It’s the big day!

As the Nevada caucuses get underway, Romney supporters are revved up and ready to vote in the first GOP contest in the WEST. Marking the fifth competition in the 2012 primary race, the NV GOP Party is hosting and caucuses are only open to registered Republicans.

With 28 delegates at stake, caucusing begins at various times across the state but most will happen between 9 AM and 3 PM Pacific Time. A 7 PM caucus will be held in Clark County to accommodate those who can’t participate in the day due to religious reasons.

Mitt Romney is polling very well in the Silver State (poll taken Feb 2, 2012):

Governor Romney made a quick campaign trip today to Colorado Springs to host an event at Springs Fabrication. He’ll be back in Nevada tonight to host a primary rally at the Summerlin Ballroom in the Red Rock Casino Resort and Spa in Las Vegas.

CNN is planning extensive coverage; read more here.

CNN livefeed possibilities may be found here and here.

For those interested in FOX News, Bret Baier will host a campaign edition of Special Report at 10 PM ET. A possible livefeed for FOX coverage may be found here.

C-Span Schedule:
10:40 PM ET LIVE Road to The White House Newt Gingrich, NV Republican Caucus
10 PM ET Venetian/Palazzo Congress Center, Las Vegas, NV

11:00 PM ET LIVE Road to The White House Mitt Romney, NV Republican Caucus
Red Rock Casino Resort and Spa, Las Vegas, NV

The following Twitter info has been posted on our chat box for a couple of days; it bears posting here:

Note: According to an email sent to reporters this morning, Newt Gingrich is foregoing the usual election night party tonight. Instead, he has scheduled a press conference. It was reported yesterday that Newt didn’t conduct his usual full schedule of events but spent time on the phone trying to raise money. He also met with his Super PAC sweethearts, Sheldon and Miriam Adelson. Now, speculation is circulating about the purpose of the presser. By the way, his presser will be held in the Venetian hotel (run by Sheldon Adelson). Given Newt’s recent marveling about Donald Trump’s ability to create a media event (when Trump endorsed Romney), it looks like Gingrich is attempting to do the same.

Romney supporters are invited to join us on our chat box for caucus results.

Go Mitt!

► Jayde Wyatt

~Addendum from Ross
Despite the NVGOP stopping caucus results from leaking early, this is still the only situation that anyone will beat Mitt tonight.

Ahead of Nevada’s exciting caucuses today, former New Hampshire Gov. John Sununu and two Nevada Congressmen, Mark Amodei and Joe Heck, held a press conference call yesterday for Mitt Romney. The topic? Newt Gingrich Is An Unreliable Leader For Nevada.

To listen to audio of the entire call click here.

Highlights:

Gov John Sununu

Fmr NH Gov John Sununu

“Good afternoon. I guess it’s just about afternoon there too. So thank you all for joining us. I’m strongly supporting Governor Mitt Romney for president. I have a slight bias toward governors and former governors because they, I think, bring some experience of managing bureaucracies to the table and I think dealing with the legislative bodies in order to get what is often necessary, bipartisanship that is necessary to get legislation. I call it the ‘Ronald Reagan formula.’ I think Ronald Reagan was a great president because he had tremendous experience as Governor of California.

