Republican presidential candidate, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich speaks in Brunswick, Ga., Friday, March 2, 2012. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Republican presidential candidate, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich speaks in Brunswick, Ga., Friday, March 2, 2012. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Republican presidential candidate, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich poses for photos with the “Pirates of the Spanish Maine” high school sorority before a rally, Friday, March 2, 2012, in Brunswick, Ga. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Republican presidential candidate, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum speaks during a campaign stop at the Lake County Republican Party Lincoln Day Dinner, Friday, March 2, 2012, in Willoghby, Ohio. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney speaks with his wife, Ann, at a campaign rally in Cleveland, Friday, March 2, 2012. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Republican presidential candidate, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich speaks in Brunswick, Ga., Friday, March 2, 2012. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) ? The GOP presidential candidates are fighting to win over conservative voters in the Bible Belt as the race takes on a more prominent Southern focus.

After bowing out of recent contests north of the Mason-Dixon line, Newt Gingrich is staking his entire campaign on a big victory Tuesday in Georgia, where the onetime House speaker represented a suburban Atlanta district for 20 years. Rick Santorum is making inroads in Tennessee with a message that the state’s evangelical voters should feel right at home with the former Pennsylvania senator’s socially conservative views.

Both candidates hope to capitalize on Super Tuesday victories to propel their campaigns forward to Alabama and Mississippi on March 13 and to Louisiana on March 24. None of those Southern states was very hospitable to Mitt Romney during the former Massachusetts governor’s White House bid in 2008, so there’s prime recruiting ground to entice conservative voters who want an alternative to Romney.

“I fully believe that the South will be a key player,” said Joe Dendy, Republican chairman for Cobb County in metro Atlanta. “I think we’re going to see a clearer picture between Newt and Rick as to which one the South has seen as more conservative. And that’s going to play a big role in the rest of the campaign.”

With 76 delegates up for grabs, Georgia holds the biggest prize on Super Tuesday, and Gingrich spent most of the past week touring the state by bus. Still, a victory largely would be seen as meeting expectations and might not generate much momentum.

For Santorum, any victory in the South would come off as a sign of strength.

Jacob Wilkins, a 19-year-old student at a Tennessee Bible college, said he’s decided Santorum is the superior candidate “as far as moral issues are concerned.” He heard Santorum speak last week at a Baptist church in Powell, Tenn.

“America’s a mess and he’s got a better hold on what we need than any other candidates,” Wilkins said.

Romney hasn’t completely conceded the South. He stopped once in Atlanta last month, and his wife stood in for him at an event in the city Thursday. He planned to return Sunday for a pancake brunch in Snellville outside Atlanta and a rally in Knoxville, Tenn.

In the 2008 race, Romney finished third in each of the upcoming Southern primary states except for Mississippi, which voted after Romney quit the race. He still faces trouble connecting with Southern conservatives, who see him as too moderate, and with evangelicals, who might be troubled by Romney’s Mormon faith.

“I’m a Christian and he’s a Mormon,” said Tamara McGhee, 45, a teacher from Douglasville, Ga., who remains undecided between Gingrich and Santorum. “That may create some bias with me because we have very different religions.”

After Super Tuesday, the Southern campaign moves to Alabama and Mississippi, which hold primaries a week later.

“Super Tuesday, I’m sure, will set the tone for Mississippi and Alabama particularly,” said Henry Barbour, a Republican National Committee member and Romney supporter from Mississippi.

His uncle, former Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, has said he won’t endorse until the party picks a nominee.

Most of the Republican statewide elected officials in Mississippi, including U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran, are backing Romney. Gov. Phil Bryant hasn’t made an endorsement since his initial pick, Texas Gov. Rick Perry, ended his run, although he said he is leaning toward Romney.

Dot Ward, a 73-year-old homemaker from Madison, Miss., said she is leaning toward Gingrich.

