Gingrich Reaps What He Sowed

Hoist with his own petard: Newt Gingrich had to swallow a bitter defeat in the Florida primary election. His chances of getting the nomination are drying up, but you wouldn’t know it by the way he acts.

Mitt Romney spent five times more than Newt Gingrich did on the Florida primary election. He also injected five times more poisonous rhetoric into the campaign than Gingrich did. It was obvious that the Massachusetts ex-governor had learned his lesson well in South Carolina 10 days earlier. The only way one can win against a brawler like Gingrich is to trade in your stiletto for a bazooka. That worked perfectly in Florida: Romney not only beat Gingrich, he absolutely blew him away.

Was Florida the decisive hurdle? Very possibly — although the actual indicator doesn’t come until March 6, when 10 states hold their primaries on so-called Super Tuesday. But it’s more than just doubtful whether Newt Gingrich will be able to pull off a third comeback after an abortive December and the defeat following South Carolina. First of all, Romney has learned over the past couple of weeks how to wage an effective and dirty campaign. And second, Gingrich is showing signs of nervousness as never before. He has practically run amok with his permanent verbal attacks. And they, as he learned in Florida, quickly run out of steam.

As Speaker of the House in the 1990s, Gingrich became known as a mercurial and always unpredictable personality surrounded by a permanent aura of fury. The 68-year-old politician carries that image with him to this day. Addressing a crowd in Orlando after the election, he delivered what amounted to a victory speech rather than giving the usual comments of a defeated candidate. There wasn’t a trace of anything indicating he was a gracious loser, such as conceding that he had received and understood the message voters had sent him.

Gingrich claimed he wouldn’t run a scorched earth campaign. Instead of that, he reverted to attacking Romney as a Massachusetts liberal and inveighing against an elitist media. He also made numerous irresponsible promises, should he actually be elected, ranging from the revocation of many laws already on the books to recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. Gingrich’s performance last night was in no way presidential; he was desperately pulling out all the stops.

There’s a possibility that the long-serving Georgia representative might pick up a few votes in those Republican caucuses to be held in February. He still comes off more authentic than Romney during public appearances, even if Romney did learn a lesson from this.

But the bottom line is that gut feeling isn’t the only factor in deciding who wins; endurance will also be a factor in determining who will make it to Nov. 6 and possibly beat Barack Obama. Romney may not be the party’s fair-haired boy, but he is increasingly gaining respect from Republicans.