But beyond that, I am extremely concerned that Newt Gingrich, who is now the likely competitor in this primary process to Mitt Romney, is absolutely unreliable and frankly, from my direct experience, is untrustworthy. I’ve had to deal with the former Speaker Gingrich when I was chief of staff for the first President Bush and I found out that what Newt Gingrich would tell you in the morning he would probably change in the evening. Al Simpson put it very clearly in an interview with the Boston Globe; Newt Gingrich lied to the President of the United States. Peter King, current Congressman King, has made it clear that he doesn’t trust anything Newt Gingrich says. Senator Coburn from Oklahoma, former Congressman Susan Molinari, former Congressman Mickey Edwards, former Congressman Vin Weber, all these folks were part of his leadership team. And each one of them has, in their own way, has explained why they feel he is unreliable, both in terms of being erratic, both in terms of changing his mind on issues, both in terms of coming up with a contradictory idea the next day and finding him very incapable for staying focused on issues. Gingrich likes to talk about his big ideas. When Newt Gingrich talks about big ideas, I take ‘big’ as being a synonym for cockamamie because half the stuff he comes up with is unrealistic and undoable at a time when we’re dealing with huge budget deficits, when we are expressing concerns about $15 trillion, $16 trillion debt. He is talking about a trillion dollar program to go to the moon. There are appropriate times to have ideas that are new and different. This is not a time to spend a billion dollars going to the moon. Most of the ideas he has are designed to be self-aggrandizing. This is a man who cares more about his ego than he does about anything worthwhile for the country. And I am absolutely scared to death if someone says to me that this is a man who might win the nomination to run against Barack Obama.

I do want to touch on one item that former Speaker Gingrich raised at one of his meetings today. He played a video attacking Mitt Romney on the basis of a chance comment that Soros made in an interview. Soros was talking about people running for president and Soros suggested the similarity between Mitt Romney and the current incumbent in the White House. If I were Newt Gingrich, I would be self-sensitive to doing something affiliated to that because it would remind people that Newt Gingrich sat cheek-to-cheek with Nancy Pelosi in an ad that was funded by a group that Soros paid for. So in that sense, it was Soros’ money that put Gingrich on TV. And I think that is a clear definition and an underscoring of the fact that on issues like cap-and-trade, Newt Gingrich is not a conservative, certainly in throwing Paul Ryan under the bus as he did on the entitlement reform package that Paul Ryan talked about, Newt Gingrich is not a conservative, and frankly, Newt Gingrich’s principle philosophy is enhancing himself. I’ll stop there and let Joe and Mark have a few words here.”

Congressman Joe Heck

NV Rep Joe Heck

“Thanks Governor Sununu, this is Joe Heck. You know, I never worked directly with Speaker Gingrich, but I’ve heard a lot of things from former Congresswoman Barbara Vucanovich, who remains a very respected conservative leader in Nevada. And Congresswoman Vucanovich described the Speaker as too arrogant and cocky to be our nominee. And to me that says a lot. I’ve been a supporter of Governor Romney for a long time and, in fact, I may have been the first elected official to endorse this election cycle. Why am I endorsing Governor Romney? Simple, on the economy and jobs, there’s just no other candidate with Governor Romney’s economic know-how and experience in the private sector for proven leadership. And in Nevada, which has suffered more than any other state under President Obama’s failed economic policies, Nevadans are looking for a leader with a plan to grow the economy and in my opinion, that leader is Governor Mitt Romney. Mark?”

Congressman Mark Amodei

NV Rep Mark Amodei

“Thanks Joe. I’m not going to repeat anything the Governor or Joe said, but I’m going to give you two more pieces of the puzzle that I think are important, specifically in Nevada. Nevadans have been treated to the politics of division for the last three years under the Obama administration. Heck and I can tell you whether it’s in this primary, there’s a lot of people expressing a lot of respect for the Governor on how he has used a lot of restraint until recent when he basically had to come out and point out some things. But Mitt Romney has demonstrated he understands governing is a team sport, and that means bringing people together, not slicing them up for sport. That’s number one. Number two, that’s of particular importance to Nevada, especially when you’re talking about comparisons. Mitt Romney went through the presidential process four years ago and continuing from then until present, he’s got a deep team in Nevada. What that translates to, when you talk about the problems that Joe talked about, economy, jobs, resources, all those sorts of things, he’s got a deep bench in Nevada so he’s well-informed and he’s taken the time to get himself well-informed and build those networks: both north, south and rural in the state of Nevada and that makes him unique in this race.”

The American Spectator’s R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr. provides a perfect follow-up to yesterday’s conference call – specifically to Sununu’s comments:

“Exit Newt”

Read more…

Thanks to Rachel Streitfeld from CNN for posting this!

