Visual source: Newseum
Well, that was fast. You gotta figure there's a lot of people in and out of DC who really don't like Newt very much, most of all Republicans who know him. Check out some of these stories:
Steve Kornacki:
The backlash has been staggering. Has a mainstream politician ever
announced his presidential candidacy and been greeted by such
widespread intraparty condemnation? It's possible to argue that this
is primarily the result of Newt's Ryan plan faux pas -- that if hadn't
attacked a plan that Republican opinion-shapers and voters
passionately support, he wouldn't be on the receiving end of all of
this grief. There's surely plenty to this.
But it also feels like something bigger is going on here -- that
Republican leaders and activists are using Newt's flub as an
opportunity to say something that's been on their minds for a lot
longer: Get lost!
Here, the comment from Haley, the 39-year-old South Carolina governor
who was just a few months out of Clemson University when Newt became
Speaker in January 1995, to her home state newspaper seems telling:
"There was a place and time for him." I'll bet this attitude preceded
the current controversy -- and is fairly common among influential
conservatives.
NPR:
Newt Gingrich May Have Set Political-Obit Speed Record
Greg Sargent:
Schumer: You’re damn right we’ll use Gingrich’s criticism of Ryan against the GOP
Reuters:
Top establishment Republicans are getting more desperate about the GOP’s current presidential line-up all the time. Care to guess why?
Newt Gingrich, once among the most prominent voices in the GOP, appears to be on the ropes only a week after declaring his candidacy – and even before his first official campaign trip to the early voting state of Iowa.
Ezra Klein:
You wonder if this is the sort of advice the people who sign up for his ”transformational leadership” seminars are receiving. There is, after all, a lot of transforming going on here.
Jay Bookman:
By this point, the Gingrich for President campaign has lost whatever political relevance it might have had and has entered the realm of comic entertainment.
Which is fine with me.
Telegraph:
In short, the Gingrich candidacy does not match the mood of the contemporary conservative grassroots. The Tea Party ethic is anti- establishment and harbours little nostalgia about the pre-2008 Republican Party. Newt is in danger of looking like a cautious old man in an age that belongs to young fanatics.
Guardian:
Newt Gingrich: big mouth, little chance
Newt Gingrich's bumbling campaign to win the Republican presidential nomination is almost over before it even began