The Rise and Fall of Newt Gingrich

Newt was floundering around after a sub-par fifth place finish in the New Hampshire Primary, and needed something to dig into and gain traction to propel his way forward.  Along came ABC News and John King.  Last Friday, the morning of the biggest debate in the career of Newt Gingrich, ABC News came out with an interview with one of his former wives explaining how the man had asked for an open marriage because he was having an affair.  What topic did John King, the CNN moderator for the debate that night, bring up as the first question?  You guessed it, that interview:

Well, that was a fantastic response from Mr. Gingrich.  In fact, it was that response that lead to him shooting up the polls and erasing a double digit Mitt Romney lead on his way to winning the South Carolina Primary in a landslide.  Despite the opinion of many people, I think Newt's response was completely fine.  The fact is, nothing that came out in the ABC interview was not already out there for the public to read.  All of this information was readily available, so why release this interview at such an important time for a man who is trying to win the Republican nomination?  Clearly there was another motive for ABC beside just enlightening the people.  Then, add in the fact that this topic was brought up as the first question of the most important debate?  Come on, how about you at least start the debate with the important issues?  I'm not saying it shouldn't be discussed, as it absolutely should, but is that really a topic that's worthy of occupying the first question?  I don't think it is.  His reaction to that question created a surge that won him South Carolina, and turned the tables nicely to wind up taking a 9 point lead in the Florida polls just a week after Mitt Romney had a 26 point lead.  His reaction to that question put him back on the map in the GOP race.  Now that he's a serious contender though, he's subject to increased scrutiny.

I supported Newt Gingrich.  If you've followed my political posts, you would know that I've been a strong supporter of Rick Santorum for a while now.  Since Santorum just doesn't have the finances or the publicity to win the nomination, my decision was left between Romney, Gingrich, and Ron Paul.  Despite the fact that he's very bright economically, I can't vote for Ron Paul due to his foreign policy.  I had been extremely tentative about Romney as he's clearly the most moderate of the candidates, which caused me to support Gingrich.  That and the fact that he's a fantastic debater, and I would pay an obscene amount of money to see him debate Obama, simply because he would crush him.

However, yesterday my support faded.  Not because of anything he did or said, but because of what other people have said.  It's truly become apparent that not only do liberals hate Gingrich, but an unbelievable amount of conservatives hate him as well.  One of my favorite conservative women, Ann Coulter, is an enormous fan of Mitt Romney, and clearly a lot of it has to do with her passionate hatred of Newt Gingrich.  Here's what she said on "The O'Reilly Factor" on Monday:

I could listen to that women talk forever, as she's unbelievably intelligent.  I question her claim that Romney's the most conservative candidate, as there's no way in hell he's more conservative than Santorum, but other than that she's fantastic.  Another one of my favorite people, Glenn Beck (say what you want), has also come out and crushed Gingrich:

I've been listening to his radio show but I couldn't find a video from that, so I figured this one would prove the point.  Either way, you'd a conservative like Beck, who is widely criticized by liberals for being radically right-winged, would support a man who is running as a "Bold Reagan conservative".  Then, finally, to someone who I find to be even more radical than Beck, Michael Savage.  Even I think Savage is a bit of a nut, although the man is unbelievably intelligent.  As a side not, Savage has a PhD in Botany.  Yes, botany.  I'm pretty sure nobody has ever gotten a PhD in that field without being legally documented as a genius.  Also, he's banned from the country of England, but that's neither here nor there.  Anyway, the man is so against Gingrich that he offered him a million dollars to not run for president.  Not only is it repulsive that a radio host has that much money to throw around, but to hate someone that much?  That's inconceivable.

The amount of backlash against Gingrich is appalling, and since it's coming from strong conservatives along with the far left it's hard to defend Newt.  If the man can't even win the support of the people who he's supposed to be appealing to, then how can we expect him to gain enough support from independents to beat Obama?  Again, say what you want, but I respect these people, and they all agree that Newt is simply not a true conservative.  It's impossible to ignore these views coming out, and it's really hard to cause this volume of people to flat out despise you.  Well done Newt, you managed to do it.  You're only slightly ahead of Ron Paul in my book.  And I mean slightly.