GOP dilemma: to win or not to win

Romney or Gingrich, that is the question.

Romney does not excite conservatives. He's the slow and slow and steady turtle in the race, without flashiness. Here's how challenges Obama's policies:

The path I lay out is not one paved with ever increasing government checks and cradle-to-grave assurances that government will always be the solution. If this election is a bidding war for who can promise more benefits, then I’m not your President. You have that President today.

Ann Coulter said Romney is the most conservative candidate, based on his policies on immigration and the economy. That may be the case, but Romney doesn't come across as the most conservative candidate. Before Ann Coulter decided to go to the bat for Romney as the most conservative GOP candidate, I wrote that his moderation is his greatest strength. It also makes him more electable.

New Gingrich excites conservatives with his red meat rhetoric. For example he called President Obama a Nazi-Commie and a "threat to our way of life." I happen to agree with this, in essence. However, I prefer to call Obama a collectivist, because his brand of socialism is a little different from either communism or Nazis. As a blogger, I could afford to indulge in this kind of rhetoric, but it comes across as hysterical  is not helpful in making a argument. Unlike yours truly, Newt Gingrich is running for president, yet doesn't realize the counter-productive nature of over-the-top rhetoric. Conservatives desperately want to hear Obama lambasted. Do they prefer to have their 'red meat' and be defeated by Obama? That would lead to another four years of 'starvation' - not recapturing the White House, allowing Obamacare to set in, etc.

In addition, Newt is an opportunist. He peddled myths about anthropogenic global warming with Nancy Pelosi, and called Paul Ryan plan's to privatize Medicare using using vouchers: "right-wing social engineering."

Then, there's his lack of character. After cheating on, then abandoning his first wife when she got cancer, then doing the same thing to his second wife when she got MS, Newt has some explaining to do. Instead, hepassed the buckof responding to charges made by his second wife (of 18 years) to daughters from his first marriage. Considering that Newt cheated on their mother, Newt's daughters aren't exactly impartial on this matter.

Ann Coulter was right on with her characterization of Newt's victory in SC this weekend when she said : "Apparently, South Carolinians would rather have the emotional satisfaction of a snotty remark toward the president than to beat Obama in the fall." Let's hope GOP voters get the need to 'stick it' to Obama rhetorically out of their systems soon, otherwise he may well 'stick it' to the GOP in the fall, by making the election focus on Newt Gingrich, rather than his own record.

So, the real question for Republicans in 2012 is: to win or not to win?