by Paul Joseph Watson
Infowars.com
Ron Paul’s second place in New Hampshire confirms him as the only candidate going into South Carolina and Florida with any kind of momentum to challenge Mitt Romney, with support for Santorum, Gingrich and Huntsman collapsing.
Jon Huntsman’s one chance to insert himself into the top tier by beating Ron Paul to second in New Hampshire has failed. Despite the establishment media attempting to use Huntsman as a Ron Paul spoiler, in addition to dirty tricks on behalf of the Huntsman campaign in creating an anti-Huntsman video and blaming it on Paul supporters, the former Obama administration official didn’t even get close to Paul last night.
Indeed, with Huntsman performing best amongst voters opposed to the Tea Party, he stands no chance of performing well in the more conservative states. Huntsman isn’t even on the ballot in Arizona, Virginia or Illinois. In South Carolina he is currently polling less than Comedy Central host Stephen Colbert.
Meanwhile, Rick Santorum’s second place in Iowa was followed by a poor fifth place finish in New Hampshire. After pouring money into the state, visiting more than 30 times and making it a top priority, Santorum was expected to achieve somewhere between 10-20% of the vote yet ended up with a disappointing 9.3 per cent.
With limited funds remaining after a New Hampshire gamble that failed to pay off, Santorum’s campaign, and his current potential third place finish in South Carolina and Florida, is under threat. Ron Paul’s ads lambasting Santorum as “a corporate lobbyist and Washington politician” with “a record of betrayal” are also eating away at his support amongst conservatives.
“The momentum has dissipated. You can’t save political capital, you have to spend it right away. He took his capital and let it dissipate,” said Larry Sabato, a political science professor at the University of Virginia.
Meanwhile, Newt Gingrich, who the polls suggest is Romney’s closest rival in South Carolina and Florida, had his campaign hire a cavernous ballroom at the Radisson Manchester for last night’s primary that ended up being barely a quarter full as Gingrich stumbled in fourth place with 10 per cent.
Gingrich, who has cut an insreasingly angry and aloof figure over the past few weeks, didn’t even bother to congratulate Romney or Paul on their success. One of his aides has also been accused of assaulting a woman for carrying a sign at a campaign stop. Gingrich’s support has been savaged by 96% of all Super PAC money being spent attacking his candidacy, illustrating the fact that Republicans clearly don’t want to see him challenge Obama in a fight Gingrich would almost certainly lose.
After emerging as a clear frontrunner, Gingrich’s numbers have dropped off alarmingly. Ron Paul’s debate attack on Gingrich when he labeled him a “chicken hawk” has undoubtedly made red state conservatives think twice about supporting a man who enthusiastically supported Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats’ attempt to impose a carbon tax on the American people under the discredited pseudo-science of global warming.
Polls show that Ron Paul is the only other candidate besides Romney who has a good chance of beating Barack Obama in a hyothetical head to head. He trumps all the other challengers to Romney in terms of electibility.
The key for Ron Paul is the fact that is Romney takes South Carolina and Florida, several if not all of the other candidates will suspend their campaigns or drop out altogether. This will force the media to frame Paul as Romney’s adversary and will allow Paul to unleash a barrage of attacks exposing Romney’s record as a big government RINO Republican.
Paul Joseph Watson is the editor and writer for Prison Planet.com. He is the author of Order Out Of Chaos. Watson is also a regular fill-in host for The Alex Jones Show and Infowars Nightly News.
