TPM2012

Newt: People Ask Me If I’m Still Even Running

GOP Presidential Candidate Newt Gingrich

Newt Gingrich complained to supporters in a conference call on Thursday night that his campaign gets so little coverage, voters are barely aware it exists.

“I have people tell me on a regular basis, ‘Gee, are you still running?’” he said, responding to a question from a dispirited supporter asking why the campaign was faring so poorly.

Gingrich blamed the press for his predicament, his favorite target in the last two debates as well.

“The elite media decided in June, July that I was too conservative, too aggressive, and decided I was out of the race,” he said, calling the coverage “self-fulfilling.”

The White House bent over backwards to avoid conflicting with the NFL opener, but Gingrich made it a feature of his call-in response to President Obama’s speech, delivering it smack dab in the middle of the Saints-Packers game at halftime. Gingrich told his fans that Obama’s jobs plan was “Son of Stimulus,” characterizing the proposal as “smaller, less likely to work, but [with] no new ideas, no lessons learned.”

2012, Newt Gingrich
Benjy Sarlin

Benjy Sarlin is a reporter for Talking Points Memo and co-writes the campaign blog, TPM2012. He previously reported for The Daily Beast/Newsweek as their Washington Correspondent and covered local politics for the New York Sun.

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