The GOP establishment doesn't like Gingrich. They like Romney. And since Paul is helping Romney out by going after Gingrich, they are temporarily laying off of Paul. This is great.

I can't even begin to fathom how hard the GOP establishment would bring Paul down if he actually became a threat to win the nomination.

Yeah I can buy the possibility of him pulling an upset in Iowa. Then I'm almost certain he would be ignored for as long as possible. If his results forced them to cover him, they would finally pay enough attention to marginalize him as a crazy old codger without a clue as to how the world really works.

I really like Dr. Paul, but I just don't see how he would survive an entire primary and come out victorious.

This is contradicted by what her aides say.

(In other words, do you judge a person by their character when in the presence of their peers, or those subordinate to them?)

@JimPethokoukis

Today, Huntsman seems to be reversing his position on AGW. Says debate needs to play out.

Guess Huntsman is "anti-science" now.

biblethumper imo

Well this is going to get interesting. Everybody is coming after Newt. Will consevatives in fly over country stand up to the beltway establishment, or will they cave?

My hunch is that there will be alot of switch overs in the cacuses if Paul or Rommney look strong on that night.

Comments on the poll where nearly 2/3 of IA Republicans think of Paul as an unacceptable candidate, tying him with Santorum for most unacceptable?

LOLOLOLOLOL @ Newt being anything other than Beltway Establishment.

We are going to be picketing outside the debates at Drake on Saturday. We're going to have nurses in scrubs holding up signs thanking Mitt for leading the way on HCR

Yes, this thing where Newt is being called the outsider while Romney is the beltway establishment...is really ****ing weird.

Since when have facts or reality influenced Republicans?

Since always, to the same extent as Dems anyway.

has Rush opened up to RP at all?

Really? Show me the group of Dems who thought Hillary had never seen Washington and I'll believe you.

Yeah obviously can't show you that, which proves precisely nothing. Partisan blindness and attempts to rationalize things about a person's candidate of choice are hardly the exclusive domain of the right though. This is just the type of cognitive dissonance **** that people process through in order to reach the endpoint they want to.

lolol

Slow pony?

Newt glitter-bombed

He's not bashing him. Letting callers say on his show that they like him.

He gets a million callers, he knows what they'll say.

I can only base things on my own experience but I think there is a difference.

There is no left wing equivalent of a lot of things on the right; the BS swallowed and repeated by fans of Fox/Limbaugh/Coulter/Freepers etc. is, imo, really a conservative phenomenon.

Of course cognitive dissonance can be found in anyone. But the current right wing mythology requires by its very nature a complete disconnect from reality. Republicans create these ridiculous progagandistic charicatures of reality that are right out of an Orwell book and they're all reinforced by a media machine that they all subscribe to.

To be clear... my father was an old school (almost) life long fiscal conservative Republican. He now hates the GOP because he recognizes that they're largely full of crap. He rants and raves how so much of their rhetoric contradicts itself and reality. This is from a man who spent most of his adult life (in his 70s now) cheerleading the right.

In the meantime... my brother (who is a born again Christian who simultaneously because a big Rush/Glenn Beck/Fox News fan) is constantly spouting the mostly illconceived nonsense that he parrots directly from the above.

I really don't think you can compare the two because (1) the left doesn't have as rigid a belief system that must be maintained regardless of any empirical evidence (see Republican candidates having to deny evolution, global warming, etc.) and (2) the same propagandistic media machines reinforcing this ideological message.

Apologies for rambly nature of post.

Four months ago, who would have ever guessed that Newt would be in the driver's seat?

Yep, exactly.

He burned a lot of bridges as Speaker of the House apparently. He hasn't been an elected official for a while now.

Who have the establishment republicans been endorsing this whole time? Romney.

I don't see why you guys are surprised. Now the media is out to get them and it's the only reason Ron Paul isn't being completely ignored right now.