The Impressive Mental Gymnastics Of The Anybody But Mitt Crowd

Republicans appear to have two choices for the upcoming 2012 Presidential Primaries: Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich. To me, right  choice for conservatives is pretty clear and obvious. However, the anybody but Mitt Romney crowd will go to great lengths to avoid making obvious choice and will use the most amazing mental gymnastics to justify their support for Newt Gingrich:

He’s a former Speaker of the House, a well-connected ex-congressman who came to Washington in the late 1970s and never left.

Yet at a time when the GOP grassroots seethes with resentment of the D.C. political establishment and venerates outsiders, they love Newt Gingrich for it.

The disconnect is so obvious that at event after campaign event, many of his supporters freely admit their opinions are hard to square. 

Here's a good example of the kind of mental gymnastics a "conservative" voter has to perform in order to justify his support for Newt:

In Iowa, Jim Carley, an Altoona tea party leader and state legislative candidate, doesn’t see Gingrich as the type of insider who causes problems. He’s still weighing his options, but has narrowed his choices down to Gingrich and Santorum.

“He’s been a Washington man and he knows where the bodies are. He knows how to get through the minefield,” Carley said. “Basically, he is an outsider. His inside-ness was years ago.”

How many years ago did Newt Gingrich lose his inside-ness and became an outsider of Washington D.C? 

Was it his time serving as Georgia’s 6th District Congressman from 1979 to 1999? Is the various different advocacy and for-profit groups he has created? Was it in 2001 when he began his first consulting lobbying contract with a  plastics company? Was it in 2003 when he was working as lobbyist for drug companies on Capitol Hill? Was it in the eight years between 1999 to 2007 when he was a paid lobbyist who made between $1.6 and $1.8 million in consulting Fannie and Freedie Mac just before the housing bubble burst due to by buying or guaranteeing sub-prime mortgages and other risky mortgages? Was it when Newt Gingrich made $300,000 consulting to a major ethanol lobbying group in 2009?

Please, I'd like to know when Newt lost his inside-ness and became an Washtington outsider. 

Unlike Newt Gingrich who is the ultimate D.C. insider and is a career politician,  Mitt Romney is the ultimate outsider since he's never served in Washington D.C. despite failing to get elected to Congress in. Moreover, Mitt Romney is not a career politician. He's only served four years as the Governor of Massachusetts from 2003 to 2007. Yet, despite his one term as a politician, he was able to do amazing things in office. He's got a great economic record when it comes to job creation, taxes and fees, and getting the state of Massachusetts out of a $3 billion deficit to a $2 billion surplus. Prior to those four years, Mitt Romney has been a successful business man for over 27 years.

Another example of the extraordinary mental gymnastics the anybody but Mitt crowd uses comes from a Public Policy Poll released today:

“One reason Gingrich is moving ahead of Romney in Iowa? 42% of voters say they would have major concerns about a candidate who supported an individual mandate for health care to just 34% who say they’d have major concerns about a candidate who cheated on his spouse.”

The cognitive dissonance is jaw dropping. These Iowa voters, I am assuming, are unhappy with RomneyCare yet they're willing to support Newt Gingrich despite the fact that he supported the idea of individual mandates long before Mitt Romney implemented it in his health care plan. Many years later when Mitt Romney adopted the Heritage Foundation's proposal to implement the individual mandate at the state level, Newt Gingrich became a fan of RomneyCare.

The facts are clear. Newt Gingrich was for individual mandates long and promoted it long before Mitt Romney, did. 

Yet, voters are somehow angry with Mitt Romney over the individual mandates. Amazing. 

Many of the anybody but Romney crowd are strong social conservatives. Once again, they have to employ some gold medal mental contortions to justify opposition to Mitt Romney. First they rallied around Herman Cain until they quickly abandoned him due to unproven claims infidelity only to quickly embrace Newt Gingrich who has led a life of infidelity. He also lived a life of hypocrisy by going after President Clinton's infidelities while at the same time, secretly carrying on his own infidelities. Even more astounding, his excuse for  unfaithfulness as a husband was the result of working too hard for America.