After Newt’s team confirmed to the press last night that Donald Trump was endorsing the former Speaker, news comes today that they were mistaken – the Donald is endorsing Mitt.

Say what you will about the man, he happens to influence of a good chunk of people – a chunk that we may need to have on board to beat Obama. His endorsement as well as anyone else’s should be welcome – after all, we’re building bridges with all coalitions that will support our man, not fences.

From CBS News:

Donald Trump said Thursday he’s endorsing Mitt Romney because of his position on catching up to China’s economic growth and because he believes Romney can out-debate President Obama.

“You look at what’s going on with China, you look at what’s going on with the other OPEC nations and how they are absolutely destroying this country, and he’s the only one who talks about it,” Trump told a group of reporters at an impromptu news conference in Las Vegas. “So that was very important to me. I thought he did very well in the debates, that was very important… I think if he debates that well, I don’t think Obama will fare well against him.

Romney’s campaign is expected to formally unveil the endorsement at an event at 3:30 Eastern Time.

Update: In case you’re hungry for more, here’s Trump with Cavuto immediately after the presser.

In the 24 hour news cycle, the story of the day has been Mitt’s comments to CNN in the early morning after his Florida win. While I think even the most ardent Romney fan would admit that this could and should have (and will be) phrased more adeptly, the liberals have taken and run with the partial quote that he’s “not concerned with the very poor” … It looks worse in print that in the context of the interview:

Mitt cares deeply about the poor, and his actions speak louder than words. How many “journalists” have bothered to mention that Mitt has given over $7,000,000 (SEVEN FREAKING MILLION!) to charitable organizations in just the last two years? Records from before then show the Romney’s consistent giving millions upon millions to organizations that care for the poor. By contrast, Joe Biden gave only $3690 to charity in an entire decade … that’s PROOF of someone that doesn’t care about the poor. From 2001-4, the Obamas made nearly a million dollars, but donated LESS THAN 1% of that income to charity.

Or what about when Mitt gave cash out of his pocket to the lady in South Carolina who said God guided her to follow Romney’s campaign bus to find help to keep her lights on? The EXACT SAME CNN REPORTER (Soledad) even reported about that a couple of weeks ago … does she have no memory?

Mitt doesn’t care about poor people? Demonstrably false and easy to debunk (and this is without even delving into fact that Mitt, as a Mormon Bishop for several years, dedicated much of his time to caring for the poor in a very “hands on” fashion). If Obama and team push this theme it will come back to bite them. Mitt’s done more to care for the poor than any snarky reporter or any of his political rivals.

Recall Vic’s post from a couple days back that highlighted Romney’s life of service and included the following YouTube:

Additionally, Brit Hume on Fox News today adroitly argued that anyone who wants to “make hay” or be offended by this out-of-context quote wouldn’t be voting for a GOP candidate anyways. I’d have to agree.

Romney’s wife wows crowd at Hispanic conference (link)

Before Feliciano Ramirez heard Mitt Romney speak today, he was all-but certain he was going to vote for Newt Gingrich.

“He can really debate Obama on all of the issues because he’s a Washington insider,” Ramirez said, echoing the sentiments of many recent converts to the Gingrich camp.

However, after hearing the two candidates deliver back-to-back speeches at the Hispanic Leadership Network, Ramirez’s vote in Tuesday’s GOP primary wasn’t so certain.

“I’m going to have to pray on it,” he said with a laugh after the Massachusetts governor gave a rousing speech to roughly 500 Latin American leaders.

And, he said, it wasn’t just Romney’s enthusiastic rhetoric or Gingrich’s more professorial speech. Ramirez said he was impressed with the candidate’s wife, Ann.

Read more…

What relevance does this photograph have to what I have written below? Nothing. I include it here because 1) I love photography, 2) Every photograph tells a story and I like this story, and 3) This photograph from last year, around Christmas, is the best one I have ever found depicting the next President of the United States of America. How cool is this shot? I wish I could claim this photograph as one I had made!

