Is Newt Gingrich taking Iowa seriously?
IOWA CITY, Iowa — Newt Gingrich’s improbable comeback may fall short if he doesn’t win Iowa — and there are signs he’s not taking the threat of defeat seriously enough.
Gingrich is getting pounded on Iowa TV by both a pro-Mitt Romney super PAC and Ron Paul’s campaign and is doing little to fight back against ads which take direct aim at him. Less than three weeks before the caucuses, the former speaker is airing a single commercial with little money behind it.
Continue ReadingAnd while Gingrich’s top rivals here flood the airwaves, three of his lesser challengers — all vying for the same swath of undecided conservative votes — began barnstorming the state in an intensive retail push before the January 3rd vote.
Gingrich’s response suggests a lack of urgency: on Wednesday he held a wonky seminar on brain science in this liberal college town. He had plans to return to Washington for a book-signing after Thursday’s debate in Sioux City, without scheduling any public events in the conservative-heavy northwest corner of the state.
Gingrich’s return from the political grave has been premised on disregarding the practice of politics as usual, and he now seems to be betting that he can bypass the traditional, retail-focused path to victory in Iowa and still win. Asked if he was endangering his Iowa prospects, Gingrich acknowledged he was taking intense fire but said he’d ramp up his effort before January 3rd.
“I think Iowa’s going to be a challenge because you have everybody firing away simultaneously in a relatively small market,” the former speaker told reporters following his lecture here at the University of Iowa. “And so I think it’s going to require two weeks of my going around, telling the truth, letting people look at the negative ad, look at the truth and decide if they really want to give their vote to somebody who’s not telling the truth.”
Gingrich promised to do more retail events – he teased a post-Christmas bus tour – and said he’d do more ads.
But he also offered a mix of nonchalance and high-road confidence in explaining that he didn’t have enough money to match his rivals’ ad campaign and, in any event, wasn’t inclined to engage in traditional back-and-forth on the airwaves.
“I’m going to run my campaign the way I want to and my campaign’s going to focus on positive ideas and positive solutions and I’m, frankly, taking the gamble that the American people care about actually solving our country’s problems, not just watching politicians beat each other up,” he said.
The issue is not, however, that he isn’t airing negative ads – it’s that he’s airing hardly any ads at all in the face of an onslaught.
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Jonathan Martin
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Read all 219 comments in our forumIs Newt Gingrich taking Iowa seriously enough?
I don't know
But no one takes Newt seriously so what difference does it make?
MITT ROMNEY ----------all the way!!!!
The Newt is an egotistical windbag. He, like all of the republican party DO NOT CARE ONE BIT ABOUT THE MIDDLE CLASS!
Is Politico taking news reporting seriously enough? There is a lot of national and international news out there folks. Maybe, you might taking a breather from reporting every nuance of the GOP primary for a change of pace? For instances, how's that "governing" thing going?
Ron Paul will win Iowa. Iowa is trained to respond to those candidates who criss-cross the state. Paul has the best organization. My (cyber) money is on Ron Paul.
I like Newt personally and even had him as a paid speaker at a corporate outing some years ago. He is an enigma and he has volitility written all over him. Conventional wisdom is that he cannot beat Obama but I am beginning to thi nk he possibly could. Obama would attack him on personal issues and might just go too far. On the other hand Newt will put issues to Obama that he will not want to answer. Newt would be an issues candidate and that just might be what the voting public wants in the presidential election. Personally I would prefer Romney but Newt might do very well in spite of the personal baggage. There will not be many states in play this election. If Newt could win Florida I would say Obama would be in trouble. In the vast flyover country Obama is in real trouble!
Newt's not my first pick, he's number three of who's left, behind Bachmann and Perry.
I'd still take him ANY day over the mentally ill Ron Paul, who recently accused President Bush and company of being "gleefull" on 9-11-01, as Americans burned to death in the twin towers.
Ron Paul is CLEARLY deranged, and I question his sanity after that HORRIFYING slander. We need to replace the Marxist in the White House, but why should we replace him with a lunatic? There are good conservatives still in the race, Ron Paul isn't one of them!
