‘World News’ Political Insights: Gingrich Cuts Romney Where It Hurts
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(Charles Dharapak/AP Photo/Pool)
Analysis
Mitt Romney lost far more than South Carolina last night.
He also lost the air of inevitability around his candidacy. Newt Gingrich beat Romney in decisive, sweeping fashion in a state with a long history of picking winners — cutting into Romney’s strengths on economic issues and even on the question of electability, a critical attribute in a year Republicans desperately want to defeat President Obama.
But just because South Carolina voters consider Gingrich to be electable doesn’t make that so — not even, necessarily, in the Republican primary.
The race gets harder from here for Gingrich. First up is Florida Jan. 31, an enormously expensive state to advertise in.
Romney is already up on the air in the Sunshine State, and the Romney campaign’s organizational and financial advantages mean he’s already been banking early and absentee votes.
The two debates this week in Florida, coupled by publicity from his South Carolina victory, are likely to help Gingrich vault into quick contention. But Romney and his allies won’t be holding back in defining Gingrich and highlighting his breaks with conservative dogma, and Romney is poised to put issues of his tax returns behind him after stumbling over the issue last week.
After Florida, the campaign essentially goes national. The February caucus states, scattered from Nevada to Maine, are where Romney’s organization and fundraising prowess start to matter.
It’s worth remembering that while Romney had a chance to end the campaign early if he’d won South Carolina, his aides have always prepared for a slog of a fight to the nomination.
Yet there’s a deeper reason for the Romney campaign to worry. Gingrich is succeeding by plucking emotional chords with the Republican base — notes that Romney has famously been unable to match, and the type of music that has a way of plowing over grass-roots organization and slick ad campaigns.
Gingrich capped an astounding comeback by winning South Carolina after falling far back in the pack in Iowa and New Hampshire. His candidacy was declared effectively dead at least twice before he roared back into contention.
Romney remains the frontrunner by any objective criteria. But those same traditional ways to measure campaigns strongly suggested that Gingrich would have been forced out of this race long ago.
So the campaign moves on with Romney displaying more vulnerabilities than were evident just a few days ago. Gingrich, meanwhile, is connecting with voters in a way that Romney never quite has.
A race that was close to being effectively over by now will linger for weeks or, more likely, months. That’s particularly true if Rick Santorum pledges to stay in the race, as he said he would do on ABC’s “This Week” today.
A long nomination fight probably helped President Obama as a candidate four years ago. But he’ll gladly take an extended battle on the other side this time, with Romney and Gingrich doing damage to each other that he’ll be happy to pick up on in the general election.
The preferred choice of candidates at Obama’s Chicago campaign headquarters remains Gingrich. His well-documented flaws has prominent Republicans worried about the impact he’d have on congressional candidates in November, and those concerns will grow louder if Gingrich looks like he has a plausible shot at the nomination.
Democrats are still training their fire almost exclusively on Romney, hoping to soften him up further and boost Gingrich’s prospects.
But this latest stretch shows that the former House speaker has extraordinary political durability. His unique brand of campaigning, crafted by a man with a unique mind, is working.
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1st, you couldn’t trust Gingrich, then the media makes you not trust Romney. I don’t trust either one, but I do trust Ron Paul!
Posted by: bob | January 22, 2012, 6:35 pm 6:35 pm
I also trust Ron Paul. He is genuine but that is because he can afford to. He is a cult leader who named his son after, Ayn Rand. We are no longer in the 17 and 18th century. He doesn’t understand how the modern economy works. People didn’t all of a sudden came up with the Federal Bank for fun. It is the height of naivety for him and his small band of cult members.
Posted by: dabu | January 22, 2012, 6:46 pm 6:46 pm
Back in the Summer of 2011, there was a lot of concern regarding a Greek Cruise that Newt Gingrich and his wife Callista went on. Much of Mr. Gingrich’s campaign staff quit at the time because they felt he should have been laying the groundwork for his campaign, and not going on a vacation. A lot was also reported about two Tiffany accounts, one for $500,000, and the other for $1,000,000. In light of the recently renewed questions regarding Mr. Gingrich’s moral character, there may be a good explanation why someone as smart as Newt Gingrich found it so necessary to go on that Cruise. It is likely that Newt used the cruise to get his wife Callista on board with his campaign. Perhaps he felt that he needed coach her on how to avoid talking about his attitude toward marriage, and the fact that she was a willing accomplice to having an open marriage. This was probably the most important campaign preparation that Mr. Gingrich had to manage at that time. He had to train his wife. He may even have had to prepare her for revelations or accusations of his infidelity toward her during their marriage (smooth things over). A large credit account at Tiffany’s makes a lot of sense when viewed from the perspective of a man that has an appetite for multiple women, and needs to constantly get his wife’s forgiveness. Leopards do not change their spots, and it is not believable that this one has. The spots may have faded a little, but given enough power and influence, Newt’s inability to reign in his appetite for carousing will surface again, religion or not. The office of President of the United States cannot afford another such assault on its character.
