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2/6 Viewpoint: Gingrich's anti-Romney strategy

Newt Gingrich increased his criticism of Mitt Romney last week, telling his supporters that Romney isn’t the best presidential candidate because of his wealth.

No, Gingrich didn’t target in on Romney’s tendency to change his mind on hot political issues according to what might be popular at the moment. He didn’t attack Romney’s ability to defeat President Barack Obama or any other part of Romney’s political ideals. He decided to attack Romney because of the size of his bank account.

This only shows that Gingrich is more desperate than ever to win the hearts of voters, because his chances of winning the Republican nomination are dimming as rapidly as the Weber State women’s basketball team’s odds of making the Big Sky Conference tournament.

What is the use of attacking someone for being successful? Just because Romney is fortunate enough to have lots and lots and lots of money doesn’t mean he isn’t fit to lead the nation.

Don’t misunderstand. We at The Signpost aren’t giving our endorsement to Romney or anything like that. It’s just more than a little ridiculous that Gingrich thinks attacking Romney’s success is an effective way to win the hearts of voters.

Let’s localize this strategy. For the sake of argument, let’s use a fictitious WSU student body president election as an illustration. We’ll call our candidates Candidate 1 and Candidate 2.

To begin the campaign, Candidate 1 looks like she will be the clear front-runner throughout the election period. Candidate 2, on the other hand, has been popular in certain circles around the university but lacks the support necessary to overtake his opponent.

In a strategy meeting with his campaign manager and some other friends, Candidate 2 wants to brainstorm Candidate 1’s areas of weakness in order to attack them during the campaign. He wants to find something that will sway more voters in his direction. He wants to look like the “people’s candidate.” He wants to appear approachable and down-to-earth.

After several hours of meeting with trusted associates, he’s decided he’s come up with the perfect strategy. He’s going to attack Candidate 1’s academic success.

The next day at a meeting with his supporters, Candidate 2 tells those in attendance that Candidate 1 simply isn’t fit to lead WSU’s student body.

“Her grades,” he tells them, “are far too good. She’s never so much as earned a grade lower than an A.”

Candidate 1’s GPA is several points higher than the school’s average, and Candidate 2 knows she is too smart, too well known and too elite to be an effective leader. Simply put, she works too hard. Because of this, Candidate 2 is obviously the best choice for WSU.

Ridiculous, right?

So is Gingrich’s strategy for campaigning against Romney.

It’s not as though Romney is a perfect candidate. He has plenty of flaws. His recent gaffe about not caring about the “very poor” is evidence of that. He’s changed his position more than Seabiscuit and we’re still not sure if he feels emotion. Why doesn’t Gingrich find fault in these other areas?

Gingrich knows he’s losing. He’s not going to win the Republican nomination and at this point he’s just making a fool of himself. His new strategy isn’t going to work, and he’s going to be nothing more than divisive within his own party.

He needs to step aside, and let Romney continue being rich and successful.

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