“I think Newt stands the greatest possibility of being able to debate with him intelligently and present a good case,” Ward said. “But then I’m not sure about Newt and his ability to be president. See, that’s what worries me the most. I’m unhappy about all of the candidates. And Rick Santorum, I do like very much. I like what he stands for. But I don’t think he’s got what seems to me the maturity.”

Louisiana has received scant attention with its primary still three weeks away. Gov. Bobby Jindal hasn’t endorsed anyone since Perry, whom he supported, dropped out. Campaign ads, mailers, bumper stickers and yard signs are largely missing from the state, which has 46 delegates up for grabs.

Jason Dore, executive director of Louisiana’s state GOP, expects candidates will spend time and money in his state if the nomination remains undecided by the March 24 primary.

“It’s going to be a last-minute thing,” Dore said.

The state’s Republican voters are staunchly conservative and are expected to favor Gingrich or Santorum in the primary over Romney.

“I would think Louisiana voters would gravitate toward Gingrich as a fellow Southerner and conservative and toward Santorum as a conservative, and not in the Romney camp, except only in the reluctant sense,” said Kirby Goidel, a Louisiana State University political science professor.

In Georgia, evangelicals and tea party voters have struggled with their choices.

The group Georgia Right to Life endorsed both Santorum and Gingrich as equally strong abortion foes.

The Christian Coalition of Georgia hasn’t endorsed anyone, but its leaders have sent emails opposing Gingrich. Jerry Luquire, the group’s president, said Gingrich has too much “anti-family baggage” associated with his three marriages and past infidelities.

“He may have been forgiven by his family and by his God,” Luquire said. “But there is still a penalty he has to pay.”

Mike Morton, a tea party leader in Rome, said members of his group have been favoring Santorum. But he sees Gingrich gaining ground by focusing on Georgia and promising $2.50-a-gallon gasoline.

“What I kind of see now is the question of Santorum’s electability starting to rear its head again,” said Morton, who sees the candidate’s focus on social issues turning off some fiscal conservatives. “It causes people to think if that’s where he is, is he really electable in a cycle where the economy and getting jobs are the top issues?”

___

Associated Press writers Erik Schelzig in Powell, Tenn., Emily Wagster Pettus in Jackson, Miss., and Melinda Deslatte in Baton Rouge, La., contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2012-03-03-Super%20Tuesday-The%20South/id-f9c129266030496eb01bc54edd1ec905

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TAMPA, Florida (Reuters) ? Mitt Romney’s victory in Florida’s Republican presidential primary has made him the man to beat in the race for the party’s nomination to challenge President Barack Obama, and February may prove fruitful for him as the race shifts on Wednesday to Nevada.

After pounding his nearest rival Newt Gingrich with negative advertisements, Romney rolled to an impressive triumph on Tuesday night in Florida, winning 46 percent of the vote to Gingrich’s 32 percent in a key battleground state.

The next contest in the state-by-state battle for the Republican nomination to face Obama, a Democrat, in the November 6 U.S. election is in Nevada, which holds caucuses on Saturday. That is followed next Tuesday by caucuses in Colorado and Minnesota and a primary in Missouri.

Gingrich and Romney will be in Nevada on Wednesday.

The well-organized and well-financed Romney has now won two of the first four contests, also capturing New Hampshire while coming in second in Iowa and South Carolina.

Romney’s win in Florida got his campaign back on track after the staggering loss to Gingrich in South Carolina 10 days earlier. But with Gingrich vowing to fight on for months, the race remains far from over.

This means there is the potential for a lengthy, divisive battle that could damage the party’s chances of denying Obama re-election in November.

Romney may face questions about the negative tactics he has used to dispatch Gingrich. Florida media were awash with millions of dollars in ads that focused on Gingrich’s ethical troubles while speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives in the 1990s and questioning his conservative bonafides.

Gingrich’s ads were equally negative against Romney. He just got outspent.

Romney hopes the seven state contests in February will cement his status as the runaway front-runner and make Gingrich a non-factor.