What about last night’s debate? Mr. Gingrich is discovering firsthand, the cool, steely determination of executive authority. The alpha male of the Republican presidential candidates is clearly Governor Romney.

What we witnessed last night is called “command.” Governor Romney possess leadership command. Need I write more?

And Gingrich? How long must Americans continue to provide a forum for an undisciplined, pompous, chest-beating, name-dropping Washington insider to pontificate? Do Americans really want a President that has spent the last half of his life in self-promotion and self-love — who is still “maturing?” The two million dollar “historian?” Someone who might awaken the day after his coronation as President and decide to build an island in the Atlantic ocean so he can claim a 51st state for his legacy?

Contrast Mr. Gingrich with Governor Romney. Until this week, Governor Romney’s demeanor has been that of a confident, but modest gentleman — secure in the confidence that comes from decades of extraordinary accomplishments in leadership — beholden to no one. Some have mentioned to me that his style has been humble; a possible reference to his Christian upbringing in which the virtue of humility is considered above almost all other human character traits. “Well, let me tell you this” (to quote Newt). Governor Romney had enough of the Gingrich “baloney” last night and decided to put Mr. Humpty Dumpty in his place. One of the best examples of that moral authority was Governor Romney’s response to Gingrich’s immigration attack — Gingrich appeared to cower, afraid to even glance in the direction of Romney as he pierced him with one dagger after the next (Governor Romney’s height advantage helps too).

Why does Gingrich keep whining about “attack ads?” This week Gingrich has begun to flail. He does not want to take on a defensive posture, so he jabs at the wind with his weak, empty attacks, resorting to personal labels such as “Liar!”, “Wrong!”, “Desperate!”, etc. (complete irony). Governor Romney’s message is meant to resonate with Americans who are thoughtful; thinking.

Gingrich’s message is directed to the lowest common denominator; those that will believe anything he says or to those that want to believe the pander (lunar colony). Hence, if he says that Governor Romney voted for a Democrat, it is like Pharaoh Ramses declaring, “Let it be written! Let it be done!” All are to then fall in line behind Gingrich. Why can he not just answer to truth?

He demanded that Governor Romney release his taxes. Done. Romney demanded that Gingrich release all the secret files supporting his ethics sanctions. Deflection. Everything about Gingrich is deflection. Even when he has no good answer in the debate, he talks by complimenting the competitors – deflection by flattery! Gingrich is a master of the cunning. You can even see it in his countenance.

Pre-Iowa, the PACs promoting Congressman Paul and Governor Romney were generous with Gingrich by letting up when Gingrich tanked after a few days of truth letting (revealing a mere 1/100th of his laundry). Frankly, they should have flattened Gingrich right then and there to end his political career before he got a second wind to promote anti-capitalism.

If Gingrich were to leave the race today, he would best be remembered for his liberal rhetoric and the damage he exacted on the Republican Party. He feigns surprise as more truth is revealed. It is no fluke that just about every staunch conservative is coming out against Gingrich, except the entertainers (Limbaugh / Hannity — those who profit most by liberals in the saddle).

AN ASIDE — DEBATE TRIVA: Did any of you notice some subtle details from the debate? As Blitzer announced the names of each candidate, only one candidate clapped each time: Governor Romney. Two candidates sang the Anthem: Senator Santorum and Governor Romney. Most of the candidates often dissolve to the casual in addressing one another by first name. Governor Romney almost always refers to the others with the respect they deserve by their mere presence in a presidential debate: “Senator Santorum, Speaker Gingrich, Congressman Paul.” Note: People often refer to Governor Romney as “the most presidential…” referring to his appearance. It is called “command presence.”

As a political hack, I have followed the details of campaigns since the Iran hostage crisis. What we have witnessed these past weeks in presidential politics in unprecedented. I saw part of an interview on O’Reilly last night with Ann Coulter that I think summarized what has seemed absolutely clear to me for months. O’Reilly was pressing her to opine as to why the avalanche of major conservatives pummeling Gingrich. My quoting her probably is imperfect, but in effect she said, “I think it is because they are seeing that Romney is running as a moderate and will probably govern as a conservative. Gingrich is talking like a conservative, but may govern as a liberal . . . “ She said Gingrich might wake up one day and decide he was serious about a lunar colony while the debt keeps escalating!

