Live from G-O-TEA, It's "Newtmentum"!

Remember the good old days, when Rick Perry looked to be the next GOP nominee? Well, that's obviously long gone. Oh look, the G-O-TEA has a new... Wait, excuse me, NEWT frontrunner.



Yes. Seriously.

The former House speaker, who has given every indication that he mainly views running for president as an opportunity to goose Newt-branded merchandise sales, is the choice of 28 percent of likely GOP primary voters, according to a PPP survey released today. He’s followed by Herman Cain at 25 percent and Mitt Romney at 18. A second new poll, this one from CNN, shows Gingrich in second place with 22 percent, just 2 points behind Romney.

And why would this be?

Newt may not last long at 28 percent, but Romney — for all his supposed inevitability — still hasn’t been able to climb that high himself. As I wrote this morning, this isn’t necessarily a problem for Romney; his national support will take care of itself if, like John McCain four years ago, he can scratch out victories in most of the key early contests next year. The problem is that, with the exception of New Hampshire, he’s struggling just as badly in the key early states as he is in national polls.

Sure, Gingrich may be a grafter and a grifter... But at least he's not an ideological shape-shifter, and that's all that really matters to today's teabagger crowd.

So can the teabaggers finally settle on their perfect "pure" anti-Romney and bequeath him the nomination? Perhaps not, since he never really seemed serious about running for President (he really just wanted to sell his s--t)... Or perhaps so, since Romney can't break 25% and the TEA-nuts are desperate to unite behind someone to clobber Romney in the primary. It's too early to tell how long this "Newtmentum" lasts, but without a doubt the biggest losers in this fiasco are the GOP establishment figures who couldn't figure out their own base.

And hopefully, whatever becomes of this will help folks better understand the "heart of darkness" at the center of today's G-O-TEA. After all, they don't care about working families. And they continue to prescribe "solutions" that would only worsen our problems. And really, who better to personify the new/old G-O-TEA than the original mastermind of it?