SOUTH EL MONTE, Calif. – A string of bottom-scraping primary showings has wrought yet another Newt reboot, as Newt Gingrich did not directly attack his fellow Republican presidential hopefuls Monday.
The omission was intentional.
“When we went back and analyzed it, I do dramatically better when I focus on the nation’s problems and I focus on the nation’s solutions,” Gingrich said in a news conference. “I don’t do nearly as well when I focus on my competitors.”
Gingrich, the former U.S. House Speaker from Georgia, is spending most of the week in California as he seeks to raise money for his cash-strapped campaign. Amid eight fundraisers in three days, Gingrich is mixing in a few public events, including a stop organized by Hispanic leaders at a Mexican restaurant in East Los Angeles.
Traffic-choked Southern California is home to some of the highest gas prices in the nation, and Gingrich brought new and repeated emphasis to a pledge to reduce gasoline prices to $2 per gallon.
Gingrich said he wants to make the campaign about “$2 a gallon gasoline Newt Gingrich, not $5 a gallon Obama.”
Gasoline prices have risen from about $1.85 a gallon when President Barack Obama took office to more than $3.50 now due to an array of economic forces, but Gingrich zeroed in on one that he has made a central theme of his stump speeches: domestic oil and gas production.
“This is a direct question you have to ask your friends and neighbors,” Gingrich said. “We know how to get gasoline prices down -- produce more gasoline. And we know how to produce more gasoline.”
Gingrich called for more drilling on federal lands and offshore. The Obama administration has been slow to approve both.
Gingrich said he intends to make California – which has not voted for a Republican for president since 1988 – “very competitive in the fall.”
His task now is to remain competitive into the spring.
After Gingrich won the Jan. 21 South Carolina primary he claimed it had become a two-man race with him and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, and hinted that former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum should drop out.
But Santorum, who worked with Gingrich when the two were in Congress together and is friendly with him, remained in the race and his moment has arrived. Santorum last week won contests in Missouri, Colorado and Minnesota that meant little to the delegate count for the Republican nomination but much for the momentum of the race.
Santorum now is pressing the notion that the nomination is a two-man race – Texas Rep. Ron Paul has his ardent supporters, too, but has yet to win a state – and the tables have turned on Gingrich. South Carolina remains his only victory and he finished third or fourth last week in Missouri, Colorado, Minnesota and Maine.
The editors of the conservative National Review wrote Monday that Gingrich should drop out to make room for the Santorum-Romney face-off. “It is not clear whether Gingrich remains in the race because he still believes he could become president next year or because he wants to avenge his wounded pride: an ambiguity that suggests the problem with him as a leader,” they wrote.
Gingrich said the same pundits were predicting his exit from the race last June when much of his senior staff quit and the campaign was severely in debt. He regrouped to the point where he led in national polls in December and late January “and I suspect you’re about to see us do it again,” he said.
Gingrich predicted a laser-sharp focus on $2 per gallon gasoline, bringing unemployment down to 4 percent, balancing the federal budget and providing private Social Security savings accounts for young workers. He said those ideas, in lieu of attacks – he in the past has besmirched Romney’s investments in Goldman Sachs and work at Bain Capital, among other things – would present the proper contrast with his GOP foes.
“I am the only candidate bold enough to actually propose, win the argument and get them through Congress,” Gingrich said. “There’s no evidence that either of my two friends have any possibility of doing that. And so we’ll see if that works.”
Another Gingrich resuscitation relies on a strong performance on March 6 Super Tuesday, particularly in his old home state of Georgia.
Gingrich held a conference call with Georgia supporters Monday to promote his weekend events in the Atlanta area: Friday night in Peachtree City, then Saturday in Forsyth County, Gwinnett County and Cobb County.
“Tell your friends and neighbors we will have more town halls like this; early voting has started,” Gingrich said after taking questions on everything from the Obama administration loan for solar manufacturer Solyndra to drug testing for welfare recipients.
There is every indication Romney will contest Georgia hard as well. He has already campaigned there, and a Super PAC allied from his campaign indicated Monday it is going on the air with television ads in Georgia.
Another shift in Gingrich’s campaign is a heightened speaking role for his wife, Callista.
She did not join him Monday and is staging events of her own this week in California to speak on her husband’s behalf. But the two will be together Tuesday night. Asked about his Valentine’s Day plans in South El Monte, Gingrich said the couple has a rare dinner planned for just the two of them, and they will exchange gifts and “reconnect a little bit.” After the audience burst out in laughter, Gingrich added, “No more details.”
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