This morning we’ve officially reached the end of the Newt Surge and — whether the data support the thesis or not — moved on to the Establishment Counterattack. After a week or so of stunned silence, the Republican establishment, under the very uneasy leadership of Mitt Romney, has roused to the unavoidable truth (now backed up by hard data) that nominating Newt Gingrich means all but giving up any chance of taking the presidency in 2012.
Romney’s campaign is making an all out push to convince voters that Newt is, in a word, nuts. The Washington Examiner is out with an endorsement of Mitt Romney. The National Review is out with an anti-endorsement of Newt Gingrich. Paul Ryan’s surprise announcement of a new Medicare plan also aims to support Romney’s positioning in the primary battle.
Backing this mounting effort, there’s a raft of new polls showing Newt slowing down if not yet slipping in Iowa after an onslaught of harsh attack ads from Romney, Paul and Perry. A new poll came out of New Hampshire overnight showing that Romney still remains firmly in the lead there. And Politico was out with a story last night questioning whether Newt’s blowing it in Iowa and possibly blowing the nomination with an indifferent campaigning style.
Critical to pulling all this information together is to see that not that much objectively has changed in the polling data since a few days ago — Mitt’s always been in the lead in New Hampshire. But there’s enough in the numbers for the press narrative to start to change. And that’s the prism through which to see almost everything that comes down the pike today.
And remember, there’s a big debate tonight.
