Newt's Ascent

A recent poll by Rasmussen Reports asked likely Republican Primary voters who they supported for President.  Herman Cain fared best with 26%, Mitt Romney followed closely with 23%, and one would expect the likes of Rick Perry or Ron Paul to be in third place.  However, third place, at least for now, belongs to Newt Gingrich who had 14% the vote of these likely Republican voters.  

I detailed a few weeks ago some of the troubles with the Perry campaign.  Since then, no candidate's support has sunk as quickly or dramatically as Perry's.  While Gingrich has certainly benefited from Perry's downfall, his rise in popularity among likely Republican voters can also to be attributed to his debate performances.  Gingrich is easily the most eloquent speaker of all of his counterparts, it is by far the best at articulating conservative principles.  In debates he appears extremely intelligent, but has an uncanny ability to explain his ideas in a way that the average man can understand them.  

I think some of those who dismissed Gingrich on account of his personal life (having an affair on his second wife while she suffered from cancer with his current wife) have warmed up to him because of his debate performances and dissatisfaction with other candidates.  Ron Paul is considered too wacky, Rick Perry is considered too Texan, Mitt Romney is considered too liberal, and Herman Cain is facing sexual harassment claims.  With a field full of "not-ideal" candidates, Newt Gingrich might able to fill that void.  If it wasn't for dodgy personal choices, he would likely be a front-runner in this race.

Newt's served the 6th District of Georgia for 20 years, from 1979 to 1999.  He became Speaker of the House of Representatives in 1995 after the landslide 1994 mid-term elections.  He is credited with forcing Bill Clinton to sign, among other things, welfare reform and a capital gains tax cut, which were a conservative rallying points for years.  He created the Contract With America, which he claims allowed the government to pass balanced budgets and even created the a sizable budget surplus.  However, after the public was not too keen on a government shutdown how he handled the Bill Clinton impeachment, and he left office in 1998.

While Newt certainly has a long way to go in his quest to become the Republican Party nominee for president, he has made up a significant amount of ground along the way.  He will still need to convince voters to ignore personal digressions and sell them on his ideas for leading the country.  Considering that much of his staff quit the campaign in June of this year, this surge is quite remarkable.  I would not dismiss Newt Gingrich at this point in the race.  Iowa and New Hampshire will certainly be interesting in January.