Newt Wins Big in SC – Krauthammer Eats Crow

Well, I think we all saw this coming after his two great debate performances, this week.

And now, Charles Krauthammer is eating some crow, tonight:

I remember well Krauthammer’s May 17 proclamation that “Newt was done” (because of his brutal criticism of the Ryan budget plan) because I posted the video, here, and I agreed. Shows you how much we know.

Erick Erickson with some commentary on what it all means:

People are mad as hell they are about to be stuck with another boring, moderate, uninspiring choice that has at best a 50/50 shot at losing to the worst president since Carter. They are flocking to Newt not because they think he’s a great guy, but because right now, he’s the only one fighting for conservatism and GOP voters are looking for a vessel to channel their anger with Obama and their complete disappointment with the GOP establishment which is now embodied perfectly by Romney. They want a conservative fighter because most conservatives look back at Ford, Reagan, Bush, Dole, Bush, and McCain and see only the ones taking a conservative path against the Democrats actually winning.

Trump was a flash in the pan last year, but it was because he took the fight to Obama. And all of the others (Bachmann, Perry, Cain, etc) got their rise because at the time voters sensed they would fight back with them. If nothing else, in the last year, Newt has proven he won’t wilt like Mitt did yesterday under pretty basic questioning from Laura Ingraham or a month ago under routine questioning from Brett Baier.

Newt has taken the worst the media, Romney and the left can dish out, and he’s still standing and fighting with passion and eloquence. Sure, he’d probably be an erratic President, but right now Republican voters don’t care about his Presidency. They care about the fight with the left both Mitt Romney, and the Washington Republican leaders like John Boehner and Mitch McConnell don’t seem inclined to engage in.

I agree completely with that analysis.

No one is in love with Newt Gingrich, but we’ll take him warts and all if he’s willing to fight for conservatism and throw the left’s bogus narratives right back in their faces. Because we know  that is the only thing that will stop it.

A candidate’s total rejection of the left’s false premises is something conservative America is hungry to see. How many times have we cringed uncomfortably as a Republican candidate was cowed into some dopey PC position because he didn’t have the cajones to take a stand?

Newt seems like the grandparent, or great uncle who is outrageously honest because he no longer cares what people think of him.   Well, Newt should care – he’s running for President, for Pete’s sake – but there is something rather infectious about it.

RS McCain addresses the question on some of our minds – how does this help Santorum? Some of the polls right before the primary had him in 4th place, but he finished 3rd:

Gingrich ……….. 41%
Romney ………… 26%
Santorum ………. 18%
Paul ……………… 13%

Notice that Gingrich’s margin over Romney (15 points) is greater than Romney’s margin over Santorum (8 points). Romney’s campaign made a strategic miscalculation. There were 11 days between the Jan. 10 New Hampshire primary and today’s primary in South Carolina. And until Monday, Romney’s mix of TV ads here still included attacks on Santorum. Once they realized  that Gingrich was gaining ground, they switch to nonstop attacks on Newt, but the weight of Romney’s ad attacks was less than the impact of Newt’s strong debates.

But Mitt’s “inevitable” mojo spell is now decisively broken, and the questions now are multiple: Can Mitt get his mojo back? Will Newt be able to avoid further “drama”? Can Santorum get the financial resources to stay in the race, hoping to be the last man standing if Newt auto-destructs? Also, given Newt’s decisive margin, was it really necessary for Perry to drop out before the primary in order to stop Mitt?

See Also:

Awesome: Gingrich Again Calls Obama The “Food Stamp President” During S.C. Victory Speech…

MSNBC head assplosion alert at DEFCON 1.

(Hee hee!)