We probably posted to this Ann Coulter article already, but I love this paragraph from her article yesterday titled, RE-ELECT OBAMA: VOTE NEWT! (a must read)

Gingrich may have spent his entire life in Washington and be so much of an insider that, as Jon Stewart says, “when Washington gets its prostate checked, it tickles [Newt],” but he is deemed the rebellious outsider challenging “the Establishment” — because, again, “the Establishment” is anyone who opposes Newt.

And this:
Read more…

Normally I do a report card for the candidate’s debate performances, but as this race has progressed I think we’re to the point that we can begin looking at the thesis statements of these candidates and ask them to defend it, rather than looking for how skillfully they regurgitate talking points. If I had to declare a winner I would not hesitate to say Mitt Romney ran away with this one, but I think it was a good night for other candidates for reasons I’ll outline below.

Rick Santorum

Rick Santorum really made an effort to stand out from the pack tonight. His language was fiery, his voice was strong and he sounded like he was speaking with conviction, however overall I think Rick’s problem is he loses his audience about half way through what he is saying. He starts to drone on and on and the intensity in his voice starts to wane as he thinks of different ways to make his point. Someone should tell him that you have the time, but you don’t have to take all of it if you’ve said what you need to say.

Where Rick sounds good is on his firm stances regarding foreign policy. While I don’t personally agree with some of his tough talk, you don’t get the sense that he is someone that would run from a fight when push came to shove. Unfortunately, as he demonstrated tonight, his resolution to stand his ground becomes a weakness when he doesn’t have all the facts straight but insists that they are actually fact.

To Santorum’s credit, he has no problem calling it like he sees it and will firmly defend his position until his last breath. Unfortunately, when you’re wrong, that makes you really wrong.

Ron Paul

I thought Ron Paul actually had a really good night. He was funny, n point (mostly) and showed us a little more playful side of himself which generally makes him more endearing.

One thing I have heard repeated when discussing Ron Paul’s debate performances is that no matter what question you ask him, his answers will be the same. It’s as if each minute he is given will be his last so he tries to cram as much into that minute as he possibly can. I don’t really blame him, prior to the last few debates it was clear that he was not being given his “fair share” of questions.

Where Ron Paul did well tonight was in scaling back his sense of urgency in his responses and making them pertinent to the questions he was asked. He didn’t do this perfectly but it did appear that he was making the effort. Specifically I think Paul did a great job taking advantage of the Freddie & Fannie back and forth by asserting that he warned of this problem years ago when no one else was paying attention. It gave him some credibility I think he both needs and deserves.

Do I think Ron Paul is going to run away with this thing? Absolutely not, but would we be wise to pay him more respect than we do? Without a doubt.

Mitt Romney

The clear winner tonight was Mitt. He had a strong showing Monday night when he cornered Newt on his ties to Freddie and Fannie and neutralized his abilities to deflect and redirect. CNN knew how to get the brawl going and allowed Mitt the opportunity to respond to Newt’s allegation that he was “the most anti-immigration candidate”. Willfully taking the bait Mitt turned on Newt and immediately put him on the defensive. It was particularly interesting because this is something Newt likes to be able to do to his opponents first.

It didn’t stop there. Gingrich, in an attempt to regain the upper hand, went after Romney for having stocks in Freddie and Fannie. Mitt quietly waited for Newt to finish and responded by taking Newt back to school. He explained that it was a blind trust, that investments had been diversified and that he didn’t own any stocks. Mitt could have taken it a step further by saying anyone with a 401K will find they have similar investments but he stopped short. Romney was clear, precise and carried a tinge of condescension no doubt giving the speaker a taste of his own medicine. “We don’t have a problem with 11 million illegal grandma’s” and “we needed a whistle blower not a horn tooter” will no doubt become social media gold in a myriad of creative ways.

