In an interview with Wolf Blitzer on CNN tonight, Newt Gingrich reiterated that the Republican presidential nomination is very much up for grabs.
“I think the big story coming out tonight is that it’s very hard for the elite media to call Mitt Romney the inevitable frontrunner after tonight’s results,” Gingrich said. “After tonight, you’ll see this is a wide open race.”
Gingrich also looked ahead to the Texas primary on April 3, where he said his campaign enjoys a “very strong operation” thanks to his support from Gov. Rick Perry. “Our hope is that by the time we go to Texas we’ll pretty much be tied with Gov. Romney,” Gingrich said.
David Frum advises Newt to drop out and hope for a Romney defeat:
If the GOP were to lose in 2012, the next cycle could be the most wide open since 1940. There would be no “runner-up” to claim the nomination next time, the way Romney claimed it in 2012 or John McCain in 2008 or Bob Dole in 1996 or George H.W .Bush in 1988. But a Gingrich who had won some primaries as a conservative alternative to Romney — something neither Rick Perry nor Sarah Palin nor, by the way, Ron Paul or Rick Santorum will have done — could plausibly claim leadership of the conservative wing of the Republican Party. Such a Gingrich could then credibly demand kowtowing and ring-kissing from everyone entering the huge 2016 field, especially since, by that point a year older than McCain was in 2008, he’d have difficulty mobilizing support for a second run of his own.
