Greg Buls
Infowars.com
January 4, 2012
The outcome in Iowa has Ron Paul solidly established and in an ideal
position to move forward with confidence. If you’re watching the race at
all, you’ve noticed that the GOP establishment has brought out the long
knives, with Gingrich calling Paul’s supporters ‘indecent’, and
Santorum saying that Paul is ‘disgusting‘.
Virtually every ‘news’ story referencing Paul includes a declaratory
statement that Paul cannot be nominated, or ‘almost certainly’ cannot.
TV talking heads such as Politico’s Roger Simon were at least honest
about the shared intent of the media and the GOP establishment: ‘If Paul
wins Iowa we’ll just take it out
(of the picture)’. Iowa’s own governor downplayed the importance of his
state’s caucus outcome, should Paul win – something no other governor
has done in American history.
In spite of the relentless assault against him, Paul’s support held
up well, with a result mirroring most of the polls leading up to the
caucuses. His supporters can’t possibly be discouraged – Paul’s support
grew steadily over the months, and he finished near his peak. Santorum’s
turn as ‘flavor of the week’, coming right after voters got another
look at Newt Gingrich, came at the perfect time, further fracturing the
establishment vote.
The Iowa results boost Paul’s chances for long-term success for a number of reasons.
- A lot of the negative attention that was aimed at Paul
will now be focused on Santorum. The media may give Arlen Specter’s most
important political ally
a break, for now, but his opponents won’t. To the media, Santorum is a
perfect GOP candidate – one they can easily trash when the time comes.
His current appeal is a mile wide and a millimeter deep; there’s nothing
of substance driving it – no scheme like Cain’s ’9-9-9 plan’, no great
legislative achievements, nothing aside from the perception that he’d be
‘tough on terror’, that he speaks in earnest, and that he’s not
Gingrich or Romney. As long as Santorum is in it, Romney and Gingrich
will remain in, they likely think that Santorum’s chances to actually
secure the nomination are nil.
- Romney’s finish makes any ‘inevitability’ talk look ridiculous. He
seems to have a ceiling of 25%-30% of GOP primary voters, with no
noticeable crossover enthusiasm from democrats, and little appeal to
independents. The undecided voters will continue to ping-pong between
the other candidates, with some sticking to Paul with each bounce. It
seems that no matter what Romney says, does, or spends, he can’t gain
any broader traction. He isn’t trusted by most republicans, for far
better reasons than the GOP establishment posits for opposing Paul.
There’s little prospect that Romney can change that fact, but he’s still
going to grind it out.(CONTINUE READING)