Feb 2, 2012

Newt Gingrich: What is the Sound of One Shoe Scraping?

Newt Gingrich threatens to be around for a while. Literally. After a decisive loss in the Florida primary, he didn’t concede or quit. Instead he threatened to wage a long, hard campaign for the nomination. Just whom he was addressing is in question.

The best way for Mr. Gingrich to threaten Mitt Romney is by beating him and winning a single primary won’t do it. What’s more, if the Civil War is any indication, things that start in South Carolina don’t always end well.Unlike Rick Santorum, his speech wasn’t a brave attempt to rally his remaining supporters. Nor, like Ron Paul, was it a guarded way of telling them they’re not getting their money back. So, he couldn’t be directing his comments to the cheering people around him. And there’s never any doubt when Newt is threatening a Democratic opponent. So, the answer must be that, as always, he was talking to himself. After all, one of the two things about Newt Gingrich that you can always depend on is that his ego and self-involvement are limitless - even for a politician. (The other is that his respect for women falls somewhere between Mel Gibson and The Taliban.) That Newt can fool himself into thinking that he still has a chance is, therefore, without question. Whether he can continue to fool his major contributor, Sheldon Adelson, remains to be seen. Until then, Newt Gingrich’s fellow Republicans would be wise to step carefully on the campaign trail.

No comments:

Post a Comment