WASHINGTON – Newt Gingrich’s debut as a presidential candidate on “Meet the Press” exploded quickly. The video above began his dig out. But he’s got bigger problems than simply ticking off the anti-mandate, Paul Ryan Tea Partiers. His greeting in Iowa foreshadows a very short walk into oblivion.

As he was getting ready to leave a speaking engagement Dubuque resident Russell Fuhrman approached him in the lobby of the Holiday Inn: “Get out now before you make a bigger fool of yourself,” Fuhrman said directly to Gingrich. Gingrich, visibly stunned, quickly moved forward to talk with other guests. – Iowan to Gingrich: Get out now before you make a bigger fool of yourself

Coming a day after damage control over David Gregory tripping him up on a health care mandate, Gingrich’s presidential roll out has been a disaster.

As Iraq was to many Democratic primary voters in 2008, health care is to Republican base voters looking for a nominee for 2012. Newt Gingrich saying close to the same thing as un-candidate Donald Trump first did on Sean Hannity’s show, revealing the tap dancing wannabe presidential candidates are going to have to learn as they navigate their Tea Party base.

Joe Scarborough started the incoming on Monday, joined by Patrick J. Buchanan, with Rush Limbaugh going at Newt first thing out of the gate on his radio show. For the Tea Party, anyone slamming Paul Ryan is placed on the Who’s A Real Conservative? suspect list. Expect a request from Newt Gingrich to go on Rush’s show in 3… 2…

Meanwhile, Hugh Hewitt took the opportunity to tout Mitt Romney’s “‘repeal by waiver’ strategy” wondering if his critics “missed” the “brilliance of Romney’s day-one Obamacare promise.”

Rep. Paul Ryan’s retort was classic: “With allies like that, who needs the left?”

Newt Gingrich 2.0 on “Meet the Press” might have sounded good in the general election strategy mode. But as Hillary Clinton found on Iraq, you have to first please the people who have the power to get you the nomination… or not.

So far, Mr. Gingrich is running into exactly what he deserves. Republican primary voters who think he’s the retread he actually is, with his wife’s valiant efforts to remake him as a changed man who can solve America’s problems as convincing as Arnold Schwarzenegger pretending he’s faithful.

Taylor Marsh is a Washington based political analyst, writer and commentator on national politics, foreign policy, and women in power. A veteran national politics writer, Taylor’s been writing on the web since 1996. She has reported from the White House, been profiled in the Washington Post, The New Republic, and has been seen on C-SPAN’s Washington Journal, CNN, MSNBC, Al Jazeera English and Al Jazeera Arabic, as well as on radio across the dial and on satellite, including the BBC. Marsh lives in the Washington, D.C. area. This column is cross posted from her blog.