What's the secret to Newt Gingrich's success?
FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty:
Newt Gingrich has risen from the dead for a second time in this roller-coaster that is the Republican nomination battle.
With his decisive double-digit win in South Carolina, Gingrich now heads into Florida with a head full of steam.
South Carolina has the distinction of picking every Republican nominee since Ronald Reagan in 1980, and what Gingrich did there is nothing short of amazing. It's also a bit puzzling.
A piece in Politico suggests that the surging Gingrich has mastered the art of both debates and disguise.
There's no question Gingrich's debate performances – and the free media he gets from them – have been a key to his success. Last week, his answer about food stamps and his beating up on the media helped him win over South Carolina conservatives.
As for the disguise part, Gingrich uses his master debate skills to camouflage his weaknesses as a candidate: the three wives, leaving the first two while they were ill, his erratic leadership, etc.
One ex-wife's claim that Gingrich wanted an open marriage might have done him in. But in the end, she didn't lay a glove on him. The voters yawned.
Mitt Romney must be tearing his hair out; it wasn't supposed to be this way.
With much less money and a smaller organization, Gingrich is once again threatening to take away his crown.
It’s a stunning comeback for a candidate who was sent off to the political graveyard for the first time last summer. His staff quit after he went on a Mediterranean cruise and reports surfaced of his million-dollar line of credit at Tiffany's. But Gingrich roared back to life in December, shooting to the top of the polls before collapsing again ahead of the Iowa caucuses.
He just won't go away.
Here’s my question to you: What's the secret to Newt Gingrich's success?
Tune in to the Situation Room at 4pm to see if Jack reads your answer on air.
And, we love to know where you’re writing from, so please include your city and state with your comment.
How confident are you in the state of the union?
FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty:
It used to matter.
The president's State of the Union address used to be a sort of snapshot of where the country stood: How the economy was doing, what was working, and what wasn't.
Now it's just a political speech - a nicely bundled batch of b.s. designed to make the American people feel good about whichever party is peddling it.
And in an election year it will be even worse than usual.
Nevertheless it's an exercise the president has to go through once a year and tomorrow night is the night.
With a captive audience of a joint session of Congress and a national television audience of millions, President Obama will tell us all what a wonderful job he's doing and how great everything is in the country.
He probably won't mention that the country is broke.
He probably won't talk much about the long national nightmare that is the war in Afghanistan.
He's not likely to address the fact that gas prices have doubled since he took office.
He probably won't draw much attention to the fact that the housing crisis still isn't anywhere near being over.
He likely won't mention that the overall standard of living for Americans is in decline.
And I'll bet he won't dwell on the fact that millions and millions of Americans still can't find a job.
Instead he'll likely try to portray whatever problems he addresses as Congress' fault, while at the same time promising that he's going to do much better in the coming year.
The fact of the matter is the state of our union isn't very good.
Here’s my question to you: How confident are you in the state of the union?
Tune in to the Situation Room at 5pm to see if Jack reads your answer on air.
And, we love to know where you’re writing from, so please include your city and state with your comment.
@jackcafferty on Twitter
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