Atlantic editor Robert Wright hits the nail .... painfully. He looks at the Marianne non-problem and how Newt used her (he's a women user, all right already) to "play the hate card."
... Oh, the bitter irony: You're standing onstage next to a Mormon, and you're the one who has to defensively insist that you don't favor polygamy!
But to imagine Gingrich as conceiving his predicament this way--as needing to actually respond to the allegation--is to evince a misunderstanding of the basic tactical algorithm that has governed his career. Here is the algorithm:
1) Assess your audience. What kinds of people do they hate?
2) Convince your audience that you, too, hate those people.
3) Repeat.
Conveniently, a group this audience hated was in the room that night: the elite liberal media. Indeed, it was a member of this group that had asked Newt the question about his wife!
You may object that John King, who asked the question, seems like a non-ideological news reporter. True. But he works for CNN. And when you're in a southern state, and your target audience is the more conservative part of the Republican party, that fact alone will do. All Newt had to do to win the audience over was express contempt for King and his colleagues in the elite liberal media. And Gingrich does contempt very well! ...Robert Wright, Atlantic
Of course, the American electorate has a lot more non-Republicans and non-haters than it has haters. Gingrich's bad mouth is entertaining but probably not -- not even in this divided nation -- electable. It's said that many Republicans are asking themselves in some desperation, "Where is Tim Pawlenty?"
