From Frederick, Maryland -
Stumping for votes in Maryland, Newt Gingrich on Monday again rejected talk that he get out of the Republican race for the White House, emphasizing that in his opinion, Mitt Romney has not yet ended this nomination fight.
"Governor Romney doesn't have it locked up," Gingrich said to big cheers at a Ford car dealership in Frederick, Maryland.
"And we have no obligation to back off and concede anything," Gingrich added.
It was a lively crowd of over 150 people on Monday morning, many of whom were Gingrich backers, but others had clearly come out for a rare visit of a Presidential candidate in this city to the north and west of Washington, D.C.
Gingrich didn't disappoint, as he threw a few jabs at Romney, threw some stares at the news media and drew loud applause for lines that I've been hearing for months on the campaign trail.
And even though he is well behind in the polls and the race for GOP delegates, Gingrich kept his target squarely on Romney the frontrunner.
"Every day working Americans deserve a stronger voice than Wall Street millionaires," Gingrich said as he wrapped up his car dealer speech.
"I do need your help tomorrow and all the way through to Tampa," said Gingrich, again referencing his refusal to get out of the race anytime soon.
Maryland is one of three contests on Tuesday, along with primaries in Washington, D.C. and Wisconsin. While Gingrich has made the most stops in Maryland, the polls show him far back of Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum.
Gingrich Goes Back to School
For the fifth time in the last week, Newt Gingrich visited a college or university to make a speech; this time it was Hood College in Frederick, Maryland.
And Professor Newt clearly enjoyed it.
Gingrich's speech at Hood started off more like a lecture that seemed to bore the room to tears; things only got interesting when he opened up the floor for questions from the students.
A large group of them - mainly female students - had shown up with signs stating their opposition to Gingrich and the GOP in general, and reinforcing their support for President Obama.
There were other students who thought they could somehow lure one of the premier political debaters into a verbal dead-end, and one did sort of stop Gingrich for a minute by asking why he should be trusted with the White House when his own campaign was $1.5 million in debt.
The students cheered lustily as the former Speaker stood there waiting for his chance - he had no snappy comeback - as he readily admitted that he's trying to raise the money to erase the debt.
But then the quick-thinking-on-his-feet-politician lowered the boom on the student, by suggesting that he help out by visiting the newt-dot-org website and contribute some money to the cause.
The crowd cheered.
Another student tried to derail Gingrich by asking, "Do you believe in evolution?"
Gingrich's calm answer was, "Sure."
You could feel the Town vs Gown divide in the room as the students clapped for each other when they tried to one-up the Speaker, while many of the adults in the room applauded when Gingrich gave his answer.
It was even more interesting to see the inside battle going on amongst employees at the college - some of whom had shown up for Gingrich, while others were opposed.
Gingrich will need a lot of his backers to show up at the polls on Tuesday or he might well be shutout again when it comes to delegates.