Its obvious that the anybody but Mitt crowd, social conservatives and Gingrich supporters going to great lengths to avoid making obvious choice of supporting Mitt Romney in this election since he's the dream candidate for social conservatives. He is the most appealing candidate since he's been a strong family man since he's been married once to the same woman for 42 years. No sexual harassment charges against him. No accusations of adultery. Romney has been able to create the ideal family: stable marriage, stable family, stable job, great home and lots of grandchildren. He's pro-life, opposes gay marriage and is a strong supporter of the family.

Not only is Mitt Romney a family man but he's an ethical man. Unlike Newt Gingrich,  who is a corrupt politician who has had approximately 84 ethical violations against him while he was Speaker of the House, Mitt Romney has never been found to violate any ethical rules as a businessman or as govenor of Massachusetts. 

Finally, the last example of world class mental gymanstics the anybody but Mitt crowd uses to justify their support for Newt is that he is the most electable candidate who can defeat President Obama. Once again, Public Policy Poling has the stats to prove how irrational these people are: 

Electability is not usually a trait you would associate with Newt Gingrich but 33% of Republicans think he would be the candidate with the best chance to defeat Barack Obama with Mitt Romney at 23% and no one else hitting double digits. 57% of voters say they're most concerned with a candidate's stand on the issues to 34% who are most concerned about getting the candidate who can beat Obama.

Those who think Newt Gingrich can defeat Obama are only fooling themselves.

Given Newt Gingrich numerous adulterous affairs, a mountain of ethical violations, flip flops, long career in D.C., relentless lobbying, its no wonder that the attack ads the Democratic party are planning if Newt wins the Republican nomination can easily be written on their own. Moreover, Newt Gingrich has served such as long career in Washington D.C. that Nancy Pelosi is eager to leak the information to the media: 

"One of these days we'll have a conversation about Newt Gingrich," Pelosi told TPM. "I know a lot about him. I served on the investigative committee that investigated him, four of us locked in a room in an undisclosed location for a year. A thousand pages of his stuff."

According to the TPM story, Pelosi "joked" the information would come out "when the time's right."

Despite the fact that leaking such information is against House Rules, this information will come out in such a way that it cannot be traced back to Nancy Pelosi. 

Its clear that Newt Gingrich will have no chance against Obama once the public gets educated by the media and the Democrats on the specifics of Gingrich's baggage. Thus, they are seriously deluding themselves if they think Newt Gingrich has a chance of defeating Obama in 2012.

Dick Morris explains on the Hannity Show why Newt Gingrich will be unable to defeati Obama:

"Let's analyze this race: ... The other two factors that are wild cards are popularity and electability. The Fox News Poll had two pieces of information that are potentially dangerous for Newt: 1) Who is the most likable of the candidates? Romney 26%, Cain 25%, and Gingrich 9%. 2) Who do you think has the best chance of beating Obama? Romney 37% and Gingrich 18%. In the current environment where Obama is considered way down and easily beatable, voters can say I'll vote for either of them. But if the general election race tightens up, that could impel people to move toward Romney."
~ Dick Morris, the Hannity Show, Dec. 5th

Given the mental pretzles that Gingrich supporters undergo to convince themselves into supporting Newt Gingrich, Public Policy Polling shows that this comes at a price of not being strongly loytal to him: 

66% of Romney's remaining supporters in Iowa are strongly committed to him.  62% of Paul's supporters are strongly committed to him. But only 49% of Gingrich's supporters say they'll definitely vote for him. Newt's support is comparatively weak.  And the second choice of Gingrich voters? For 26% of them it's none other than Mitt Romney to 17% for Perry, 15% for Bachmann, and 13% for Paul. So if Gingrich's campaign does fade over the course of December we could end up with Romney back at the top, just like was expected all along.

Its clear that the anybody but Mitt Crowd is irrational given the diversity of somersaults and cartwheels they  have to perform in order to tolerate the cognitive dissonance between their conservative views and their support of Newt Gingrich.