Bill Clinton was only loved by liberal and some moderate women, mainly because he defended their right to kill their baby. Those same liberal and moderate women hate Newt because he won’t defend that “right.” However, conservative women tend to take fidelity in marriage very seriously, so they don’t like Newt either. To be clear, I support Newt but would be ok with Santorum.
Yes, and Clinton had another huge advantage. He’s a Democrat so he had almost the entire popular media behind him. I remember, week after week, no matter how much they dragged out about Lewinsky, his other women, his impeachment proceedings, etc., AP would regularly report that his job approval ratings were at 63%, 61%, 64%, and then the rest of the media would fall in behind them parrotting his approval numbers, instead of berating him for all the crap he was getting himself embroiled in on a regular basis.
Gingrich had no such media support; quite the opposite. Plus, as you pointed out, messing with your marriage doesn’t play in Republican circles quite so well as in Democrat circles.