In the wake of the Super Tuesday results that saw Newt Gingrich get beaten badly in every state but Georgia, more conservatives are talking about the necessity of the former House speaker dropping out of the presidential race if Mitt Romney is to be prevented from becoming the Republican nominee. Because Rick Santorum’s support was a multiple of his in every state but Georgia, the argument goes that it is incumbent on Gingrich to withdraw and allow Santorum to face Romney in a one-on-one battle in which the more conservative Pennsylvanian might be favored to win. Indeed, it can be argued that Gingrich’s presence on the ballot was the only reason why Santorum lost narrowly in both Michigan and Ohio in the last two weeks. If the sole object of conservatives is to nominate someone other than Romney, then Gingrich’s withdrawal appears to be not only logical but an imperative. However, the assumption that Gingrich will bow to these arguments ignores everything we know about him. Here are seven reasons why Newt isn’t likely to heed the call to withdraw:
1. He’s still holding on to hope of winning in other southern states. Gingrich’s camp is claiming he lost Tennessee because he’s concentrating on winning Alabama and Mississippi next week. But we were also told he was passing on some February contests to concentrate on Ohio where he turned out to be a non-factor this week. If there are any states where Gingrich does have a chance, it is in the Deep South, but given Santorum’s strength among evangelicals, the odds of him prevailing in either or both are dwindling. After another round of defeats, this excuse won’t hold much water.
2. His source of funding hasn’t dried up yet. Gingrich hasn’t been raising much money lately but his super PAC isn’t broke and apparently casino mogul Sheldon Adelson hasn’t plugged the plug on him yet, perhaps because he rightly believes keeping his friend in the race will help his second choice, Romney. Considering that Gingrich was able to keep his campaign going on a shoestring throughout last summer and fall without much money in the bank, there’s no reason to think the lack of resources alone will persuade him to drop out now.
3. He doesn’t think much more of Santorum than of Romney. Gingrich may have been willing to praise Santorum back in January when he hoped that he would drop out and endorse him the way Herman Cain and Rick Perry did, but Gingrich appears to resent the notion that he has been supplanted by someone who was once very much his inferior in the GOP pecking order. Part of Gingrich’s enormous self-regard is his low opinion of those of his peers who are unwilling to treat him with the deference he thinks he deserves. This is a character trait that has often prevented Gingrich from playing nicely with the other children in the political sandbox.
4. He thinks Santorum can’t be elected. Though the polls and the primary results tell a different story, Gingrich really does believe that he is uniquely equipped to beat President Obama in November. While his calls for Lincoln-Douglas debates set the eyes of media pundits and politicians rolling, Gingrich may believe that Santorum’s political weaknesses, like those of Romney, make him unlikely to defeat Obama.
5. Dropping out would be an admission his critics were right. As we saw in his bizarre victory speech in Georgia this week, Gingrich is motivated as much by his desire to prove his numerous critics wrong as anything else. The idea that he can prevail despite his personal baggage and inconsistent policy record has become something of an article of faith with the former speaker. Pulling out now would mean everyone else was right and he was wrong, something that directly contradicts his view of reality.
6. He likes running for president. Withdrawal — especially in favor of someone he considers a lesser man — would not only be personally humiliating, it would put an end to all the attention the media has been paying to him. Gingrich sorely missed being the center of attention during his years out of office and though the burden of running for president is enough to crush many other men, he has thrived on it. Gingrich might have run just for the fun of being in the debates alone. Going back to being a political has-been is going to be tough, and like some athletes who hold on too long and have the uniforms torn off them, Newt will have to be dragged out of the race. He won’t leave it voluntarily no matter what the inducements might be.
7. Newt really thinks America deserves a Gingrich presidency. There are some politicians who run for president not so much because they want it but because they are so besotted with the notion of their own greatness that they think it is only fair to give their fellow citizens a chance to do the right thing and put them in the White House. Gingrich’s self-regard and love for his country is such that he will not willingly deny Americans this last opportunity to make him their president so long as even the faintest hope for such an outcome exists.
