Following in the footsteps of Donald Trump, Michele Bachmann, Rick Perry and Herman Cain, Newt Gingrich’s campaign seems to be imploding with the Iowa caucuses approaching as the skeletons come tumbling out of his closet in the form of attack ads by Ron Paul and a host of surrogate groups who fear that his nomination would be a disaster.
No surprise here. Attack ads from LBJ’s infamous anti-Barry Goldwater daisy petals and mushroom cloud ad in 1964 on have long proven to be effective, while Gingrich is extremely damaged goods whether it is the lies he keeps telling (“I am not a lobbyist”) his notorious flip-flopping on a range of issues, notable health-care reform, which he backed while not being a lobbyist but now runs from, or his proclivity for hot headedness and self adoration.
Gingrich has not tried to rebut the attack ads, probably because many of the charges can’t be rebutted and every attempt to rebut takes away from his message — whatever that may be on a given day.
The former House speaker has fallen extraordinarily far in only a few days both in Iowa and nationally.
He was ahead in most polls only 10 days ago, but New York Times poll number cruncher Nate Silver now gives Ron Paul a 44 percent chance of winning Iowa on January 3with Mitt Romney at 32 percent and Gingrich at only 15 percent.
Silver notes that there still is a chance There remains a chance that Bachmann, Perry or Rick Santorum could become a factor in Iowa because they still have fairly strong favorability ratings.