Romney’s attacks on Gingrich tonight. They seem to have been hesitant to attack him after he wiped the floor with John King on the opening question. The tacky attacks are starting to rub the public in the way and they are beginning to blame the messenger. These attacks have been tried before and now fall a little short of the target if they are trying to take out Newt. He says he has confessed to the only authority that matters and has reconciled his sins with God. Evangelicals will respond to that argument. All in all it wasn’t a terrible day for Newt…
Perry already decided to quit after New Hampshire. Remember his statement about going home to consider if the campaign can continue? Then, soon as Bachmann quit, he made a sudden 180.
Presumably, this was because he had been widely interpreted as stealing her thunder and was hoping her supporters would flock his way. When that didn’t happen, he realised there wasn’t much of a chance and has put his support behind the ‘Not Romney’ who hasn’t made as many statements ripe for exploitation by the White House as Santorum has.
With that said, Perry was only tagging votes in the very lowest percentages. However, that might be enough to cement his lead over Santorum, which is, right now, what matters. When it gets to a point where it’s just Romney against Gingrich, that’s when things change.
Also should point out that Perry had the funds to go ahead if he wanted to. His financial backers might now have been sent the Gingrich campaign’s way, which is a far more important advantage.
@ UM: Talk about “Game Changer” Look at what is in the news now on F&F~~
….and as Ed Morrissey just atated in Hot Air, F&F is now going “prime time” due to one of the top Fed Attys in AZ taking the Fifth thus refusing to to go before Issa’s committee to testify. Also Morrissey stated in Cunningham’s letter, Cunningham stated DoJ is telling lies to the Congressional committee on this F&F.
http://hotair.com/archives/2012/01/20/doj-figure-taking-the-5th-in-fast-furious-probe/
well, what’s with “strategic retreat,” and “suspending” the campaign? Is he thinking he could just “drop” back in at some point?