I went and saw Newt at a fundraiser this week. It was at a private residence. He spoke for about a half hour, answered questions from the audience, and posed for pictures.
1) His goal is to stay in the race until the convention. If Romney is 100 or more delegates short by the convention, Newt thinks that he can make the case that he is the best person to take on Obama in the debates.
2) He is an amazing intellectual, and also very good in the face-to-face campaign game, which is a very rare combination. He rattled off a three minute answer about the money supply and the velocity of money in response to a question about inflation. Hearing him answer questions is like watching Picasso paint.
3) If not for Newt, Romney would have walked away with the nomination 5 months ago. Romney has had to go on record making conservative statements for the last 5 months that he would not have had to make if not for Newt. And despite the Etch-a-Sketch comment, a Republican can not walk away from campaign promises like a Democrat can. Remember “read my lips, no new taxes”? It cost Bush Sr. a second term.
4) His personal history may be messy, but without Newt Gingrich we would not have had a Republican majority in 1994, and the world as we know it would be a very different place. Imagine a second Clinton term with no Republican congress - we’d have had socialized medicine in 1995.
Thank you for the information and comments.
He would be a wonder - teaching the country and standing up to Congress with the voters’ help. To have a say and not be continually disappointed by our representatives, to see the actual roll back of regulations and agencies, an energy boom and economic surge would light this country up and by extension buoy our allies and make our enemies back off.