Oh Oh - could this be Herman Cain all over again. "Hey, I didn't think you guys were going to take me seriously, I just wanted to sell some books and make some money"
GINGRICH HAS GRAVEYARDS FULL OF SKELETONS FORGET CLOSETS
Here is a anti-Gingrich hub: http://newtcantwin.com/ . Team Obama also has this and they will use it if Gingrich is the nominee. We do not want another 4 years of Obama, seriously.
Is Jonathon Martin a pseudonym for George Stephanopolous?
This piece reads the way George handled the debate ... "Speaker Gingrich, are gonna take that from Ron Paul and Mitt Romney?"
That's too Bad!
If the fly over states feel that Newt is the one to trust.
He is an opportunist and has no Heart.
the Dems and Repubs have shown the rest of the country that they would like to continue the Status Quo.
AS WE TYPE THEY (REPUBLICANS) ARE ON THE NEWS ASKING AGAIN; AS THEY DID IN THE MID-TERM ANOTHER TAX CUT FOR THE RICH.
THEY SAID IT WOULD CREATE JOBS IF THEY GOT A TAX BREAK. THEY GOT THE BREAK, WHAT HAPPEN TO THE JOBS? THEY SAT ON THEIR MONEY AND HIRED NOBODY!
DID FLY OVER STATES NOT WATCH WHAT WAS GOING ON? OR THEY JUST DON'T CARE.
I AM VOTING FOR PRESIDENT OBAMA 2012. JUST TO KEEP THE BARBARIANS AT THE GATE.
HOWEVER, THE DEMS AS WELL AS THE REPUBS WILL HAVE PROBLEMS IN 2016.
THEY HAVE SHOWN THEY DID NOT HAVE 99% OF US IN MIND.
Shhhhhh, do you hear that ?
Team Obama is defending, encouraging and praising Gingrich again. Obama is seriously praying for Gingrich.
That's too Bad!
If the fly over states feel that Newt is the one to trust.
He is an opportunist and has no Heart.
the Dems and Repubs have shown the rest of the country that they would like to continue the Status Quo.
AS WE TYPE THEY (REPUBLICANS) ARE ON THE NEWS ASKING AGAIN; AS THEY DID IN THE MID-TERM ANOTHER TAX CUT FOR THE RICH.
THEY SAID IT WOULD CREATE JOBS IF THEY GOT A TAX BREAK. THEY GOT THE BREAK, WHAT HAPPEN TO THE JOBS? THEY SAT ON THEIR MONEY AND HIRED NOBODY!
DID FLY OVER STATES NOT WATCH WHAT WAS GOING ON? OR THEY JUST DON'T CARE.
I AM VOTING FOR PRESIDENT OBAMA 2012. JUST TO KEEP THE BARBARIANS AT THE GATE.
HOWEVER, THE DEMS AS WELL AS THE REPUBS WILL HAVE PROBLEMS IN 2016.
THEY HAVE SHOWN THEY DID NOT HAVE 99% OF US IN MIND
PolitiKKKo, no matter how hard you try Mitt Romney is NOT going to be our nominee.
So, now you try to scare people away from him with your drivel about him not taking Iowans seriously. Why is it that none of the lamestream dares to talk about real issues?
So, now you try to scare people away from him with your drivel about him not taking Iowans seriously. Why is it that none of the lamestream dares to talk about real issues?
You do know you have begun to sound like a Romney version of an Obama sychophant. I can't believe you want that.
Just trying to help.
Iowa is an interesting phenomenon. 1st caucus, full of social conservatives. But very few delegates and often not a good barometer of who the ultimate winner is (except Obama; who knew). While I'm no Newt fan I'm not sure he shouldn't avoid going all in in Iowa. Ask Mike Huckabee. The counterpoint is that the media follows momentum, and it's nice while you have it (though Newt appears to be losing it like the last 4 mini-surgers).
Who is paying you to trash Ron Paul today?
Ron Paul is clearly better than the 3 losers you picked.
Yawn
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