7. Newt really thinks America deserves a Gingrich presidency. n nAre our sins truly so great and vast as this?
It isn't Romney and everyone-else-is-identical-and-interchangable. None of the candidates are the same as another. Maybe to a percentage of the voters who are specifically against Romney, that certain number will vote for anyone-but-Romney-by-selecting-whomever-they-think-has-the-best-chance-to-beat-him. Many of us who favor one of the 3 not-Romneys would want Romney over the other 2 not-Romneys. And Santorum is the scariest choice of all! What's scary concerning Ron Paul isn't his appeasement policies as much as it is that he might win by all the anti-war Democrats who could cross over and vote for him if he got the nomination.
I guess you forgot South Carolina. You have overlooked the fact that Newt is actually 2nd in delegate count, it doesn't matter who has won more states. Plus you have also neglected to mention that the National GOP law states that the delegates for Florida and Arizona are to be proportionally divided NOT winner take all, so those are going to Newt. Romney winning blue states impresses no one. Mitt Romney is not conservative in anything but speech. Even George Soros agrees, he's interchangeable with Obama. We'll see how things go now that Romney banisters Goldman Sachs is going down with the FED for taking tax money. Newt isn't in bed with wall street, Mitt is. So is Obama. n nThe base rejects Obama AND Romney. We don't care what the establishment or MSM tries to push down our throats. We're not swallowing. n nThere is no excuse for biased or shoddy journalism.
KUDOS TO YOU, YOU ARE SO RIGHT.
I won't vote for Newt – watched him laugh at Southern Border Security for 45 AIR TIME MINUTES as he hawked for McCain Kennedy SHAMNESTY. AND SWORE HE WAS NOT A PAID CONSULTANT – just PRAGMATIC. He has a long string of other strong Leftist Liberal stances and that video of him arguing to the hard far left of Hanoi John for Global warming as he hawked Hanoi John's book for Global Warming… I won't vote for Newt or ever buy anything that puts a dime in his pocket. As far as I am concerned, Newt is an evil con artist and nothing more.
ROSE YOUR AN IDIOT. PEOPLE DO CHANGE, YOU PEOPLE KEEP GOING BACK TO THINGS OVER 20YRS. AGO. BUT NO ONE WILL GO THAT FAR BACK ON OBAMA OR OTHER CANDIDATES, TRUTH IS THE EST. IS SCARED OF NEWT. HE HAS GRAND CHILDREN NOW, I HAVE ALSO & THAT WILL SURELY CHANGE YOU PERSPECTIVES IN LIFE & YOUR PRORITIES. WAKE THE H UP!
I'm not blind to Newt's "enormous self-regard", but how is that exactly unique to him? Have you watched Chris Christie lately? I mean, come on, I know it's popular to talk about serving your country by running for office, but if you think you're an appropriate choice to be the head of state (not just head of government), a representative of the nation and the people, you're already coming in the race with a considerable amount of self-regard… n nGingrich, to my recollection, never polled well in either Michigan or Ohio, which would be an argument for his weakness as a candidate. However, Santorum, while it seems likely he would have won both states with the margin some of Gingrich's voters, what does it say about his strength as a candidate in going from a double digit lead in the polls to within a few percentage points victory in two weeks? Well, he was outspent, you might say. And so he was. Gingrich was also outspent in Florida after winning in S.C. What was Santorum doing at the time? Defending Romney about Bain Capital, and setting himself above the fray, instead of defending Gingrich from Romney's mud-slinging. There was an opportunity to present a united conservative front at that point, which did not even require Santorum to drop out, but, from my point of view, Santorum chose his own self-interest. So Gingrich does not owe Santorum anything in the name of conservatism. Or we could say that Gingrich ought to, in the name of conservatism, be the bigger man anyway and drop out. But for me, there is not enough of a fundamental difference between Santorum and Romney (as evidenced by the Arizona debate); as Newt says, it's a choice between a "team player" and someone who will "manage the decay", and in both cases each will pursue the failed policies of the Bush administration.