Opinion Goodbye,Newt Gingrich

I am exaggerating. In Rhode Island,well over 3 per cent of the eligible voters flocked to the polls on Tuesday,as the overwhelming majority declared their enthusiasm for Mitt Romney as the Republican presidential nominee. We are totally talking mandate.

And,wow,no more Newt Gingrich. Newt is reportedly planning to drop out of the presidential race. The crushing blow was the Delaware primary,where the Gingrich campaign had hoped to win a dramatic come-from-behind victory under the theory that only a couple of Republicans would actually vote and that they would be the same people who once nominated Christine O’Donnell for the Senate. Unfortunately,a whopping 16 per cent of the eligible electorate showed up,way too big a crowd for the fragile Gingrich candidacy to withstand. This has been a terrible month for Newt. His campaign is millions in debt. His pet billionaire,Sheldon Adelson,seems to have deserted him. He was bitten by a penguin at the St Louis Zoo. And now this.

“My guess is you’ll see a dramatic difference in the youth vote this time — part of it is you have a younger,more dynamic Republican candidate,” said a former Senator Hank Brown. Take that,young Americans. You can’t find jobs because the baby boomers are never going to retire. And,in politics,65-year-olds get to be the youth candidate.

We are now in for six months of Mitt Romney versus Barack Obama,and with the polls showing the race to be very close,you could argue that it is going to be really exciting. Except for the fact that it’s Mitt Romney versus Barack Obama.

Ignore the polls,I beg you. It will just make you nervous and crazy for no good reason. When it comes to their political preferences,the American people are like a bunch of middle school students picking their best friend on Facebook. Do you know who one of the most popular political figures in the US is right now? Hillary Clinton! Do you remember when she was the most polarising name in politics? Do you remember when she lost to Obama and we all said it was like the cool popular guy versus the hard-working student council treasurer? Obama would kill for Hillary’s favourability ratings now.

Romney is now busy with a passel of closed-door fundraisers in states like New Jersey and New York,which he will never,ever,visit for any other reason than closed-door fundraisers. Newt’s future plans are unknown. Perhaps he will go back to that great job he had before. And what about Rick Santorum? You can’t spend the rest of your life not endorsing Mitt Romney. The only guy who seems to have his future plotted out is Ron Paul,who is apparently planning to continue running for president while we all ignore him.

So many surprises to look forward to. What humanising interchange will Mitt have with the public next? Will it be as good as the last one,when he insulted the cookies at a Pittsburgh community centre? Will he win over the loser Republicans’ billionaires? Their celebrity supporters?

Will he ever release all his tax returns? Have we ever had a presidential nominee who walks on stage to a song that seems to suggest he is “wild,like an untamed stallion?” When we did,would you have imagined it would be Mitt Romney?Gail Collins