LAS VEGAS, NEVADA - As of this writing, Mitt Romney is leading the Nevada caucuses by a substantial margin, and Newt Gingrich looks like he'll hold second place. For the dynamics of the Silver State results, review this post. Here's Romney taking it to President Obama at his raucous Nevada victory rally:
Tonight's speech featured a few fresh and biting lines: (1) "Well Mr. President, Nevada has had enough of your kind of help." (2) "This president began his presidency by apologizing for America. He should now be apologizing to America." The address was one of the more aggressive, energetic efforts we've seen from Romney to date, and his team hopes to keep the enthusiasm rolling throughout the remaining February caucuses and primaries.
In lieu of an election night party, Newt Gingrich opted for a lengthy press conference, at which he was peppered with process questions about his horserace with Romney. He came off as whiny and aggrieved, at one point denying that Romney was "in his head." During roughly 30 minutes of questioning, Gingrich fielded only one policy question (which came from yours truly, regarding "Catholic" Nancy Pelosi's professed support for President Obama's egregious First Amendment violation on religious liberty and Obamacare). As expected, Newt refused to drop out and vowed to march on to the convention, predicting that he'd be "at parity" with Romney by the end of the Texas primary in early April. This is all part of Team Newt's new delegate-centered strategy moving forward. He also stated that he plans to adopt a different approach in handling Romney at their next debate, which is slated for February 22nd in Arizona. He said that he lost the Florida debates because he was caught off guard and rendered speechless by Romney's "fundamental dishonesty." He did allow that in a general election between Obama and Romney, there would be "no choice" in the matter, due to Obama's disastrous record.
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Neither Rick Santorum nor Ron Paul were in Nevada tonight. Onward, to Colorado, Minnesota, and Missouri...
UPDATE - Video of Newt's opening statement, via Breitbart:
Our own Kevin Glass tweets that Charles Krauthammer said on Fox that Newt's response to my question during the Q&A session was the high point of an otherwise low evening for the former Speaker.
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