Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich was asked a bizarre question Tuesday to open an Atlanta forum: What did he think about Bruce Jenner's very public transformation into Caitlyn? Somehow, he segued that into an analysis of the two leading candidates in the GOP presidential primary.
Sudden Republican front-runner Ben Carson, he said, represented the people who are "confused" by the party elite – the voters he said who turned to former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and ex-Pennsylvania Rick Santorum in previous contests.
And billionaire Donald Trump, he suggested, is someone who appeals to voters “engaged in a public way in rethinking their life.” He added: “He’s the perfect candidate in the era of Kardashians.”
Gingrich, who ran for the White House in 2012, sees a growing possibility of no clear Republican winner emerging from the string of caucuses and primaries.
Many of the earliest contests dole out delegates to the GOP convention on a proportional, rather than winner-takes-all, basis. And that means an increased likelihood of a brokered Republican convention next summer, where delegates play the deciding role.
That also could explain why he predicts few, if any, Republican candidates bow out of the race in the coming weeks.
"If you think you can get 5 or 6 or 7 percent of the delegates, you can come to the convention with some muscle," he told a panel organized by the Dentons mega-law firm. "[Ohio Gov. John] Kasich will probably carry Ohio. [New Jersey Gov. Chris] Christie will probably carry New Jersey. They're asking themselves, 'Why would I drop out?'"
Gingrich, who doesn’t plan to endorse anyone in the GOP hunt for the nomination, added in an interview: “A brokered convention will lend itself to chaos. … We have no idea what that would be like. It would be wild. And therefore, as an observer, I think it would be very cool.”
Ex-Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, also a former presidential candidate and, like Gingrich, a Dentons employee, was asked how that might influence the Democratic contest.
“We have to run our campaign,” he said. “We can’t rely on the Republicans to blow up in order to win. And anyone who does that shouldn’t be in this business.”
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