Apparently Republicans, in South Carolina at least, think Newt Gingrich would be a more formidable general-election candidate than Mitt Romney. Their justification for believing so, all objective polling evidence to the contrary, is their belief that Gingrich is such an amazing debater that he'll just destroy Obama in that forum. Partly this is also due to their belief that Obama is just a dimwit who's only ever gotten anywhere through affirmative action. Newt plays to this a whole frickin' lot, with his whole "I'll challenge Obama to a series of Lincoln-Douglas debates" schtick. But here's the thing: this whole idea is massively wrong. Newt can get massive applause lines playing to the insane Republican audience, but he's not actually that brilliant a debater. Obama, on the other hand, is extremely intelligent, and I imagine is currently barely containing his glee at the prospect of getting to debate Newt Gingrich. He'll run rings around him. Newt's just said so many things where the public, including non-crazy non-Republicans, is just so against him, that Obama will have an almost-too-damn-easy time pinning him to them in the fall.
But please, nobody tell the Republicans. Let them keep deluding themselves into thinking that Obama's a pathetic wimp, and that all he needs is a good standing-up-to from Newt to expose him for the fraud he is. Let them believe that just long enough to nominate him.
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