COMMENTARY | There's an old political adage that says that with regard to candidates, Democrats tend to fall in love with theirs, while Republicans fall in line. And presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich is making it clear he doesn't want GOP voters and Republican-leaning voters to do that because the falling in line would mean supporting his rival, Mitt Romney. Romney became the first GOP candidate for president to win two delegate contests in succession with a solid victory in the Nevada caucus on Saturday.
So how does former Speaker of the House Gingrich get authoritarian-minded conservatives to not "fall in line" behind Romney? How to present himself as the alternative, best candidate for president? Simple: Just dismiss the losses. They don't count.
As noted by CNN, he was quick to point out in a nontraditional news conference in Nevada after Romney's projected win that the Silver State was "a very heavily Mormon state, a state which he carried in 2008."
Nevada dismissed.
Gingrich repeated what he had said before about being crushed in Florida: "I am not going to defend the outcome in a state where I was outspent 5-1."
Florida dismissed.
The New Hampshire loss was from the state being in Romney's backyard (he was once governor of Massachusetts). Romney's near win in Iowa was the result of negative campaigning, Gingrich said, pointing out in his post-election speech, as reported by the Business Insider, that the debate between himself and Romney would begin "tomorrow."
Dismissed and dismissed.
Gingrich hasn't lost a primary or caucus yet because the results of those contests where he scored fewer votes than other candidates do not count. At least that seems to be the message of the Gingrich campaign. That state's primary didn't count because -- fill in the blank. That state's caucus does not matter due to -- fill in the blank.
Gingrich has set the tone for dismissing his losses because he knows he cannot afford to have the bulk of the Republican electorate "fall in line" behind Romney. And although it is something GOP voters have been reluctant to do, there seems to be a general movement in that direction. The politically savvy Gingrich knows this all too well, so he talks about the race being a long one and dismisses his losses.
But primary season is a game of numbers, of accumulation. Dismissing losses does not obviate the number of delegates won. And those numbers steadily add up.
To win the nomination, a candidate needs 1,144 delegate votes. So it is unfortunate for Gingrich, but those states do count, regardless of his rhetoric and spin. And with each successive victory by Romney, as more Republican voters fall in line behind him, Gingrich falls a little further behind in the delegate count.
His strategy now is to make it make it to Super Tuesday, where nine states hold elections the first week of March. He is expected to do well or win in Georgia, Oklahoma and Tennessee and, therefore, strengthen his delegate count. But since many of the contests are proportional, where the vote count decides the number of delegates, doing poorly in the states he loses will further hurt his nomination chances with each loss.
Still, if Gingrich can somehow convince enough voters to stand with him in the coming elections, somehow keep them from falling in line behind Romney, and perhaps get a campaign boost from an unexpected source (read: scandal, gaffe, controversy, etc.), he could find himself a strong contender for the nomination and minimize the impact of the states already lost. If not, he will see in August -- or perhaps sooner -- that dismissing does not nullify existence.
And Republicans will fall in line.
The final result? Candidate Gingrich dismissed.
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