That was my first reaction to the news, that Gingrich had given Romney "not just a defeat" but "a dominant, surging and energized rival," (NY Times) was simple glee. Mitt Romney is in real trouble. Obama is not.
Romney represents two sectors of American life that represent, in turn, our worst and most entrenched corporate and political corruption -- the Republican party's Rovian establishment and the money bags that sustain it. Gingrich's personal and political sleaze seems almost childish in contrast. He is seriously flawed, openly self-serving and petulant, and he tends to be self-destructive about once a day. And he is now a two-out-of-three loser, with his summer home in the lonely "win" pile.
Mr. Gingrich’s showing here suggests that Mr. Romney may no longer be able to count on his rivals splitting the opposing vote into harmless parcels, or on the support he is getting from the party establishment to carry him past a volatile conservative grass-roots movement.
At a minimum, it is clear that Republican voters, after delivering three different winners in the first three stops in the nominating contest, are in no rush to settle on their nominee.
Mr. Romney, whose message has been built around the proposition that he can create jobs, lost badly among voters who said they were very worried about the economy, according to exit polls.
His arguments of electability — the spine of his candidacy — fell flat to a wide portion of the party’s base here. ...NYT
But Romney is already well on his way to getting the delegates. He's got the biggest machinery working for him. He's got the money. What he doesn't have is the appearance (as Gingrich evidently has with Republican voters) of being able to defeat the incumbent.
The presidential candidacy of Mr. Romney has always been built on the assumption that he is the most likely to defeat Mr. Obama. That argument did not hold here, where Mr. Gingrich’s fiery style in two debates went a long way toward winning over voters, exit polls suggested. If Mr. Gingrich is able to keep whittling away at that line of reasoning, Mr. Romney could face an uphill battle. ...NYT
It's not just that they think he can defeat Obama, is that (unlike Romney), he shows or feigns hatred of Obama, a hatred many Republicans feel. This is over-the-edge, violent hatred. Some just feel it; others revel in it, finding both righteousness and relief in it. Gingrich shows that; Romney doesn't. South Carolina Republicans, according to Times exit polls and its editors, picked up "the signal that [Gingrich] would not only challenge Mr. Obama but work to bloody him, to destroy his dignity. As one voter told a reporter, 'I think we’ve reached a point where we need someone who’s mean.'"
That comes from South Carolina, apparently eager to confirm rumors that it's a political sty.
___
As for the battle for delegates, it's at the center of McClatchy's report on the upset last night.
The results signaled a party unwilling or unable at this early stage to rally to any one candidate as their champion to challenge Democratic President Barack Obama in the fall. With a recount in Iowa changing the initial result, the party now has produced three winners in as many states for the first time: Santorum in Iowa, Romney in New Hampshire, and now Gingrich in South Carolina.
The head-snapping turn of events over five days saw Romney end the week having lost two out of the first three contests. As late as Tuesday, he thought he had won Iowa, knew he'd won New Hampshire, and led by a comfortable margin in South Carolina, where every winner since 1980 has gone on to win the Republican nomination.
At stake Saturday were 25 delegates, with 1,144 needed to clinch the nomination at the Republican National Convention in Tampa the final week of August. ...McClatchy
___
The Washington Post reports that Gingrich has found his people in South Carolina.
He ... peppered his speech with dismissive references to “elites” in the media and in Washington and New York — a sign that he intends to continue the truculently populist tone that resonated with voters in South Carolina. ...WaPo
Good for Gingrich, if only in the short term. Bad, though, for the Republican party.
This year also marks the first time that a different Republican candidate has won each of the first trio of contests — still further evidence of how unsettled and dissatisfied the party’s voters are in a year when they are anxious to unseat a vulnerable incumbent president. ...WaPo
Everyone seems to agree, though, that the machine will win in the end.
But how far this victory will carry Gingrich remains very much in question. Although Romney has yet to win over the Republican activist base, he has by far the most formidable financial resources and organization. Those give him a substantial edge as the contest moves next to the vast state of Florida, which holds its primary Jan. 31.
And in his concession speech, Romney — who has until now trained most of his fire on Obama — signaled that he will be taking a harder line against Gingrich as the contest goes forward. ...WaPo
___
"Taking a harder line" is the least of it. The Hill reports that Romney "blasted" Gingrich during his concession. Sounded pissed off. Struck a "non-conciliatory note." Gingrich was seen as "gracious" towards the rest of the pack, including Mitt.
___
Romney and his staff seem kind of out of touch, don't they! Greg Sargent writes:
Mitt Romney, in an apparent response to demands that he release his tax returns, calls on Newt Gingrich to release the ethics probe that got him bounced from Congress, admonishing: “I wouldn’t do it piecemeal. Do it all at once.”
It’s not really clear what Romney means by “release” in this context. After all, if Gingrich does want to “release” the probe, either piecemeal or all at once, it won’t be hard: It’s already posted online right here on the ethics committee’s Website.
Well, we have that to look forward to as the campaign moves further -- if not exactly deeper -- into the South.
___
It's not just that Romney seems out of touch. He doesn't seem to know who he is, though he does seem to not want to be pres'dent.
... My own main thought during the debate was to wonder, not for the first time, why Romney even wants to be president. You couldn't call him a natural politician. The others up there all seemed to belong. There's nowhere else they'd rather be. Give them an audience and they'll set the world to rights. But this supposedly new, improved, campaign-polished Romney is still so unconfident, uncomfortable, stammering and inarticulate, you actually feel embarrassed for the guy. He tries to make a virtue of the fact that he isn't a professional politician--despite his pathological longing to succeed in that line of work--and promptly screws that up too. Did I hear him say he's "from the streets"? From the streets? ...Clive Crook, Atlantic
