I can’t remember when we’ve heard a politician plead so desperately to take back something he said. Then again, naked desperation is clearly in order. The favorite parlor game in Washington this week has been trying to remember a more disastrous campaign launch than the one Gingrich is having. Many candidates have stumbled coming out of the gate, but few have taken off like a shot in the wrong direction.

The great irony, of course, is that Gingrich’s grievous error was to speak the truth. Appearing on “Meet the Press” last Sunday, he referred to the proposal by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) to convert Medicare into a voucher program — endorsed by all but four members of the GOP majority in the House — as “right-wing social engineering.”…

Prominent Republicans immediately grabbed their pitchforks, lit their torches and formed an angry mob. From opinion surveys and town-hall meetings, it was already clear that the Ryan plan to fundamentally alter the Medicare program is deeply unpopular — and that ultimately it is likely to hurt the party at the polls. Now one of the best-known figures in the party, a candidate for the presidential nomination, was breaking ranks. Rather than accept the fact that Gingrich is right — or was right, since he now wants us to forget he ever appeared on “Meet the Press” — Republicans mau-maued him into a full-throated disavowal.