I guess I'm rooting for Newt, if only to watch the GOP base get what it wished for. But on the other hand, you never know what is going to happen and a President Newt is a million times worse than a President Romney. I enjoy the spectacle of an obnoxious party setting itself alight as much as the other guy, but I have a deep seated sense that something is not right if this guy can win a presidential primary, not to mention to be taken seriously as a presidential candidate.
To the extent Newt threatens the Establishment, it’s because of his electability–or lack thereof. The GOP’s mandarins see Gingrich’s nomination as a sure way to blow their chance of deposing Barack Obama. They see Gingrich as the political equivalent of a Fukushima nuclear plant worker, with polls showing him to be lethally irradiated by his negative approval ratings. Whereas Mitt Romney is running about even with Barack Obama in head-to-head polling, Newt loses by double-digit margins. Sure, those numbers could change if Gingrich beats Romney and wins the nomination, with all the accolades it entails. On the other hand, his grandiosity syndrome may kick in, as it has before, and render him a laughing stock. Hence the many Establishment Republicans now saying things like, “Newt means losing 45 states.”
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