Newt Gingrich Scapegoating Nevada Mormons is Very Disingenuous (ContributorNetwork)

COMMENTARY | Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich has found another justification for being beaten by former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney -- the Mormons caused him to lose Nevada on Saturday. During Gingrich's press conference Saturday night in Las Vegas, he said that Romney had the benefit of this caucus being held in a "heavily Mormon state," as reported by Bloomberg.

No matter what one thinks of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, blaming these people for Romney's win to any degree is nothing short of disingenuous.

According to CBS News Political Hotsheet, there are some 400,000 active registered Republican voters in the state. But FoxNews.com reported the 2008 caucus saw 44,324 GOP votes cast, which beat this year's turnout by well over 11,000, per the vote count of 32,894 combined votes for the four candidates, per the New York Times.

So that means 90 percent-plus registered Nevada Republicans didn't participate. While some potential participants were turned away at a nighttime caucus site in Las Vegas, according to Fox 5 News Las Vegas, this was apparently more the exception than the rule in the state. Many people might have work or other commitments, but that shouldn't cause such a low turnout.

If the other candidates knew Romney would get strong support from Mormons, it was paramount for them to galvanize their supporters to show up, if they existed enough to put them over the top.

Mormons only made up 25 percent of the caucus-goers, according to CNN entrance poll numbers. While Romney got 88 percent of the Mormon vote, he also got the biggest share of votes from Evangelical/Born-Again Christians (43 percent), Protestants (37 percent), Catholics (48 percent) and other Christians (32 percent). Among very conservative voters, Romney bested Gingrich 46 percent to 25 percent.

Gingrich justified his losing in Nevada to Mormons, but he's justified his losing to the former Massachusetts governor in Iowa and Florida due to being swamped with negative ads against him by Romney and his super PAC.

The former House speaker can't keep scapegoating Romney, Romney's super PAC, Romney's religious contemporaries, nor the "man in the moon" to win the GOP presidential nomination no matter how much Gingrich loves to feast on "sour grapes."

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/gop/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ac/20120206/pl_ac/10930536_newt_gingrich_scapegoating_nevada_mormons_is_very_disingenuous

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