Romney’s very persona helps Gingrich. The former Bain Capital chief is the elitist heir to Rockefeller and the malapropistic heir to Ford and George H. W. Bush. Watching Ford speak extemporaneously was like watching a drunk cross an icy parking lot — and the same can be said for the exuberantly monosyllabic man from Massachusetts.

Gingrich, like Goldwater and Reagan, is running as a strongly populist outsider. His future is still unclear, however…

No one goes around calling themselves a Nixon Republican or a Ford Republican or a Bush Republican. But plenty now proudly call themselves Goldwater Republicans and Reagan Republicans.

Maybe some conservatives will one day be calling themselves “Gingrich Republicans.”