The fall of the house of Newt

[brooklynite]

from the Washington Post:

The presidential campaign of former House Speaker Newt Gingrich was rocked late Thursday by the resignation of more than a dozen senior staffers and key operatives in states like South Carolina and Iowa.

But how did things get so bad, so quickly? (Gingrich announced his presidential committee on May 11 — just 29 days before the mass staff departures.)

In interviews with a number of people who were involved in the effort, it’s clear that Gingrich and his campaign team disagreed strongly about the basic mechanics — from fundraising to messaging to targeting of voters — of his presidential bid, problems that exploded into public view late Thursday afternoon.

...SNIP...

One example: Gingrich became convinced that one of the keys to his winning in Iowa was in targeting the Chinese community living in the state. Apparently, he had been told by a Chinese man at a campaign event that as many as 10,000 Chinese Americans lives in the state, one source explained.

Newt - remember to give them campaign slogans baked into fortune cookies...they really like that kind of stuff...

[tanyev]

1. 10,000--wow! That's a sure ticket to victory!

Tell me again why he has a reputation for being really smart?

[brooklynite]

2. Let's be fair now...

If he got all of them to support him...

and got all of them to register as Republican...

and got all of them to move so they were spread around the state in different caucus sites...

and got all of them to show up on Caucus night...

he might have a winning.....oh, forget about it.

[monmouth]

4. I would imagine the man who told Newt to get out before he embarrassed

himself is having a large smile about now....

[gratuitous]

3. It's Newt-iny!

Mistah Christia-a-a-a-n!

Running for president in the traditional way takes a lot of travel and hard work. Remember, Gingrich has never been elected to anything higher than the House of Representatives. So his successful campaigns have centered in one congressional district in a southern state (where I would guess a lot of people look and sound like Gingrich). Every now and then, he could head off to DC or New York or some resort destination, and schmooze a lot of overrich fatcats for funds, and then head on back to the district to impress the locals by spending big.

But president? You'd best be prepared to go all over the country, and where you worked 12 hours a day on a congressional campaign, you're working 18-20 a days to win the presidency. Instead of a six month campaign, you need to gear up for 18 months or more. That's far too much hard work for the likes of Gingrich. He'll be out of the race by Independence Day 2011.

[yellowcanine]

9. Yeah someone referred to a Newtiny on NPR this morning. I thought it was great.

The one good thing about Newt is his name. It is a source of endless amusement.

[hifiguy]

5. And Newty has a Ph.D.?

In what, fer pete's sake, and from where? How this mentally incontinent (and incompetent) serial-philandering klown ever got a reputation for being a "smart" and "serious" person is more of a mystery than the whereabouts of Amelia Earhart or the Lindbergh baby.

[yellowcanine]

10. If he does I wouldn't make too much of it. Not all Ph.Ds are created equal.

Sometimes I think the degree is given just for perseverance, based on some of the folks I have met who have Ph.D.s. And this is not "envy" because I lay claim to one myself.

[spanone]

6. he's an arrogant fuck...i expected nothing less.

[bullwinkle428]

7. GREAT article - "The richly earned humiliation of Newt Gingrich"

"If his goal when he officially launched his presidential candidacy last month was to inflict a massive amount of humiliation on himself in as short a time as possible, then Newt Gingrich has succeeded spectacularly.

After an epically botched campaign roll-out -- which included accusations of ideological treason from influential conservatives and a nationally televised exchange with an Iowa voter who called him "an embarrassment to our party" and urged him to quit the race "before you make a bigger fool of yourself" -- Gingrich was left struggling to explain how he and his wife racked up hundreds of thousands of dollars in charges at Tiffany's jewelers. Then he randomly took off on a vacation (a lavish Greek cruise, it turned out), and now he's returned to find that virtually his entire staff has quit."

http://www.salon.com/news/politics/war_room/index.html?story=/politics/war_room/2011/06/10/newt_gingrich_humiliation

[tanyev]

8. Ha! They didn't have the $25,000 needed to enter the straw poll.

Surely Callista could have pawned her jewelry.


:rofl:

[orwell]

11. And there you have it sports fans...

...modern politics is all about marketing. It has almost nothing to do with policy.

Cleaner, brighter, faster, sexier, it's all a bunch of a slick sales to rope in the "target audience."

And we wonder why we are going over Niagara Falls without a barrel...

[lunatica]

12. I hope he flounders more before he calls it quits.

I also miss Trump. These He Men are giving up way too easily! Damn!