Ezra Klein has a handle on Gingrich’s problems. For the GOP, it’s Gingrich’s refusal to to their line. This old timey candidate may just be waking up to how plutocratic his party has become.
As Klein points out, though, the problem for Gingrich is the media — which is really his problem, not the media’s. He doesn’t know how to deal with the vast proliferation of media.
The last time Gingrich faced the political world as a candidate was in the late 1990s. That was long before Twitter, Facebook and You Tube not to mention the explosion of granular political sites and the rise in cable news channels reshaped the world in which politicians operate.
The ease with which Gingrich’s adversaries can disseminate negative information about him has increased exponentially as has the ability of anyone to not only post past quotes by Gingrich but also draw significant attention to them.
“With over a million Twitter followers, 130,000 people on his Facebook page and a constant stream of clips, updates, anecdotes, reports, and blogs about him, if the narrative turns negative (as it most certainly has) it will be very, very difficult for him to turn around,” predicted Rich Galen, a former Gingrich communications director.
Added former New York Rep. Tom Reynolds: “Newt when Speaker was known to be undisciplined in media relations…..Newt will step on and be knocked off his message more times by his actions than by others.”
Cross posted from the blog Prairie Weather.