Newt's Staff Exodus Marks End of Presidential Chances

COMMENTARY | According to the Associated Press, as posted on Yahoo! News, "the entire top echelon of New Gingrich's presidential campaign resigned on Thursday." While the news comes as a bit of a shock to most, the bailing of a sinking ship should not be all that surprising.

As reported by AP, while Gingrich was informed at a meeting at his campaign headquarters in Washington, the former House speaker's spokesman Rick Tyler said that he, Newt's campaign manager Rob Johnson, senior strategists and aides in the early primary and caucus states of Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina have indeed walked out. They cited differences over the direction of the campaign as the reason for the mass exodus.

Scott Rials, a longtime aide who joined the departure, expressed doubts that Gingrich could win the GOP nomination. "I think the world of him. But at the end of the day we just could not see a clear path to win, and there was a question of commitment," Rials told AP.

From the beginning, Gingrich's campaign was rife with problems. Most obstacles were placed on the campaign trail by Gingrich himself. As I wrote previously in an article, "Newt Gingrich's Greatest Enemy Continues to Be Himself," I discussed the litany of missteps the former speaker should have known better than to commit.

"Preceding this formal Facebook/Twitter jump into the deep end of the candidate pool, he is already running damage control. Snubbing the first Republican presidential debate appears to be just one in a list of transgressions. For a seasoned politician who began testing the political waters back in March, one would think Gingrich would have enough sense to avoid placing rocks in his own path before diving back in."

Within days of his formal announcement, the Los Angeles Times reported on Gingrich's rabid criticism of Republican House Budget Chairman Paul D. Ryan's proposal to reform Medicare .

"I don't think right-wing social engineering is any more desirable than left-wing social engineering," Gingrich scoffed in an interview on NBC's "Meet the Press."

Gingrich was quickly assailed by conservatives for criticizing the Ryan plan to remake Medicare that Republicans pushed through the House, prompting the chastised Gingrich to call Ryan to offer a formal apology, according to Politico, but he did not back off from his criticism.

"Newt apologized," Gingrich's press secretary Rick Tyler told Politico back then. "The call went very well."

Within days, the candidate had dropped from sight. While other Republican contenders hit the campaign trail, most likely to lick his wounds and hope the damage would be repaired by silence, Gingrich skulked off on a cruise to the Greek isles with his wife. However, when he returned to the United States, Newt was faced with a catastrophic rebellion that had been brewing for some time among the senior echelon of his campaign.

Clearly the opinion of Tyler and many others on Gingrich's support staff that all is well in Gingrich land has undergone a drastic change.

Sources:

David Espo and Shannon McCaffrey, "Gingrich campaign in tatters as top aides resign" Associated Press/Yahoo News

Patricia Campion, "Newt Gingrich's Greatest Enemy Continues to be Himself", Associated Content

Katherine Skiba, "Newt Gingrich slams Paul Ryan's plan to overhaul Medicare" Los Angeles Times

Mike Allen, "Newt Gingrich apologizes to Paul Ryan", Politico