RE-ELECT OBAMA: VOTE NEWT!
By Ann Coulter
AnnCouter.com
To talk with Gingrich supporters is to enter a
world where words have no meaning. They denounce
Mitt Romney as a candidate being pushed on them by
"the Establishment" -- with "the Establishment"
defined as anyone who supports Romney or doesn't
support Newt.
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.
This is the sort of circular reasoning one normally
associates with Democrats, people whom small-town
pharmacists refer to as "drug seekers" and Ron Paul
supporters.
Newtons claim Romney is a "moderate," and Gingrich
the true conservative -- a feat that can be
accomplished only by refusing to believe anything
Romney says ... and also refusing to believe
anything Gingrich says.
-- Romney's one great "flip-flop" is on abortion. (I
thought the reason we argued with people about
abortion was to try to get them to "flip-flop" on
this issue. Sometimes it works!)
Nearly two decades ago, when Romney was trying to
defeat champion desecrator of life Sen. Teddy
Kennedy, he sought to remove abortion as a campaign
issue by declaring that he, too, supported Roe v.
Wade.
(Nonetheless, Kennedy ran a campaign commercial
against him featuring a Mormon woman complaining
that Romney, as a Mormon elder, had pressured her
not to have an abortion, but to give the child up
for adoption. Are you getting the idea that
Massachusetts is different from the rest of America,
readers?)
Romney changed his mind on abortion -- not when it
was politically advantageous, but when it mattered.
As governor of liberal, pro-choice Massachusetts, he
vetoed an embryonic stem cell bill and "worked
closely" with Massachusetts Citizens for Life. The
president of MCL recently issued a statement saying
that, "since being elected governor, Mitt Romney has
had a consistent commitment to the culture of life."
He didn't defend his changed position by saying he
was a "historian," or denounce people who raised the
switch as "fundamentally" dishonest asking "absurd"
questions, or go back and forth and back and forth.
He just said he changed his mind.
Meanwhile, Gingrich, who has run for office only in
a small, majority Republican, undoubtedly pro-life
congressional district, lobbied President Bush to
support embryonic stem cell research.
-- Romney is now the only remaining candidate for
president who opposes amnesty for illegals. (Ever
since President Bush's amnesty plan cratered on the
shoals of public opposition, no Republican will ever
use the word "amnesty," despite wanting to keep
illegals here -- just as Democrats refuse to say
"abortion," while supporting every manner of
destroying human life.)
Romney supports E-Verify and a fence on the border.
As governor he promoted English immersion programs
for immigrants, signed an agreement with the federal
government allowing state troopers to enforce
federal immigration laws, and opposed efforts to
give illegal immigrants in-state tuition or driver's
licenses.
At the same time, Romney says he'd like to staple a
green card to the diploma of every immigrant here on
a student visa who gets a higher degree in math or
science.
Gingrich supports importing a slave labor force from
Mexico under a "guest worker" program and wants to
create government "citizen review boards" to grant
amnesty on a case-by-case basis (i.e. all at once)
to illegal aliens.
-- Romney supports entitlement reform along the
lines of the Paul Ryan plan, as he has said plainly,
but without histrionics, in the debates.
Just last year, Gingrich went on "Meet the Press"
and called Ryan's plan -- supported by nearly every
House Republican -- "right-wing social engineering."
He apologized for those remarks, then took back his
apology, still later doubled down, calling the Ryan
plan "suicide," and now -- currently, but it could
change any minute -- Gingrich supports Ryan's
entitlement reform efforts.
For the latest updates on Newt's position on the
Ryan plan, go to http//twitter.com/#whatcheapshotgrandstandymovewillworknow?
-- As for crony capitalism, Romney made all his
money in the private sector by his own diligence and
talent -- even giving away all the money he
inherited from his parents. He's never lived in
Washington or traded on access to government
officials.
Meanwhile, without the federal government, Gingrich
would be penniless. He has been in Washington since
the '70s, first as a congressman, then becoming a
rich man on the basis of having been a congressman.
Most egregiously, he took $1.6 million to shill for
Freddie Mac, one of the two institutions directly
responsible for the housing crash that caused the
financial collapse. (Or one of three, if you
consider Barney Frank an institution.)
If the tea party stands for anything, it stands in
absolute opposition to government insiders shoring
up Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac at the very time those
institutions were blowing up the economy.
-- Romney could not be more forceful in saying he
will issue a 50-state waiver to Obamacare his first
day in office and then seek its formal repeal.
Whether you like a state-wide insurance mandate or
not, it's a world of difference when the federal
government does it. Conservatives, having read the
Constitution, ought to understand this.
It was on account of the difference between state
and federal powers that the Supreme Court overturned
the federal Violence Against Women Act. The court
was not endorsing rape, but reminding us that states
make laws about rape, not Congress.
To act as if Obamacare is the same thing as "Romneycare"
is just a word game, on the order of acting like a
"gun" has the same properties as a "gunny sack," or
"fire" is the same thing as a "firefly."
Romney supported the idea of other states doing
something along the lines of his health care bill,
but always opposed insurance mandates from the
federal government (just as I oppose the federal
government issuing general laws about rape, but
support state laws against rape.)
For those of you who still think Romneycare is the
worst possible sin a Republican candidate could
commit -- even worse than taking money from Freddie
Mac as it destroyed the economy -- that doesn't help
Gingrich: He supported Romneycare.
(While we're on the subject, the nation's leading
conservative think tank, The Heritage Foundation,
helped draft Romneycare. Indeed, Bob Moffit,
Heritage's senior fellow on health care issues, can
be seen in the picture of the bill-signing ceremony,
standing proudly behind Romney.)
But Gingrich did more than support Romneycare. As
former senator Rick Santorum has pointed out,
Gingrich supported a FEDERAL individual mandate to
purchase health insurance from 1993 until five
minutes ago -- i.e., at least until a "Meet the
Press" appearance just last May.
Asked by Maria Bartiromo in the CNBC debate last
November to explain what he would do to fix health
care, Newt attacked the question as "absurd" and
said he would need a "several-hour period" to answer
it.
In a world where words have meaning, Mitt Romney is
not the "moderate" in this race. He is the most
conservative candidate still standing, with the
possible exception of Rick Santorum, who is bad on
illegal immigration. (Santorum voted in the Senate
against even the voluntary use of E-Verify by
employers, which means he doesn't want to do
anything about illegal immigration at all.)
Romney is "moderate" only in demeanor -- which is
just another word game. His positions are more
conservative than Gingrich's, but he doesn't scare
people like Gingrich does. Ronald Reagan and Jesse
Helms were moderate in demeanor, too. No one would
call them political moderates.
Romney is the most electable candidate not only
because it will be nearly impossible for the media
to demonize this self-made Mormon square, devoted to
his wife and church, but precisely because he is the
most conservative candidate.
Conservatism is an electable quality. Hotheaded
arrogance is neither conservative nor attractive to
voters.