Do you honestly think Gingrich is as vapid and gaffe bound as Biden is? Given fair audience by the press (which won't happen), Gingrich is more likely to provide rational explanation than Romney is.
Nothing you said gives any reason to conclude that Gingrich may not still need some interference run for him.
It doesn’t matter if it’s not to the extent of someone else (which is debatable).
When Gingrich shot himself in the foot endorsing Dede in NY23, it was necessary for his supporters to “explain” that — except they couldn’t, and, besides, he didn’t have any supporters at the time.
When Gingrich shot off his mouth on TV calling Paul Ryan’s plan “right-wing social engineering,” it was necessary for his supporters to “explain” that — except, again, he didn’t have any supporters at the time, his campaign went into the toilet, and he was left to try to explain “what he meant to say.”
There’s more, but I won’t go on.
Plus, there’s a difference in the degree of gaffe here. Biden gets the SF NFL team wrong and Gingrich cuts off the knees of one of the GOP’s most talented thinkers, at the precise moment his plan is beginning to get some traction.
I don’t see those as politically equivalent, regardless of which one is the more vapid gaffe. In fact, that’s the problem with Gingrich’s gaffes. They are not vapid at all; they go to real and meaningful conservative substance.