Mitt Romney aide thinks destroying Newt Gingrich will be easy (updated)

[ProSense]

Mitt Romney aide thinks destroying Newt Gingrich will be easy

by Jed Lewison

Cockiness from Camp Romney:

A top aide to Mr. Romney predicted that the Gingrich bubble would deflate as others before it have. “You don’t have to go deep here,” the aide said, referring to controversial stances and personal baggage from Mr. Gingrich’s past. “It ranges from immigration to ethics to being a Washington insider to Freddie Mac to you pick them.”

But none of that's new—Gingrich has been getting hammered on Freddie Mac in particular and it hasn't hurt him one bit with Republican primary voters. Perhaps on paper, you'd expect Gingrich to be in last place ... but he's not. He's in first. But even if the Romney aide is ultimately right and Gingrich drops like Rick Perry telling Republicans they are heartless, the thing they still haven't explained is this: other than surviving a process of elimination, how does Mitt Romney actually plan to win the GOP nomination?

Updated to add...

NH Union Leader Publisher: Romney 'Represents The 1%' (TPMLivewire)

One factor in the New Hampshire Union Leader’s decision to endorse underdog Newt Gingrich over Mitt Romney: money. Specifically, Romney’s massive investment fortune.

“I think — and this is crazy, but so are we — that Gingrich is going to have a better time in the general election than Mitt Romney,” publisher Joe McQuaid told FOX News. “I think it’s going to be Obama’s 99% versus the 1%, and Romney sort of represents the 1%.”

Gingrich has his own vulnerabilities in this area as well, namely his consulting work for big corporate clients and his huge credit lines at Tiffany’s, but McQuaid’s line is a nod to a tough attack that Romney hasn’t had to deal with much in the primary but will definitely come up in a general election.

[Cigar11]

1. Newt will destroy Newt; just let him talk /n

[customerserviceguy]

6. While I have yet to see any polling

after Newt's amnesty comments, and I expect they will slow his momentum, his real Achilles heel is his wife. If you dare, go to his main campaign website, prominently featured on the right side of the page, not too far down is "Callista's Canvas" even featuring a picture of an aging Stepford Wife-looking looney.

Clearly, she was more than willing to help Newt cheat on his wife in order gain power for herself, she's the one who caused the run-up in the Tiffany bills, and she's the one who pissed off the advisors who defected to Perry a few months ago. At some point in this recent rise, she's going to shoot off her mouth, feeling that she's important enough to be taken seriously, and then the country will see what a wuss Newt Gingrich is. Republicons don't want a henpecked husband as their party's standard bearer (they already have enough of a history of jokes about Bill Clinton in this manner), and the independents don't want that either.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

2. Romney shouldn't be too proud of his political terror he's constructed

The ability to win an election is insignificant next to the power of the force........er.....Newt

Whatever else you say about him, Newt is ambitious and capable of getting mean and nasty. I mean, just think about the sheer ugliness of Newt's comments about OWS protestors. :ugh: :puke: I would hope that people, by and large, would not want somebody that mean and ugly (I don't mean physically but in terms of his attitude) as POTUS. Newt is nearly RL-ugly in terms of how he comes across IMHO.

[WI_DEM]

3. These guys have to start pushing back at Mitt--he has his own baggage

chief among them you don't know what his stand is on an issue unless you see which way the wind is blowing.

[BeyondGeography]

4. I don't know; next to Cain, Gingrich may be looking pretty turd-proof to GOP primary voters

who apparently don't give a shit about much. And next to Perry, whom they also fell for for a spell, he is Albert Einstein.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

5. On MSNBC this morning, a commentator said Gingrich makes $60,000 a speech

from GOP foundations. Is Gingrich perhaps also one of the 1%? And there's the nearly $40 million his think tanks made from the healthcare industry. I don't believe the story about his having problems paying off his Tiffany bill. I'm sure he was good for it.

[ellisonz]

7. We want Mittens! We want Mittens! We want Mittens!

:nopity:

[rhett o rick]

8. I bet Karl Rove can destroy any one of them, including Mitt. Just have to watch to see who

Karl is working for. Let me rephrase that. Just have to wait to see who Karl's handlers want to win.