Newt-mentum!

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Disgraced former House Speaker Newt Gingrich had the worst start to a presidential campaign evah! He tripped over the starting gate and fell flat on his face when he criticized U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan’s plan to end Medicare as we know it. Then he tried to recover from the ensuing GOP backlash by saying ‘Any ad which quotes what I said Sunday is a falsehood’. Classic Newt, issuing decrees like he is king.

Then Newt got himself into trouble when he would not say what he purchased at Tiffany & Co. jewelry store to rack up a $250,000-$500,000 credit because "It's my private life." Gingrich explains Tiffany credit as ‘private’ matter. He and his wife went on a Mediterranean cruise in early June. His staff resigned en masse. Political pundits declared his campaign over. Kaput!

But Newt retooled and hung in there, attending the "Survivor – GOP Presidential Primary" debates if not campaigning too hard. Conservative audiences responded well when he attacked the debate moderators for their stupid questions that did not respect his "brilliant mind." His arrogance and disdaine for anyone who disagreed with him fit well with the Tea-Publican audience's mindset.

Over the course of the debates, Tea-Publicans flirted with finding the "not the Romney" candidate to fall in love with. First, Tim Pawlenty "of nuthin'" flamed out in spectacular fashion early on. His picture appears next to the word BORING in the dictionary.

Then there was Tea-Publicans' spring fling with the Minnesota Loon, Michele Bachmann, and a brief infatuation with "The Donald" Trump. But they were just a little too high maintenance for Tea-Publicans. So needy.

By summer their attention turned to Governor Goodhair Rick Perry. But Goodhair turned out to be dumb as a fence post. As Jim Hightower says, "he puts the 'Goober' in gubernatorial." Goodhair was too dumb even for Tea-Publicans who loved George W. Bush.

Tea-Publicans then turned to the fast talking Herman Cain who spoke in simple platitudes and bumper sticker slogans like "9-9-9" — he spoke their language. But it turned out that the "Herminator" has bad manners around the ladies and was accused of sexual harrassment and even sexual assault.

The Herminator, rather than take personal responsibility and address questions forthrightly first denied accusations, then hem and hawed, then blamed Democrats, then blamed Governor Goodhair, and back to Democrats again, and finally settled upon blaming his alleged victims on a web site. Bad form! If Herman Cain was innocent of the accusations, he is certainly victimizing these women now.

There are also questions surrounding campaign finance law and tax law violations by his campaign. Herman Cain played the victimization card and the race card once too often. The infatuation soon wore off.

Which brings us back to the disgraced former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, the old flame for whom the Tea-Party is now flirting with a renewed interest for a lost love. Steve Benen writes at the Political Animal – Feel the Newt-mentum:

[N]ow it appears we have a Romney-Gingrich race. Here’s the new CNN national poll of Republican voters. (In the interests of space, I’m only including candidates with support in the double digits):

1. Mitt Romney: 24% (down two points since October)
2. Newt Gingrich: 22% (up 14 points)
3. Herman Cain: 14% (down nine points)
4. Rick Perry: 12% (down one point)

And here’s the new survey from Public Policy Polling, which was also released this afternoon (again, these are the only candidates to reach double digits):

1. Newt Gingrich: 28% (up 13 points since October)
2. Herman Cain: 25% (down five points)
3. Mitt Romney: 18% (down four points)

And in case anyone’s curious, separate polls from McClatchy and CBS News both show Gingrich’s support on par with Romney’s and/or Cain’s.

So, what can we take away from all of this? Well, for one thing, it’s probably fair to ask how much of Gingrich’s support is genuine, and how much of it is the result of Republican voters turning to him after trying and rejecting every other non-Romney candidate. Of course, either way, we appear to have a new Republican top tier.

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And finally, there’s the fact that Romney, despite being the clear favorite, just can’t figure out how to put some distance between himself and the rest of the Republican field. The Iowa caucuses are seven weeks from tomorrow, and the GOP frontrunner is seeing his support fall a little when he should be consolidating Republican support.

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Romney is running against misfits, clowns, and con men, and Romney still can’t get to 30%. As Jon Chait recently noted, “I don’t see how Republicans could be making this any more plain. They do not want to nominate Mitt Romney.”

Tea-Publicans are stil searching for the "not the Romney" candidate to fall in love with. This Newt Gingrich flirtation will not survive the dredging up of all the bad memories from the past and the reasons why they left him in the first place.

Will there still be time for Rick "man on dog" Santorum to be the new flavor-of-the month? Will it be perennial candidate Ron Paul? Is there time for Jon Huntsman to come back from polling in negative numbers and surge to the top?

Or will Tea-Publicans sour on the entire GOP field and go in search of one of their own to run as an "independent" candidate free from the GOP establishment? They want to be in love, but who will they choose? It won't be Willard "Mittens" Romney.