Mostly Dead

You have to give the GOP credit.  Only the GOP and their echo chamber can make several news cycles out of Newt Gingrich being endorsed by the Manchester Union Leader.  The only state newspaper in NH has an unearned reputation for driving the agenda in NH politics, and their endorsement set the national media atwitter.

In the final analysis, I'm not sure what it means, if anything.  Newt still has no money, no organization and it's pretty difficult to see him more than just a traveling sham artist.  If Gingrich had been born 150 years ago, he'd be traveling the country with a large suitcase filled with Dr. Newt's Elixir, cure for everything.

So, what's next?  It seems obvious that nearly a majority of GOP voters are rejecting Romney.  So obvious, in fact, that it's hard to overlook the cartoon characters that they have embraced atop their preference list instead of the former governor.  Michele Bachmann has spent time surging and then imploding her way down the charts.  Then we had Rick Perry, for whom I'm convinced the question, "Is he as dumb as he looks?" was crafted.  Perry, btw, is referred to in Texas as "GW without the brains."  Low standards in Texas.  Then we had the pizza CEO, Herman Cain, who likes to say outrageous things to distract folks from examining his unethical and possibly illegal treatment of female employees.  It was only a matter of time for Cain, as I suspect he has the same birth certificate problem with GOP crazies that Obama has.

Now we have the Newt.  It's inconceivable to think that he could win the nomination.  The GOP establishment has done a fairly efficient job of knocking off Romney challengers, one at a time.  But the chore was quite simple - give each of the previously mentioned challengers enough time and exposure and they basically do the job for you.  Gingrich presents a more difficult challenge.  He's been around long enough to know where the bodies are buried and he can express himself in complete sentences.  That's not to say he won't say something really stupid - last week he said the CBO was a reactionary institute - but I think that the GOP is going to have to get real personal, real soon, to knock Gingrich back a peg or two.

That leaves....I think by default, Romney.  But I'm convinced that Rick Perry is only mostly dead.