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grasswire

(50,130 posts)
Fri Mar 22, 2013, 01:12 PM Mar 2013

Businessweek: Secret Santorum-Gingrich Plot To Topple Romney

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-03-22/the-secret-gingrich-santorum-unity-ticket-that-nearly-toppled-romney

It’s one of the great untold stories of the 2012 presidential campaign, a tale of ego and intrigue that nearly upended the Republican primary contest and might even have produced a different nominee: As Mitt Romney struggled in the weeks leading up to the Michigan primary, Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum nearly agreed to form a joint “Unity Ticket” to consolidate conservative support and topple Romney. “We were close,” former Representative Bob Walker, a Gingrich ally, says. “Everybody thought there was an opportunity.” “It would have sent shock waves through the establishment and the Romney campaign,” says John Brabender, Santorum’s chief strategist.

But the negotiations collapsed in acrimony because Gingrich and Santorum could not agree on who would get to be president. “In the end,” Gingrich says, “it was just too hard to negotiate.”

Romney eked out a three-point win in Michigan on Feb. 28 and was never seriously threatened again. While this type of elaborate scheming is more typical of political thrillers, it was real this time. A year later, many of those who worked to build the Unity Ticket still believe it could have been decisive.
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Businessweek: Secret Santorum-Gingrich Plot To Topple Romney (Original Post) grasswire Mar 2013 OP
Super-Villain Team Up! Hope they work to topple Chris Christie and Jeb W. Bush next. FSogol Mar 2013 #1
So they think Gingrich/Santorum would have beat President Obama? Wounded Bear Mar 2013 #2
2 punks on the playground at recess olddots Mar 2013 #3
I remember the republican primaries d_r Mar 2013 #4
The whole article is interesting. Made me chuckle. dmr Mar 2013 #5

d_r

(6,907 posts)
4. I remember the republican primaries
Fri Mar 22, 2013, 01:29 PM
Mar 2013

each time leading in to a primary one of them would pull away from the pack and be the challenge, then all of a sudden some dirty laundry would come out and they would disappear. Then Romney would pull ahead. Then the next primary one of the would pull away from the pack and be the challenge, then all of a sudden some dirty laundry would come out and they would disappear. Then Romney would pull ahead. I'm pretty sure it happened to both Gingrich and Santorum in turn, so I think it is just their hubris to think that they could have tag-teamed to overcome it.

dmr

(28,321 posts)
5. The whole article is interesting. Made me chuckle.
Fri Mar 22, 2013, 01:45 PM
Mar 2013

I like this part, too:

The discussions between the two camps commenced in early February, just after Gingrich got trounced in Florida. Brabender called members of the Gingrich brain trust, hoping they could persuade Gingrich to drop out and endorse Santorum, who was rising in the polls. “I’ll tell you this,” says Brabender, “If Gingrich had dropped out at the right time, Santorum would have been the nominee.” Brabender wasn’t short on moxie: He wanted Gingrich to declare in the middle of a nationally televised debate that he was dropping out and endorsing Santorum. “I couldn’t write an ad to match the political theater that would have created,” he says.


The Gingrich brain trust ....
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