After Newt Gingrich’s unfortunate losses in Alabama and Mississippi Tuesday night, it became obvious to everyone – including Newt Gingrich’s campaign – that there was no longer a clear path to the Republican presidential nomination for former Speaker of the House.
Before the polls closed Tuesday Gingrich’s campaign sent reporters an ‘internal memo’ titled “Gingrich Advisers Highlight Half Time Strategy, Path to the Nomination” explaining how Gingrich could still win the nomination, even if he didn’t win the evening’s primaries.
Before the votes had even been tallied, the Gingrich campaign was desperately trying to lower expectations for Gingrich’s performance that night – expectations it had set for itself by staking the reputation of it’s candidate on his ability to win the South.
But when neither the media nor Gingrich’s own supporters bought the absurd memo, Gingrich was forced to turn to Plan B: Duel Mitt Romney on the floor of the presidential nominating convention in August, winner-take-all style.
Rather than gracefully exit the presidential primary with his dignity and respect of his supporters, Gingrich has decided that if he can’t be President, no one can.
From Byron York’s piece in The Washington Examiner:
“The reason I keep citing Leonard Wood is because in 1920, Wood goes into the convention as the frontrunner,” Gingrich said. “[Warren G.] Harding goes in as the guy who’s in sixth place, and at the end of ten ballots, Harding is the nominee and Wood is gone.” More than 90 years later, that’s the scenario Gingrich sees as his own path to victory.
But has Gingrich considered that his own supporters would rather him bow out courteously than continue this charade?
Last Wednesday, the morning after Gingrich’s southern disaster, Red Alert Politics contributor and Gingrich supporter Dan Webb had this to say:
Webb speculated that Santorum’s campaign has probably contacted Gingrich about leaving the race. He ironically pointed out that Santorum probably couldn’t beat Romney outright and the Santorum campaign’s best bet would be to win enough delegates to force a contested convention – the strategy the Gingrich campaign adopted for it’s own purposes later the same day. Webb now says it’s possible Gingrich will stick to his word and pursue that strategy himself, as he indicated he would to The Examiner.
Crystal Wright, a communications consultant and publisher of Conservative Black Chick who organized Gingrich’s efforts to get on the ballot in Washington, D.C., told Red Alert Politics said she wasn’t sure she was comfortable with the process Gingrich’s campaign was proposing.
“As a Newt supporter I would rather see him earn this in more of a straight forward fashion nomination because I find that to be convoluted,” she said of Gingrich’s plans to wrangle the nomination away from Romney at the Tampa convention this August. “I think it’s going to created a lot of hatred towards him.”
Wright said she thought the strategy could backfire on Gingrich and upset supporters of Romney and Santorum, who earned their delegates fair and square.
“To me, it looks like a short cut – a kind of legal short cut, and I don’t like it. It puts a bad taste in my mouth,” she said. “To me, Newt needs go out and win some damn contests.”
She said once Newt started winning contests and putting “sweat equity” into the race the way Romney is, then he can start challenging delegates.
Wright, who has been especially defensive on TV and on twitter of Gingrich in the past, has noticeably switched the focus of her prolific tweeting to attacking Santorum over the last week. Wright said she does not think Romney is the perfect candidate, but she would support him over Santorum for the nomination. Her decision was partially influenced by Romney’s campaign’s superior organization, which makes it better positioned to beat Obama than Santorum’s campaign apparatus.
With the Maryland and D.C. primaries fast approaching on April 3, and Gingrich’s supposed plan to be the race at that time whether he loses Louisiana’s April 24 primary, Wright said she didn’t know if she would be involved in Gingrich’s GOTV operations in the DC metro area at that time.
“I really believe in my heart of hearts he will not let this turn into some bitter fight that runs into August,” she said.
