Gingrich-watchers can only gaze in fascination, like spectators at a NASCAR race with an erratic driver who tends to run into walls.
“If history is any guide, he’ll blow himself up,” a former aide to President George W. Bush told me.
Back in 1968, New Nixon bested Michigan Gov. George W. Romney, Mitt Romney’s father, for the GOP presidential nomination. But don’t presume a similar story this time.
Gingrich is trying to engineer a turnaround in a matter of months. Nixon was methodical and diligent; Gingrich — Old Newt, at least — is mercurial and undisciplined.
New Nixon turned out to be something of an illusion; but in 1968, the change of image was impressive enough to win the presidency.
Like Nixon, the former speaker is a man of outsized talents and outsized flaws. But my bet is that in the end, Newt Gingrich will prove to be no Richard Nixon.
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