Unleash the Newt

Today's Ringside Seat: Conservatives get Newt Gingrich good and angry ahead of tonight's debate and Fidel Castro weighs in on the Republican primary.

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Those who felt let down by Newt Gingrich's muted performance at Monday night's debate-and, really, who among us did not?-should expect to get their money's worth tonight. Live from Jacksonville at 8 p.m., it's Wolf Blitzer's turn to be Newt's media-elite piñata (and, happily, audience reactions will not be discouraged this time). But the former house speaker will have many more targets at which to aim his barbs-especially after a furious two-day bombardment by Mitt Romney and the right-wing media elite. Matt Drudge, Ann Coulter, R. Emmett Tyrrell Jr., and the editors of The National Review-to name a few-have declared all-out war on Gingrich. "Our Bill Clinton," Tyrrell called him. "Re-elect Obama: Vote Newt!" Coulter declared. The Drudge Report featured no fewer than 14 anti-Gingrich headlines at mid-afternoon today. On a day when Gingrich's campaign admitted that he lied to John King last Thursday about offering ABC News interviews with people who would contradict his second wife's accusations-the day after he had to retract an attack ad calling Romney "anti-immigrant" at Marco Rubio's behest-and with polls showing his South Carolina momentum slipping away, Gingrich's ire-meter will surely be dialed up to 10.

So They Say

"The selection of a Republican candidate for the presidency of this globalized and expansive empire is-and I mean this seriously-the greatest competition of idiocy and ignorance that has ever been."

-Fidel Castro

Daily Meme: Thanks, Supreme Court

  • Outside spending on the presidential campaign has doubled from 2008.
  • The total in Florida's ad wars so far: $16 million.
  • Despite a $5 million boost to a pro-Newt super PAC, the Romney side is spending twice as much on TV ads in Florida.
  • SEIU and pro-Obama super PAC team up to expose Romney's dos caras (two faces) on immigration.
  • New York magazine warns of a "coming tsunami of slime," thanks in part to super PACs.
  • They'll be even more influential in congressional races.

What We're Writing

  • Space Case: Patrick Caldwell reports from Florida on Gingrich's proposed moon colony.
  • Jamelle Bouie writes that Romney's donations to anti-gay groups undercut his vaunted "moderation"-and could hurt him in the fall.

What We're Reading

  • Chris Christie tried to wriggle out of having to veto-or not veto-a gay-marriage law. It isn't going to work.
  • Is Romney overdoing it with the effort to seem warm and jovial? Photographic evidence suggests that he is.
  • Was President Obama's heated encounter with Arizona Governor Jan Brewer just good politics?
  • In the swing state of North Carolina, unpopular Democratic Governor Bev Perdue won't run for re-election.
  • Ezra Klein explains why Obama is no radical.
  • Newt's little secret: He likes media elites.

Polls of the Day

Three new Florida surveys show Romney retaking the lead over Gingrich.

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