Update and bumped: Well, that didn’t take long, did it? During the time I was working on tonight’s posts (gosh, I only had about another 30 others to comment on!!!), this is getting some traction out of a confrontation in Des Moine between Newt and an incensed Republican activist:
As he was getting ready to leave a speaking engagement Dubuque resident Russell Fuhrman approached him in the lobby of the Holiday Inn:
“Get out now before you make a bigger fool of yourself,” Fuhrman said directly to Gingrich.
Gingrich, visibly stunned, quickly moved forward to talk with other guests.
Fuhrman told The Register afterward that he just happened to be at the hotel. He said he’s upset with Gingrich’s disagreements with parts of the House Republican Medicare reform plan.
Fuhrman said he’s a solid Republican but that Ginrich “is a jerk.”
“I’m a strong Republican but he’s an embarrassment to our party,” Fuhrman said.
Well Newt is in, but given his performance on Meet The Press on Sunday when he Royally dissed Congressman Paul Ryan’s Roadmap, and gave notice that he’s in favor of some kind of individual mandate (and is now in Major Walkback mode on both), he is already in a bit of kerfuffle trouble.
And then this old commercial isn’t going to help him out either:
Nobody is white driven snow and all of the maybe-candidates have a closet with bones in it. Problem for Newt is that the bones are starting to ad up:
- Wife cheating
- Individual mandate
- Dissing a likeable Republican (and a rising start to boot)
- Embracing the lady (who most Republicans find distasteful at best, I won’t repeat the worst) in common cause for a policy that most Conservative: Cap N Trade.
It is not clear that his ability to have be the "idea a minute guy" is enough to overcome the background rattles.
I’m not sure that Huckabee dropping out is going to help him in the least. If anything, Newt would be seen as an Establishment Republican and most of Huck’s supporters are the Evangelical / social conservatives. These folks are going to look at Newt’s personal life, state that everyone is fallen and "there for the grace of God go I" (except it is three times over), and keep on walking to look for another candidate. On the flip side, he’s a wonk’s wonk – the problem is that there just aren’t enough of them to go around to do well in anyone’s primary or caucus.
