Is there anything to the idea that some are trying to float that Romney will actually be ok with Gingrich winning SC? The idea being that such would put an end to Santorum and Santorum is the only real threat out there - that only a wacko state like SC would go for a wacko like Gingrich and so with Santorum out of the way the next four or five primaries easily fall to Romney and then it's game over? I dunno. I still think that if you're battling Newt [and Paul] till the end two negatives come of that - the republican brand increasingly looks unhinged, diminished, which doesn't help the eventual nominee - and two, with Gingrich attacking you from the left that in a sense legitimizes Obama's arguments to come which to me makes it very difficult to paint Obama as immoderate - which presents not only a tricky problem for Romney but also for republicans in congress who will be stuck trying to counter Obama's populism viz taxes on the rich and vulture capitalism etc etc while one of their own is making the same argument. Krauthammer was right: it's really impossible to overstate the abject stupidity of Gingrich's left wing attacks on Romney.
And let's not forget that Romney's failure to adequately defend himself on Bain and his taxes, a defence that should have been easy to make, has left him looking weak and a wee bit incompetent, not good optics for a person whose main appeal to right wing voters is his supposed ability to beat Obama - now I know it's absurd that a deeply flawed person like Gingrich can attack a conservative in terms admired by ultra uber lefty Michael Moore, terms taken essentially right out of the Obama reelection playbook, and be rewarded for it by republicans - but that's the point, this primary is absurd, has been from the start - and therefore an abomination like Newt now making a serious run for it would not surprise me at all.
Peter Wehner over at Commentary makes point that a deeply flawed Newt profiting from insanity currently at play in republican primary does not reflect well on conservatism in America.
