Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Gingrich’s bleak prospects


Even after Romney’s convincing victory in Florida where he met, if not succeeded expectations, Gingrich has vowed to stay in the race.  However, as David Hawkings at CQ Roll Call says, Newt’s prospects for scoring some victories over the next few weeks aren’t great.

But where does Gingrich go to try to stage his third big comeback of the campaign, with 46 states to go? Not the Nevada caucuses on Saturday, which Romney has in hand thanks to the organizational help of fellow Mormons. Not Tuesday’s caucuses in Colorado and Minnesota, where he’s done minimal work. Not Missouri’s non-binding primary, where Rick Santorum is making a significant push. Not Maine, where Ron Paul has reason to hope for an actual caucus win. Not the primaries four Tuesdays from now in Arizona (where John McCain has Romney’s back) or Michigan (where Romney is still a favorite son). It won't be Virginia, where he's not even the ballot. The best answer is probably Texas — assuming Rick Perry follows through with his promise to do whatever he can to help Gingrich reap as many of the 155 delegates as possible. But that’s not until April 3.

So, Newt may be able to round up enough money to stay in the race for awhile but it looks like Romney is going to remain securely in the lead for some time to come.  No wonder Romney is already pivoting to focus on Obama and Obama is beginning to strike out a Mitt.

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