Newt Gingrich made history last night. He’s the first presidential candidate to use an ex-wife’s allegation that he requested an “open marriage” to vault to an astonishing, campaign-saving primary victory.
As soon as Gingrich responded to CNN moderator John King’s obnoxious question about the charge at the beginning of Thursday night’s debate with a rousing denunciation of the media, it was all over. The candidates, staffers, the reporters all could have headed to Florida just as soon as the audience sat down from its standing ovation at around 8:05 p.m. Thursday.
Over the last 10 days, Gingrich did all he could to wrest the title of “Mouth of the South” from Ted Turner. After finishing fourth in Iowa and tying for fourth in New Hampshire, Gingrich became the also-ran who roared. He mocked and excoriated “Massachusetts moderate” Mitt Romney. He demanded Mitt’s tax returns and blasted Bain Capital. He belittled the rest of the field. He thought that as long as he was talking, he was gaining. And he was right.
The South Carolina exit polls showed Gingrich beating Romney soundly among voters who care most about presidential electability (almost half the electorate). That’s an extraordinary reversal of what had been a core Romney strength. Gingrich also narrowly beat Rick Santorum among voters who want a true conservative. If Gingrich continues to prevail among those two groups of voters going forward, it would be a sure-fire formula for the nomination.
But can he? Romney has to hope that he suffered the same kind of defeat as George W. Bush did in New Hampshire in 2000. Back then, Bush was the complacent front-runner who got killed by an upstart candidate, John McCain, who bonded with the voters of a state primed to respond to his appeal. The setback made Bush a stronger candidate and forced him to fight hard for a nomination that seemed set to fall into his lap.
If Romney can’t right himself and Gingrich goes on to win Florida, every major elected Republican in the country will panic. Every unlikely scenario to get another candidate in the race will be explored. Because whatever GOP primary voters in South Carolina think about his electability, Gingrich is currently radioactive among the general public.
Who knows how it will turn out? All we know is that Newt Gingrich will keep talking.