Gingrich Whines (Again) About Romney's Negative Ads

by JASmius

Politics is replete with cliches - "a chicken in every pot," "peace and prosperity," "Let me be clear," "FOOOOOOORE!!!!," etc. But perhaps no political cliche is more ubiquitous and endemic than losing candidates bitching and moaning about their victorious opponent's superior financial resources and negative advertising.

For being a self-styled "visionary," Newt Gingrich sure does lack imagination, at least in this area:

Newt Gingrich demanded Friday that Mitt Romney stop the barrage of TV attack ads that badly damage him and Rick Santorum each time they
seemed poised to make big strides in the GOP presidential race.

Admitting to Louisiana voters that he can't match Romney and a
pro-Romney super PAC in fundraising, Gingrich repeated a plea that thus far the front-running Romney has ignored.

"I challenge Governor Romney and his super PAC to pledge to take every
negative ad about every Republican off the air, because it dishonors
them, it weakens the Republican Party, and it helps Barack Obama,"
Gingrich told a cheering outdoor crowd of more than 200 in Covington.

Gee, Mr. Speaker, what a....moderate thing to say. Also phonier than your average, ordinary, everyday Obama energy policy speech.

Whenever I hear a pol who's getting his/her ass kicked in an election campaign trundle out this whiny canard, I'm reminded of Yankee third baseman and Madonna boy-toy Alex Rodriguez. Specifically, eleven years ago when he signed his (first) quarter-billion dollar contract with the Texas Rangers, after having gone out of his way to publicly disavow that team suitors dangling Brinks trucks in front of his schnoz would EVER affect his free agency decision. Forever thereafter he was condemned to be booed and have dollar bills affixed to hooks attached to lines dangling from fishing poles cast at him from angry, jilted Seattle Mariner fans.

I, however, was never one of them. Why? Simple: If you had taken any of those angry, jilter Mariner fans and put them in A-Roid's Guccis, they'd have slurped up that quarter-bil faster than Red Barry snarfs down a chili half-smoke. In short, it was all populist nonsense.

Ditto Newt's (and Cap'n SweaterVest's) complaint. If Speaker Blimpy had Governor Romney's warchest, does anybody seriously believe that he wouldn't be carpet-bombing Mitt with neutron PR warheads? After all that Occupy-esque Bain Capital caterwauling?

Puh-leeze.

Is he going to stay in the race despite losing his one and only casino magnate sugar daddy? You betcha.

And you know who that helps?:

Some conservative Republicans have called for Gingrich to
drop out of the race on the assumption that conservative primary voters would then unite behind Santorum as the conservative alternative to the more moderate Romney. But Gallup data indicate that Gingrich voters would not be likely to coalesce behind Santorum, suggesting that factors other than candidate ideology may be attracting voters to Gingrich, Santorum, and Romney.

Gallup can simulate Republican preferences without Gingrich in the
race by removing Gingrich votes and reassigning them to his voters'
second-choice candidate. The results of this procedure suggest that
national GOP preferences would change little if Gingrich dropped out. The reconfigured preferences show Romney getting 40% of the vote and Santorum getting 33%. That seven-percentage-point Romney lead is essentially the same as the
six-point (34% to 28%) Romney lead in March 8-15 interviewing with Gingrich support included.

At the very least, it doesn't hurt Mitt. More specifically, it means that Mr. Newt is irrelevant to both process and outcome. Which to a man of his rotund grandiosity, is his own personalized version of hell on Earth.

I just wish he'd go there and resume cooking up more half-baked ideas that are actually conservative on a stopped-clock schedule - and take the Pennsylvania hall monitor with him. Our nominee has an election to win.

[cross-posted @ Hard Starboard]