Newt Gingrich attacked CNN’s John King and ABC for reopening the discussion of his adulterous past. Newt argued that these things where beneath discussing in a Presidential Debate, and that John King and ABC should be ashamed of themselves because the discussion could, among other things, hurt his two daughters who had already been through so much. There is a real problem with Mr. Gingrich’s logic in this regard. After all, it was his actions, not John King’s or ABC’s, that created the hurt that his family has experienced. Without those actions, we would not have such disturbing things to consider. Regarding the argument that certain things are not proper to discuss in a presidential debate, let’s just say that there are certain things that are inappropriate for a President, and if they become a matter of discussion in a debate, then perhaps the wrong man wants to be President.
Posted by: Volker Moulding | January 22, 2012, 7:58 pm 7:58 pm
Voker Moulding: All you are doing is spreading gossip and making up lies. Stick to the truth. I don’t think Newt’s very high up the morallity standards. But he is an open book. With him you know what you are getting. With Mitt Romney it’s very unknown. He is a very secretive person and that scares me. But LDS is like that. You only get to see so much of the church until you earn the “right” to know more.
Posted by: snooks | January 22, 2012, 8:19 pm 8:19 pm
Alot of words written there, but your boy Mitt still lost. Get over it.
Posted by: jake | January 22, 2012, 8:21 pm 8:21 pm
BTW, Newts has his accounts at Tiffanys, unlike Mitt who has his accounts in the Cayman Islands. Isn’t it a bit strange that this man who claims he has America’s best interest at heart sends his money to the Cayman Islands, known for hiding money from the Government. Is there a reasonable explanation for this? Or how about Mitt’s money going to his church, then it goes to Bain Ventures, then it winds up in the Cayman Islands again? Sounds like some kind of scheme to evade US taxes or money laundering. Tell us about this convuleted manner of money handling Mitt, is this what normal Americans do? I don’t think so.
Posted by: jake | January 22, 2012, 8:33 pm 8:33 pm
Gingrich states that Mitt is a “very good salesman; very much wants to sell; but he has a really weak product; dancing on eggs” – what do you think Gingrich is selling? Bull ; and the people are buying it! Can’t figure it out! Completely stuns me!
Posted by: Gloria Baron | January 22, 2012, 9:01 pm 9:01 pm
So is America really ready for a downright UGLY president (both inside and out)? Gingrich has managed to make Herman Cain not appear so creepy and sleazy anymore.
Posted by: Brave Brick | January 22, 2012, 9:28 pm 9:28 pm
Newt Gingrich is a sleaze bag who divorced his wife when she had cancer, he is a dispicable cheater, he REALLY needs a good therapist. You say you know what you get with him? Really? How sure are you that you know EVERYTHING about him, when what’s been revealed is a bad heart, selfishly bad judgement and poor impluse control. And an incredible sense of entitlement. With him, any sort of political mischief would be possible. I will NEVER vote for him. If it comes down between him and Obama, this voter who was hoping to vote Repubican this time WILL STAY HOME.
Posted by: NacyH | January 22, 2012, 9:38 pm 9:38 pm
Alot of words written there, but your boy Mitt still lost
Posted by: jake
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I wouldn’t bet on that. Mitt is 20 percentage points ahead of Newt in Florida by every poll in the country. If Mitt “lost” I’m sure the polls would say the opposite.
Posted by: spike | January 22, 2012, 9:43 pm 9:43 pm
LMAO! …… It’s actually funny to see each of these Republican candidates (Romney, Gingrich and Santorum) speaking the truths about each of the others, i.e., what pitiful candidates they all are for the White House. Just by how the primaries have gone so far, it’s clear, the Republican primary is going to drag on longer than usual… and so we’ll be able to continue our laughs watching the charade.
Posted by: Forrest Gump is DEFINITELY a Republican | January 22, 2012, 9:47 pm 9:47 pm
Who cares, all of these candidates will lose to Obama. The Republican party has proved that they hate Obama more than they love this country.
Posted by: DanV | January 22, 2012, 9:55 pm 9:55 pm
Obama is easy to hate———he’s a corrupt idiot and his record as president shows this over and over and over and over and over and over again.
