Newt Gingrich’s presidential campaign was stillborn, shortly after his announcement to enter the race it was revealed that he owed Tiffany’s as much as $500,000. Before Gingrich got his political feet wet, he went on a luxury cruise in Greece with his decades-younger wife. On June 9, 2011 his outraged campaign staff resigned en masse, and pundits and politicians declared that his candidacy was no longer viable. It’s surprising that Gingrich, who converted to Catholicism to please his hot Catholic wife, didn’t hire a priest to say the last rites over his presidential aspirations.

In late fall and early December of 2012, after Herman Cain quit the race in the midst of a sex scandal, Newt’s campaign was resurrected. Gingrich had a series of solid debate performances, in which he had nothing but nice things to say about his competitors. Gingrich, whose default mode is mean and grouchy, was as loveable as the Pillsbury Dough Boy. Voters were shocked and enthralled by the new Newt, and his poll numbers skyrocketed.

Mitt Romney, the frontrunner, got worried about Newt’s rise in the poll and he unleashed his Super PAC to blanket the Iowa airwaves with anti-Gingrich ads. Everyone decries negative ads, but they work. Newt’s poll numbers plummeted, and he reverted to his evil ways.

Gingrich was furious at Romney, and he was on a mission from God to destroy him. When Gingrich is mad, even the devil gives him a wide berth.

Newt as a nice guy is novel and refreshing at first, but ultimately it’s unsettling and disconcerting. Newt as a angry white conservative perfectly captures the spirit of the GOP electorate. Gingrich rose from the dead once again, and now he may win the South Carolina primary.

Conservatives are mad at Obama, the media, minorities, environmentalists, women who think for themselves, the government, liberals, and puppies and kittens — Gingrich and his followers feed off each others’ fury. When Gingrich is speaking before an audience of the faithful, and he starts railing against Obama and liberals, I hold my breath afraid that the venom will reach such a fever pitch that it may set of an explosion.

Gingrich ain’t no choir boy, but the hypocritical religious conservatives overlook his many moral failings because they love his rage more than they love the baby Jesus.

Gingrich with his corpulent physique and sharp tongue embodies the greed, corruption, and anger of the GOP. The Republicans would be well-advised to ditch the elephant logo and replaced it with an image of Newt, nobody might notice the difference.

Can Gingrich ride this holy rage all the way to the Republican nomination? It’s the diehards and true believers who vote in the primaries, I wouldn’t bet against it. Republicans don’t want a Pillsbury Dough Boy representing their interests, they want a demonic figure who is full of wrath and bile.

By Robert Paul Reyes
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