Will Angry White Man Performance Win Gingrich GOP Nomination?

S. rarely says much about current events when we get up in the morning. But today she was visibly agitated over the visual of the group, comprised largely of white men, who stood up and clapped when Newt Gingrich angrily put the CNN debate moderator in his place last night. If Gingrich’s goal was to be the only topic of conversation going into the South Carolina GOP primary on Saturday, then he performed beyond expectations. His televised histrionics, which will be played and replayed endlessly over the next two days, might even help him win the South Carolina primary.

But is being the angry white man in the race enough of an asset for Gingrich to win the nomination?

Will white Republican women identify with Callista Gingrich, who carried on a six year affair with her now husband when he was married to someone else, as their idea of a future First Lady? Will conservative women who have been replaced by trophy wives after helping their husbands stay afloat during their lean years be able to push the button for a man who made over $3,000,000 last year but only paid $19,800 in alimony to his ex-wife? As a woman on Twitter succinctly puts it, “the average person cannot relate to ‘a devout catholic mistress’.”     

Gingrich can rant all he wants about how despicable the media is for putting his issues with his ex-wife front and center just before a primary, but he himself is acutely aware of exactly how these kinds of seemingly random events are orchestrated.

The GOP’s multimillion dollar ad campaign invoking President Clinton’s relationship with Monica S. Lewinsky was devised by House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) and tested before more than three dozen groups of likely voters before Republicans unleashed the assault, party sources said yesterday.

In reviving the presidential sex scandal just one week before Election Day, Gingrich and his chief strategists aimed to energize their most loyal supporters, whose enthusiasm appeared to be waning after House conservatives lost the budget fight and the Clinton scandal fell off the front pages.

Gingrich Orchestrated GOP Ads Recalling Clinton-Lewinsky Affair     Washington Post

Being racially tone deaf may not matter all that much for a GOP candidate, but totally dismissing your ex wife’s perspective in such a negative and combative fashion, especially when so much of your relationship with her is publicly documented, could backfire. Gingrich may find out too late that a meaningful amount of women voters may ultimately hate him more than they hate Obama.