In his victory speech in Tampa on Tuesday, Romney held his fire against his Republican rivals. Instead, he took aim at Obama. Romney stressed his belief that he can turn around the U.S. economy based on his experience as a private equity executive and former governor of Massachusetts.

“President Obama wants to grow government and continue to amass trillion dollar deficits. I will not just slow the growth of government, I will cut it. I will not just freeze government’s share of the total economy, I will reduce it. And without raising taxes, I will finally balance the budget,” he said.

A bruised and battered Gingrich aims to ride out February and hang on until March when the Southern states he wants to win come into play. He needs to raise money and build a better organization. If the Florida outcome is any indication, he faces a hard fight ahead.

“It is now clear that this will be a two-person race between the conservative leader, Newt Gingrich, and the Massachusetts moderate,” Gingrich said on Tuesday night.

Former U.S. senator Rick Santorum, who won in Iowa, came in third in Florida, followed by U.S. congressman Ron Paul.

(Editing by Will Dunham)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/obama/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120201/ts_nm/us_usa_campaign

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WASHINGTON ? Fresh off campaigning for Newt Gingrich in Florida, former candidate Herman Cain says he also would be comfortable supporting Mitt Romney if he’s the one who wins the Republican presidential nomination.

Cain made his remarks as Floridians were heading to the polls Tuesday for their GOP primary.

Cain told NBC’s “Today” show that he endorsed Gingrich and campaigned with him Monday because he found Gingrich’s tax plan similar to his own proposal, dubbed his “9-9-9″ plan.

Cain said he would be “very comfortable” with Romney, too, but that both candidates carry negatives that would be attacked by President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign.

Cain dropped out of the race in early December. He said he wouldn’t run again, joking that his “biological clock is ticking.”

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/gop/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120131/ap_on_el_ge/us_cain

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WASHINGTON ? TITLE: “What Kind of Man?”

LENGTH: 1 minute

AIRING: On broadcast and cable stations in Florida.

KEY IMAGES: The ad begins with footage of former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who ran against Romney in the 2008 GOP presidential contest, talking into the camera. “If a man’s dishonest to get a job, he’ll be dishonest on the job,” Huckabee says.

Downbeat music starts playing. A narrator intones darkly as a blurry image of former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney slowly comes into focus. “What kind of man would mislead, distort, and deceive just to win an election?” the male voice asks. “This man would. Mitt Romney.”

As a series of photos of Romney from recent debates flash across the screen, a bright red “false” stamp flashes across a different picture of Romney, who appears pained.

“Romney said he has always voted Republican when he had the opportunity,” the narrator says. “But in the 1992 Massachusetts primary, Romney had the chance to vote for George H.W. Bush or Pat Buchanan but he voted for a liberal Democrat instead.”

The narrator continues: “Romney said his investments in Fannie and Freddie were in a blind trust. But as reported in the National Journal, Romney earned tens of thousands of dollars from investments NOT in a blind trust. Romney denied seeing a false ad his campaign used to attack Newt Gingrich. But Romney’s own campaign paid for the ad … Romney’s own voice is on the ad approving the content.

“If we can’t trust Romney in a debate, how can we trust him on anything?”

As the final line is read, a picture of Romney with his head bowed appears with text next to it that is superimposed over a shot of the White House. It reads, “…. and that’s why he would lose to Barack Obama.”

The ad signs off with “Paid for by Newt 2012.”

ANALYSIS: From disappointing losses in Iowa and New Hampshire to a soaring victory in South Carolina, the level of vitriol in Gingrich’s attacks on Romney has waxed and waned. After scaling back his barbs in two debates, Gingrich has seen his numbers slip. Opinion polls show a close race in Florida, with a slight advantage for Romney. This ad dramatically escalates Gingrich’s attacks on Romney.

It is by far Gingrich’s sharpest, most personal attack on the former Massachusetts governor to date. “What Kind of Man?” also seems to signal that Gingrich will fight bitterly for the GOP nomination.

