Last updated on September 29th, 2012 at 08:56 pm
The first presidential debate hasn’t even taken place yet, but on MSNBC Newt Gingrich, acting as a surrogate for the campaign, blamed Romney for the losing the election.
Here is the video from MSNBC:
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HALPERIN: Mr. Speaker, if President Obama is re-elected, and you’re a historian and a student and longtime strategist in the party, is this more of a disaster for and explained more by Mitt Romney being a bad candidate or will it say something about the weakness of the Republican Party?
GINGRICH: Well, since we’re going to keep the House, gain seats in the Senate, and may end up with more governorships than at any time since 1921, I don’t think it says much about the Republican Party. I mean, we have more state legislative seats than at any time since 1925. We have more candidates of diversity. You look at a Susana Martinez. You look at a Nikki Haley. This is a party that’s a much bigger, broader party than it’s Washington consultant base.
SCARBOROUGH: Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio. These aren’t people on the margins. These are people in the biggest states in America.
GINGRICH: This is about a specific campaign with a specific set of problems. It’s not about the broader Republican Party. And, frankly, if Obama does win, which I, of course, am totally opposed to, but, if he does, he faces an enormous decision the first three or four weeks after that election. Is he going to govern like Bill Clinton or is he going to keep governing like Barack Obama? Because if he’s going to govern like Barack Obama 2014 would be for the Democrats probably the worst election in modern times.
Remember after the 2010 election when Republicans were saying 2012 was going to be the worst election ever for Democrats? Now that 2012 is looking good for Democrats, Republicans like Gingrich are starting to promise that 2014 is going to be their year. Gingrich’s comments echo the larger problem within the Republican Party. Republicans really believe that the party is fine, and that if they lose in 2012, it will be all Romney’s fault.
Democrats are cautioning daily about over confidence, and there is still too much time left for anyone to be overconfident. But it isn’t overconfidence to report the smoke signals coming from the Republican camp. More and more Republicans are acting like they are going to lose, but as you can see from Gringich’s remarks, they are still a bit delusional about the state of the congressional races. Reality hasn’t sunk in yet that they probably won’t win the Senate, and their House majority is in jeopardy.
If you want to know how Republicans really feel about the state of this election, consider that most of Romney’s top surrogates have abandoned him in order to work on their own 2016 campaigns. Chris Christie, Bob McDonnell, Bobby Jindal, Rick Santorum, and any other Republican with a 2016 pulse are already campaigning in Iowa and New Hampshire for 2016.
Even worse for Romney, the surrogates he does have left are going on national television and throwing him under the bus. If Romney doesn’t hit a home run in the first debate, the Super PAC money will dry up, and he will be abandoned by his own party to play out the string until Election Day.
This election is not even close to over. People still have to show up and vote, but if Romney’s own supposed surrogates are already blaming him for the loss, things aren’t looking good.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
