Peak For A Week: Gingrich Already On The Decline

“He might, go, all, the, w-….nevermind.” Just a week ago it looked like Gingrich may actually have had a chance at the nomination with the Iowa Caucus in a few short weeks. However, the most recent polling shows a complete flip-flop in terms of potential voting. The Public Policy Polling, which last week placed Gingrich at the top, now shows that he’s slid to third place with just 14% of likely Republican Caucusers (Cauci?) planning to vote for him. The man to replace him? Ron Paul, with 23% of the potential vote. Mitt Romney, ever the bar by which others are measured, continues to flatline in 2^nd at around 20%.

Although Gingrich has fallen precipitously in a single week in the early voting polling in Iowa, nationally he still holds 1^st place among the Republican field. Gallup’s daily tracking poll shows Gingrich holding on to a narrow 4 point lead by his fingernails over Romney, a far cry from the 15 point lead a week ago, while Ron Paul has garnered just 10 percent of that poll.

So what gives? I thought Newt was doing pretty well for himself? Many Republican lawmakers expressed some doubts when Gingrich made his initial resurgence. One top GOP aid even characterized him as always having his hand “six inches from the self-destruct button.” With the increase in profile came an increase in scrutiny, and an increase in attack ads from fellow Republicans. Gingrich was accused of taking $1.6 million in “consulting” fees from Freddie Mac and Fannie May between 1999 and 2008 (the run-up to the second-worst economic collapse in history). Gingrich testifies that he warned against the bad lending practices, though that has not been substantiated. Romney, on the other hand, has attacked him for being inconsistent, not a “real” conservative, and for being of low character. However, both candidates have played nice in recent debates.

To save his flagging campaign numbers, Gingrich went after a familiar conservative punching bag in the latest GOP debate; the federal judges. During Thursday’s GOP debate, Gingrich addressed “elitist judges” creating new laws out of legal precedent, winning him some rousing applause from the debate’s audience. He went further on CBS’s “Face the Nation”, saying that laws should be created by consensus of two of the three branches of government, effectively giving the President and Congress the power to override the Supreme Court.

Aside from the fact that the notion is completely unconstitutional, it’s also a blatant attempt by Gingrich to rile up the conservative base while distracting them from his own personal dirt. It’s unlikely that this will pay off, as with every other Republican candidate that turned to spewing insanity to save their campaigns have ultimately floundered.