Posted by: saidagainsaid | January 22, 2012, 10:01 pm 10:01 pm
“Democrats are still training their fire almost exclusively on Romney, hoping to soften him up further and boost Gingrich’s prospects.” Happens all the time. The DEMS pick the GOP candidate. If you wanted election reform like the libs scream, they would be barred if they did not have a dog in the fight.
Posted by: uisignorant | January 22, 2012, 10:25 pm 10:25 pm
Dang Jake, tall about spreading rumors. Good Job!
Posted by: uisignorant | January 22, 2012, 10:32 pm 10:32 pm
Gingrich will do well in Florida. Florida is actually shaped like a limp dick with huge Texasticles
Posted by: andrewesome | January 22, 2012, 10:42 pm 10:42 pm
Doesn’t matter which party you elect. The American people will still lose.
Posted by: AmericaThePitiful | January 22, 2012, 10:45 pm 10:45 pm
Captain Kangaroo with jowls – no thanks.
Ron Paul – yes, please.
Posted by: Aaron Ververs | January 22, 2012, 11:02 pm 11:02 pm
to SAIDAGAINSAID: You must be one of the “TP”(i.e., anti-fer bigots. (i.e., an Anti-Federalist afraid to come out of the closet).BTW, the Anti-Federalists lost 200 years ago when the US Constitution was drafted and enacted. I voted for 11 Republican Presidential candidates in a row, starting with Eisenhower. You couldn’t waterboard me into voting for any one of the logic disabled people on the GOP roster. Obama is a long way from a great president, but he’s at least an order of magnitude better than any of the 8 D.B.’s killing each other in the primaries. Thank heaven 4 have already left on the train to ignominy. The remaining 4 will be history soon. None of them remember Reagan’s 11th commandment. They’re chewing each other up worse than any Democrat could.
Remember that candidates get marked on a curve, and although President Obama hasn’t done a great job, in the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king. Watch for the GOP to get buried worse than Barry Goldwater (for whom I voted) did in 1964. The 2012 election will have a spot in our nation’s history books for years.
Posted by: excfo | January 22, 2012, 11:09 pm 11:09 pm
“He doesn’t understand how the modern economy works. People didn’t all of a sudden came up with the Federal Bank for fun.” – DABU at 6:46
Um… first of all, it’s called the Federal Reserve. Second of all, are you aware it’s not a government agency? If it’s not a government agency, who do you think it’s working for? It’s not working for you. I challenge you to research the workings of the Federal Reserve and the clandestine way it was suddenly inserted into the federal government. The cliche is that the Federal Reserve is no more Federal than is Federal Express.
Posted by: August Strong | January 23, 2012, 12:09 am 12:09 am
@ABCNEWS.COM–”The race gets harder from here for Gingrich. First up is Florida Jan. 31, an enormously expensive state to advertise in.”_______________ ENGLISH 101: Never end a sentence with a preposition. ABC needs a grammarian, for sure!
Posted by: NoFlyZone2 | January 23, 2012, 12:41 am 12:41 am
Ron Paul does not care about the election at all. The revolution is not about election. It is about dismissing the house, senate, and eventually the government. However, if someone gets elected in this illegally organized circus, Gingrich is still the strongest as compared to the other 2 losers Obama and Romney. Gingrich has a good sense of judgement, in clear contrast to the other Democratic loser he investigated.
Posted by: electronmicroscope | January 23, 2012, 12:47 am 12:47 am
I will not pay a cent to anyone who not only wastes my tax dollars, but also stands in my way. In that sense Gingrich is very right to spell out the truth.
Posted by: Americathewonderful | January 23, 2012, 1:48 am 1:48 am
“I will not pay a cent to anyone who not only wastes my tax dollars, but also stands in my way.” Too late!
Posted by: newcountryman | January 23, 2012, 8:51 am 8:51 am
However, if someone gets elected in this illegally organized circus, Gingrich is blah blah blah…
Posted by: electronmicroscope | January 23, 2012, 12:47 am.
Illegally organized? Pray tell, WHY is our presidential election process “illegally organized”?
Posted by: A Cynic | January 23, 2012, 9:08 am 9:08 am
Obama is easy to hate———he’s a corrupt idiot…
Posted by: saidagainsaid | January 22, 2012, 10:01 pm
“Corrupt idiot”? Interesting. So he’s smart enough to, as president of the United States, organize and control and hide this corruption – yet he’s an idiot, too? You morons on the Right are so pathetically desperate that you can’t even make a coherent insult against the president with out looking like a horse’s arse. ‘Guilty by allegation’ is your new norm. Craven and pathetic barely covers your behavior.
Posted by: A Cynic | January 23, 2012, 9:12 am 9:12 am