Whether he has “baggage” or not, his unfavorable poll numbers top 60% which is a problem against a personally popular though not particularly competent president. Obama can even run as a “family man” against Gingrich because, for all his other flaws, there is no hint of adultery or stained blue dresses with Obama. In other words, against Newt we don’t even have the “family values” vote cleanly. Image matters in politics and Newt’s image is not pretty.
I think that in a head to head with Obama, that Newt would always be able to run circles around Obama.
As a troubled man who became more deeply religious and converted to Catholicism, I think that Newt could carry family values better than anyone in the running, and with a born again message of hope and salvation, something that Santorum and Romney can’t do, Santorum loses the Catholic vote in every single primary vote, even as an incumbent Senator, Santorum only won 42% of the Catholic vote.
My hope is that the fallen man who chose Catholicism could reach out to American Catholics and take them from Obama, and that he would make serious inroads into the Catholic Hispanic vote.
Nothing pretty about winning a civil war either.