Jamie Dupree's Washington Insider: Questions for Gingrich

From Columbus, Ohio -

I love covering Presidential primary campaigns. It is a lot of fun to chase the candidates for weeks on end through a number of states, watching them rise and fall - except when the end is near.

There is nothing more unsettling to me as a reporter than watching a candidate desperately try to portray a campaign as vibrant and truly in the running when the evidence suggests otherwise.

The candidate speaks to what often seem to be dwindling crowds; there is a sense that the end is near and at times reporters even seem to go easy on the candidate, loathe to report all of the embarrasing details as The End Nears.

As I said on the radio, the news media narrative in these cases is often a difficult one to deflect for a campaign, because it focuses on one simple question that is repeated endlessly at each stop:

"When are you getting out of the race?"

Newt Gingrich's answer to that was an emphatic 'no' as he campaigned in Alabama on Wednesday, a state that votes next Tuesday.

"Take a look at some interesting delegate math," Gingrich urged his backers. "The race is far from over and we will win this nomination."

But Gingrich's campaign schedule - which was ambitious earlier in the week - suddenly was trimmed back a day after his less than stellar performance on Super Tuesday, as stops in Kansas late this week were scrapped.

Kansas holds GOP caucuses on Saturday; Gingrich's decision not to contest the Sunflower State means that Rick Santorum is likely the favorite in Kansas; he was campaigning there this afternoon.

Instead of Kansas, Gingrich will camp out in Alabama and Mississippi - the states that vote next Tuesday in the south - and will stump for votes there except for when he's trying to raise money for his White House bid.

If you draw a line from South Carolina into Georgia, that line would keep going into Alabama and Mississippi, one reason his backers think Gingrich can win those two states next week.

But the narrative is getting tricky for the former House Speaker, who was not a factor in many of the Super Tuesday states outside of Georgia, where he won an easy victory.

"What does @newtgingrich think his plan to victory is?" asked one of my Twitter followers.

"Win 4 states total and come in last everywhere else?"

By deciding not to compete in Kansas, Gingrich has raised the stakes for himself in Alabama and Mississippi to a level that if he cannot win those two states, look for the calls to have him get out of the race increase dramatically.

Political campaigns are not for the faint of heart. Gingrich has been counted out several times before, but each time he has come back.

He says this time will be no different.

We might know in the next week whether that is true or not.

Source: http://www.krmg.com/weblogs/jamie-dupree/2012/mar/07/questions-gingrich/

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