We were told by Newt Gingrich’s campaign spokesperson, R.C. Hammond, that Mississippi and Alabama were must wins for Gingrich to be considered a credible candidate. Newt Gingrich is no longer a credible candidate after last night’s losses. Now he says the goal is to keep Mitt Romney from securing the 1144 delegates needed to win the nomination since he recognizes he can’t achieve that number himself.
What? Wow, how *inspiring.* What he will do instead is continue to block Rick Santorum from hauling in more delegates. Santorum has demonstrated that he can win states even with Gingrich in the race, but Gingrich does provide a split with delegate counts. Polling has consistently pointed out the fact that without Gingrich in the race Santorum is more formidable.
In Alabama and Mississippi conservative voters have spoken and said “thanks, but no thanks” to Newt. Yet while Gingrich promises to forge ahead as a spoiler even with sparse crowds he is in reality burning down the GOP house as Jamie Weinstein in an op/ed at The Daily Caller points out.
But if Newt can’t win Mississippi and Alabama, where will he win? Maybe Texas, where he has been endorsed by Gov. Rick Perry. But that delegate-rich primary takes place at the end of May, and by then Gingrich will probably be so irrelevant that he couldn’t win the state even if Ronald Reagan and Sam Houston endorsed him.
He’s functionally done, not being able to beat a Northerner in his Southern backyard.
But even functionally done and increasingly irrelevant, he can hurt Rick Santorum, who had two big wins Tuesday night in Alabama and Mississippi. Polling shows that Santorum would take more supporters of Gingrich’s than Mitt Romney if Newt got out of the race. Had Newt Gingrich dropped out earlier, Santorum would have likely won the crucial state of Ohio, and perhaps even Michigan.
In close races going forward, even if Gingrich is only picking up 10 percent of the vote, he could throw states to Romney. Gingrich’s presence in the race effectively benefits the man he supposedly detests.
Yet he promises to go to convention. Oh lucky us. As I said earlier it is time Gingrich to go. The only people who want him in the race at this point are Romney supporters.
Update: Maybe Romney will play audience to an “act of God.”
