You've got to give him credit. Newt Gingrich doesn't just read Gideon's bible when he stays at the Marriott, he also reads poetry.
Like the line in a poem by legendary Welsh poet, Dylan Thomas, the former House speaker heeds the admonition not to "go gently into that night, but rage against the dying of the light," and raging he is. Newt Gingrich is raging so much that by the time this whole affair is over, the state will instead be named: Newt Hampshire.
While the latest polls out of New Hampshire show frontrunner Romney down by four percentage points, Newt is nowhere near second place. He's in a tie with Rick Perry for fourth place. Ron Paul is polling second to Mitt Romney with Romney is holding on to a double digit lead. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/behind-the-numbers/post/poll-watcher-romney-slips-in-nh-paul-and-huntsman-battle-for-second-place/2012/01/03/gIQAn5s4lP_blog.html
Predictably, Huntsman is doing much better, and has managed to move from 1% to as high as 17%, which is about half where Romney is at.
Rick Perry will be the first casualty of New Hampshire followed, after Florida, by Huntsman unless the former Utah governor decides to take some of his dad's money, after all.
Apart from garnering him more campaign contributions, Newt Gingrich is helping Democrats more than hurting Romney. Romney is like a London Fog raincoat. He can endure the heaviest storm without any visible stains.
By invoking Bain Capital repeatedly as if it were a shibboleth, Gingrich has morphed into a character out of King Lear, the Fool, the one who can most be counted on to tell the truth, and the one who is taken the least seriously.
Ah, but think of how much money the Democrats are saving on advertising revenue by letting Gingrich do their hatchet job, and he isn't even charging any consultant fees.
The mouth isn't the only thing that's running, the meter is, too. Newt Hampshire may very well be Gingrich's last stand.
