Newt Gingrich’s strategy, prior to hitting a major speed bump in Iowa, was to consolidate the anti-Romney vote and emerge as the single viable candidate in the race that was not the former Massachusetts governor. Gingrich is making a move now to consolidate the uncommitted voters who are leaning towards the remaining candidates – recently, those efforts have focused on Ron Paul’s supporters.
With Perry’s exit from the race and subsequent endorsement of Gingrich, the former Speaker is one step closer to making this vision a reality. He faces a recalcitrant Rick Santorum, who will remain in the race with the backing of many prominent social conservatives, and Ron Paul, who also will remain in the race as the standard bearer for what he perceives to be underrepresented interests within the Republican Party.
Gingrich has hit yet another snag in his efforts to consolidate the anti-Romney vote; an upcoming ABC interview with his second wife, Marianne Gingrich, is likely to doom his chances to peel off values voters within the GOP. It is with this fact in mind that Gingrich has recently made moves to court Ron Paul’s less committed voters.
Gingrich began to court Ron Paul’s committed libertarians by adopting Paul’s “audit the federal reserve” language as early as June of last year. Today, he has redoubled those efforts to court the paleo-conservative wing of the GOP with his suggestion that the U.S. should commit to reconsidering readopting of the gold standard.
"I would appoint a commission to look into golden and to look into hard money because the truth is we ought to have -- the dollar you saved today ought to be worth a dollar thirty years from now. We have had a very long period of inflation that has gradually eroded the value of our money in a very dramatic way," said Gingrich at a town hall in South Carolina today dedicated to issues relating to foreign policy.
Many of Ron Paul’s supporters are deeply committed to the libertarian Texas Congressman and are not amenable to persuasion by Gingrich, but Paul’s polling support has ticked up in recent months from the low-single digits nationally to the mid-single digits. It is not unreasonable to think that these recent supporters are likely to jump off the Paul campaign’s band wagon in order to back the most likely individual to defeat Romney and secure the Republican nomination should the race tighten. And that tightening is happening before our eyes.
