Newt Takes The Lead In The Latest Poll

Mitt Romney might finally wind up with the Republican nomination. After all, he is the choice of the Republican establishment and the Wall Street money men. But it has become obvious that the Republican Party's base (the teabaggers) don't trust him, and they are still desperately searching for another candidate -- and considering the options they have been through, they're pretty much willing to take anybody else.

Just look at the candidates who have been seriously considered by the teabaggers -- Donald Trump, Michele Bachmann, Rick Perry, and Herman Cain. The fact that any of these four "not-ready-for-prime-time-candidates" were seriously considered for the nomination shows the depth of distrust and dislike for Mitt Romney. They have literally scraped the bottom of the barrel to find an alternative to Romney, and a new Reuters/Ipsos Poll shows they are now willing to look under that barrel.

Just about seven days ago that same poll showed Herman Cain was slipping out of first place as voters come to terms with his sexual improprieties. Romney had again assumed first place with 28%, Cain had dropped to second with 20%, Gingrich had risen to third with 16%, and Perry was in fourth place with 12%. But the newest poll (conducted November 18th and 19th of 423 Republican voters, with a margin of error of 5.3%) shows that Gingrich has now surged into the lead. Here are the new numbers for the top four candidates:


Newt Gingrich...............24% (up 8 points)
Mitt Romney...............22% (down 6 points)
Herman Cain...............12% (down 8 points)
Rick Perry...............10% (down 2 points)

I have to admit I am rather surprised by the teabaggers turning to Gingrich. This is a group that claims to support the "sanctity of marriage", but they are now supporting a candidate who has been married three times -- and was unfaithful to both of his first two wives (both of whom he asked to divorce after learning they were seriously ill). He has shown less of a belief in the "sanctity of marriage" than any other candidate (including Herman Cain).

He is also the only Speaker of the House of Representatives who has been disciplined for ethics charges. After agreeing to a single charge, the other 83 ethics charges were dropped. The House voted to sanction him by a 395 to 28 vote, and made him pay back $300,000 in "investigation" charges in 1997. The following year he was forced to resign his speakership by members of his own party.

And his ethics didn't improve after he left the House of Representatives. He received $1.6 million from Freddie Mac. He has tried to say he was hired as a historian and to give advice to the company on their practices. That is absurd. Historians don't get paid $1.6 million for their services -- even good ones. And the company wouldn't seek his advice on housing finances, since he had no expertise in that area. He was paid more than a million dollars to be their lobbyist in Congress, and use his congressional-ties to get bills passed that would be favorable to them. And making matters even worse, he broke the law by failing to register as a lobbyist.

The fact that this morally and ethically challenged politician could even be seriously considered for the nomination shows the depth of hatred the teabaggers have for Mitt Romney.