The ad curiously begins with Huckabee, currently a TV personality and popular conservative Republican figure. Gingrich may be hoping to remind viewers that, at least four years ago, Romney’s fellow presidential aspirants could barely contain their anger at him. Huckabee hasn’t endorsed in this year’s contest.

The former Arkansas governor quickly disputed the use of his image in the ad. In an interview on Fox News Channel’s “Your World,” Huckabee said he was not referring to Romney specifically in the footage and did not approve of Gingrich’s use of the footage in the ad. Huckabee said he would “love for him” to pull the ad because he hasn’t endorsed anyone in the primary.

As a narrator takes over, the ad makes a series of claims that Romney could justifiably dispute.

It alleges that Romney voted for Democrats when he could have voted for Republicans. While this is technically true of the 1992 Massachusetts primary, Romney has said repeatedly that he was a registered independent so he could have more influence in a state where Democrats typically dominate. Romney has maintained that he has always voted for Republicans in general elections, and voted in the Democratic primary so he could vote for a weaker candidate and improve the GOP’s chances.

As Gingrich’s ad asserts, National Journal did report that Romney’s investments in mortgage companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were not in a blind trust. And Romney’s personal financial disclosure forms show he owned between $250,001 and $500,000 in the Federated Government Obligation Fund, which contained mutual-fund notes of politically sensitive Fannie and Freddie. An addendum to Romney’ disclosure forms says certain assets, including the federated fund, were outside the scope of his blind trust. The investment was not on Romney’s 2007 financial form, making it a relatively new one coming just as the housing and financial crises were hitting Americans full force.

Romney and his campaign have, nonetheless, denied that he had any knowledge of his large investment in the fund.

The final factual claim, that Romney says he had no knowledge of an ad from his campaign against Gingrich, is true. Also true is that Romney’s voice can be heard at the end of the ad, approving its message. But there is no way to determine whether Romney saw the ad before his campaign put it on the air.

Beyond the ad’s specific claims, Gingrich has chosen to take an unusually personal tone that effectively calls his opponent untrustworthy and a liar. That’s a sign both of Gingrich’s frustration and the high stakes. Both Gingrich and Romney believe a Florida victory could catapult them to the Republican nomination.

The ad is also a variation on a theme Gingrich has tried to push about Romney. Gingrich’s campaign wants voters to see Romney as a flip-flopper and someone who will say anything to get elected. But this ad is stripped of even a patina of civility.

As Romney has done before him, Gingrich also raises the specter of a second term for President Barack Obama as the consequence of voting for his opponent. Both candidates seem to be talking past each other on the issue of electability. In Iowa and New Hampshire, Romney was viewed by voters as more electable. In South Carolina, where Gingrich jolted the race with a victory, he was viewed as the candidate with the best chance of beating Obama.

One thing both campaigns seem to agree on is Obama’s effectiveness as a bogeyman in GOP primaries.

___

Follow Henry C. Jackson on Twitter: (at)hjacksonap

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/politics/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120127/ap_on_el_pr/us_gingrich_adwatch

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Well… he’s telling the truth… sort of … he just didn’t mention the “paychecks” will be going to his wealthy cronies like those at Freddie-Mac!

Newt “Freddie-Mac” Gingrich has a hero and mentor… he is the heralded Republican Financial GOD… Ronald Wilson Reagan… who was the architect of the principals of Global Trade, which led to the outsourcing and tax relief for companies that participate in the same outsourcing we see today!

If Newt becomes the GOP Candidate…Obama may as well start working on his re-election acceptance speech! Newt will not have a chance in a debate, or an election with the perennially astute Obama in intellect, knowledge, oratory presentation, family values, morals, or credibility!

OBAMA 2012!

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/gop/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_theticket/20120121/el_yblog_theticket/video-newt-gingrich-goes-after-elites-in-south-carolina-win-speech

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