Ego or Revenge: Why is Newt Gingrich Still Running
With that said, he’s been in this race for two different contests now and he’s repeatedly placed in the bottom half of the pack. And it’s not due to a lack of variety, as Iowa and New Hampshire conservatives and voting methods are stark contrasts from one another.
What’s worse, I think it could easily be argued that Newt’s presence in the race prevented Rick Santorum from firmly establishing himself as the anti-Romney candidate by winning Iowa in a convincing manner. Bachmann played a role in that, too. Rick Santorum’s inability to get a major victory over Mitt Romney is probably why Rick Perry is still in this race. I’ve long compared Rick Perry to Fred Thompson in 2008, and his botched Iowa campaign and direct flight from there to South Carolina to attack everybody (including Santorum) seems to only reaffirm the legitimacy of that comparison.
All Rick Perry, Newt Gingrich, and Rick Santorum are going to do in South Carolina is divide anti-Romney conservatives three ways and ensure the nomination of Mitt Romney.
Unless… No.
Well, maybe. Maybe that’s not going to be what happens. Maybe, Newt Gingrich is staying in this race just long enough to travel to South Carolina, shake some hands, and then shock the political world by getting out and endorsing Rick Santorum in his concession speech.
I missed Newt Gingrich’s post-New Hampshire primary speech because I was on the phone with a snake-oil salesman from India working for Dell (he tried telling me $200 software with a 3-year license would magically make my fiancée’s computer work – her motherboard is defective… They’ll do anything to avoid standing behind their warranty).
However, I did see Newt’s Iowa speech and that made it pretty clear he has a lot of respect for Rick Santorum. Given that Santorum has come closest to beating Romney in either of these contests (8 votes in Iowa), I think he should probably be the consensus candidate to take on Romney the rest of the way forward.
If Newt Gingrich forcefully endorses Santorum in South Carolina, it’s hard to imagine Romney winning that state. It would be icing on the cake if Perry would get on board with the plan, too. That latter part is extremely unlikely, however.
The question for Newt Gingrich is, “Why are you running?” If this is about his ego, he’ll stay in until after South Carolina and then endorse Mitt Romney as though everything that happened between them was just a joke. If this is about getting revenge on Mitt Romney, he’ll endorse Santorum sometime soon in South Carolina and then work at further discrediting Mitt Romney.
For what it’s worth, that’s what he would do if he was sincere about his desire to elect a conservative to the White House.
I don’t know what Newt’s motives are and I won’t venture a guess at this point. We’ll see if Newt puts his cause before himself in South Carolina and discuss it further when we know for sure.
For the first time in this race, someone other than Mike Huckabee or Sarah Palin has the weight to be a king-maker in the GOP; that person being Newt Gingrich.
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