Gingrich's "Team Election" concept

Last night in South Carolina, New Gingrich said "“The election this fall has to be a team election. We have to try to win Senate seats, we have to make sure we win House seats, we have to run as a team,” and went on to say that, if he were elected, he'd like to see a number of things already passed by Congress ready for him to sign as soon as he is sworn in. He commonly references this concept, and he has a track record of doing pre-election organizing to hit the ground running (Contract with America). I'm amazed at the naive statements people (and candidates) make about what the President will or won't do without acknowledging the fact that the President needs Congress to be on board to get things done.

How does the "team election" rate on your priority scale?

Newt is right, but in my opinion he's also looking out for himself.

In other words, is he expecting Perry and Santorum to be "team players" by dropping out in the next week?

If Santorum and Perry stay in the race too much longer, all the real conservatives will have lost the GOP nomination to Romney.

Last time Newt's team made him captain they got slaughtered.

johnny_rebson said:

Newt is right, but in my opinion he's also looking out for himself.

In other words, is he expecting Perry and Santorum to be "team players" by dropping out in the next week?

If Santorum and Perry stay in the race too much longer, all the real conservatives will have lost the GOP nomination to Romney.

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Interesting take - I hadn't really consciously applied the "Team Election" theory to the primary itself, but after watching last night it did occur to me that our primary may be doing exactly what I deplore about "third party election" notions. Everyone splits the votes and the minority wins.

GreenvilleGrows said:

Interesting take - I hadn't really consciously applied the "Team Election" theory to the primary itself, but after watching last night it did occur to me that our primary may be doing exactly what I deplore about "third party election" notions. Everyone splits the votes and the minority wins.

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Perry and Caine have both endorsed Newt. Maybe they thought he was more of a team player than Romney.