Newt's good week might come to an early end
Jonathan Jones 4:02pm
It had been a pretty good week for Newt Gingrich's presidential campaign. He put in a strong performance in Monday night's debate, he got a near-endorsement from Sarah Palin (she said ‘If I had a vote in South Carolina, in order to keep this thing going, I'd vote for Newt.’), a poll yesterday put him just 3 points behind Romney nationally, and one today shows him taking the lead in South Carolina. And he can expect to pick up a good number of Rick Perry's few remaining supporters, with the Texas Governor dropping out today and endorsing Gingrich.
Meanwhile, things haven't been going so well for Mitt Romney. There's been increasing focus on his financial affairs: the rate of tax he pays, the amount he earns in speaking fees and the funds he has listed in the Cayman Islands. On top of this, the recount in Iowa has deprived Romney of his win there – instead of finishing eight votes ahead of Rick Santorum, the final official tally has him 34 votes behind.
All of this had seemed to reverse the momentum as we approach the South Carolina primary. Whereas Romney had been looking a surer and surer bet to win there, there's now a very real chance that Gingrich could snatch victory on Saturday night.
But tonight, Gingrich's often-mentioned ‘personal baggage’ looks set to dent that momentum. ABC News is airing an interview with his second wife, Marianne (to whom he was married when he began an affair with his current wife, Callista). Suffice it to say, she's unlikely to shine a positive light on the former Speaker. In one clip (above) she claims he asked for an open marriage. And while Gingrich's affairs and divorces are common knowledge, the interview – as well as Romney's new ads featuring Republicans who served under Gingrich in Congress calling him ‘chaotic’ and ‘erratic’ – might change the media narrative from ‘Gingrich on the rise’ to ‘Gingrich under fire’. Even one of Gingrich's crowd-pleasing debate performances tonight might not be able to keep his surge going.
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callingallcomets
January 19th, 2012 5:33pm Report this commentThis was summed up quite neatly here http://www.theagedp.com/?p=4479 and it's interesting to see that the Speccie regards a bit of praise from Sarah Palin as worthy of note considering ever since Nov 2008 we have been told in these pages how irrelevant she is.
Not so sure that this TV interview will draw too much blood. Consider the source...ABC...one of the big US networks. Presumably the aim of this project is to undermine conservative support for Newt since they place a big value on family, fidelity etc. But the conservatives also mistrust the big TV networks who they believe continue to be in the tank for Obama as they were in 2008...in other words it could backlash into increased support for Newt
Rush Limbaugh is onto this angle at this very moment....the trouble with you speccie boys is you tend to look at these things through the Frum/Brooks/Douthat angle when in fact thses characters have little or no connection with the Tea Party seam of conservatism which channelled victory in 2010.
Not saying it won't hurt Newt, just that you need to read all the runes...
Tariq
January 19th, 2012 5:54pm Report this commentWhy would Palin or anyone else want to "keep this thing going"? The whole purpose of frontloading primaries is to allow the party to settle early on a nominee who can then concentrate on winning the general election. Dragging the contest out risks weakening its eventual winner.
I think what's really going on here is that a key GOP constituency doesn't want a non-Protestant at the top of the ticket.
Jeremy
January 19th, 2012 6:35pm Report this commentHas anybody informed Mr Gingrich that Ken Livingstone is a Newt fancier?
Kevin
January 20th, 2012 9:38am Report this commentThe last paragraph reads like thoughtless gossip rather than political analysis. It does not take much to rearrange the pieces and get a completely different perspective:
"Gingrich has been giving crowd-pleasing debate performances. Tonight, ABC News is airing an interview with his second wife, even though his affairs and divorces are common knowledge. Suffice it to say, she's unlikely to shine a positive light on the former Speaker. This might change the media narrative from ‘Gingrich on the rise’ to ‘Gingrich under fire'."
And why might ABC News want that to happen? They should be the subject of this posting, not Gingrich.
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