Romney also said something tonight I thought was very important, and it is something none of the other candidates are saying. Romney mentioned that while unemployment in Florida is above 9%, the real unemployment numbers are at around 18%. He is rejecting the narrative of the media that the economy is getting better and is refusing to do anything but make Barrack Obama own the failures of his “wing-it” presidency and lack of leadership. By subduing Newt and making it about Obama, Romney has cemented himself as the only real contender for the presidency.

Newt Gingrich

It’s been a bad couple of debates for Newt. After getting it handed to him Monday night, Newt made the rounds on tv and radio saying things about Romney that he was unable to defend tonight when confronted with them. He made a few attempts early on to take Mitt back down a notch and not let him get the upper hand, but was unsuccessful.

After being handled by Mitt, Newt (perhaps in an act of self-preservation) became much less combative and began deferring to just about everyone else on the stage. There was little that really strengthened his case for being the most conservative. In fact, his advocacy for the lunar colony was shot down by every other candidate as being too expensive and a totally misplaced priority.

While I respect all the candidates who are and have been in this race, I think the time for games and petty politics is over. The sooner we can declare our nominee the sooner the republican party can put itself back together and hopefully present a united front against the 1 Billion dollar Obama smear machine that will be seeking to destroy us. Romney is absolutely right; this fight is for the soul of America. Will we be a European style socialist state, or will we restore America to her former glory? For those of us who support Mitt Romney, the choice has been clear for quite some time.

This open letter from Bob Dole comes as many conservatives feel this is their last chance to speak their mind on creature of Washington that is Newt Gingrich.

Read it, comment on it, and share it far and wide in hopes that it will prompt a decision among the undecided:

I have not been critical of Newt Gingrich but it is now time to take a stand before it is too late. If Gingrich is the nominee it will have an adverse impact on Republican candidates running for county, state, and federal offices. Hardly anyone who served with Newt in Congress has endorsed him and that fact speaks for itself. He was a one-man-band who rarely took advice. It was his way or the highway.

Gingrich served as Speaker from 1995 to 1999 and had trouble within his own party. Already in 1997 a number of House members wanted to throw him out as Speaker. But he hung on until after the 1998 elections when the writing was on the wall. His mounting ethics problems caused him to resign in early 1999. I know whereof I speak as I helped establish a line of credit of $150,000 to help Newt pay off the fine for his ethics violations. In the end, he paid the fine with money from other sources.

Gingrich had a new idea every minute and most of them were off the wall. He loved picking a fight with Bill Clinton because he knew this would get the attention of the press. This and a myriad of other specifics helped to topple Gingrich in 1998.

In my run for the presidency in 1996 the Democrats greeted me with a number of negative TV ads and in every one of them Newt was in the ad. He was very unpopular and I am not only certain that this did not help me, but that it also cost House seats that year. Newt would show up at the campaign headquarters with an empty ice-bucket in his hand—that was a symbol of some sort for him—and I never did know what he was doing or why he was doing it.

In my opinion if we want to avoid an Obama landslide in November, Republicans should nominate Governor Romney as our standard bearer. He has the requisite experience in the public and private sectors. He would be a president we could have confidence in.

Great video of Ann Coulter discussing Newt Gingrich and the South Carolina primary. Check it out:

When I listen to Gingrich in his debate performances, and I do mean “performances,” his answers always seem reminiscent of the Shakespeare line, “full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.”

I, for one, was very confused and dumbfounded about the whole “standing ovation” thing that Newt accomplished in South Carolina. I truly felt that Gingrich’s answers weren’t that amazing. In fact, the answers were really quite average if you take just a moment to think about what he said. Often Newt dodged the question rather than answered it. Or he resorted to giving snarky, glib retorts rather than having a grown-up conversation about the issues. Hopefully Republican voters in Florida will see that many of Newt’s “great debate performances” are really just dodging the question in order to distract from his genuine flaws.