Newt Gingrich’s campaign is looking to buck up supporters after their embarrassing failure to get on the ballot in Virginia, likening their inability to secure enough signatures to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
“Newt and I agreed that the analogy is December 1941,” campaign director Michael Krull said in a message posted to Facebook. “We have experienced an unexpected set-back, but we will re-group and re-focus with increased determination, commitment and positive action. Throughout the next months there will be ups and downs; there will be successes and failures; there will be easy victories and difficult days - but in the end we will stand victorious.”
Gingrich, along with Rick Perry, Rick Santorum, Michele Bachmann, and Jon Huntsman, failed to meet the state’s 10,000 signature requirement, leaving only Mitt Romney and Ron Paul on the ballot. There is no write-in option under state law. One recent poll showed Gingrich leading the entire field.
Krull told supporters that the campaign would rebound, but acknowledged that it was a serious blow.
“Newt and I have talked three or four times today and he stated that this is not catastrophic - we will continue to learn and grow,” he wrote. “Remember that it was only a few months ago that pundits and the press declared us dead after the paid consultants left. They declared that the decision not to compete in the Ames Straw Poll would mean that Iowans would ignore us. Some will again state that this is fatal.”
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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