For former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, it’s now coming from all sides—by which we mean Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and blogs.
Fellow conservatives went on the attack against Gingrich this week as he and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney raced for the Republican presidential nomination.
To respond, Gingrich defended his record in the same Web communities where he’s been getting trashed.
Perhaps the harshest blow came from the Drudge Report, a right-leaning blog, which featured a big headline about Gingrich speaking poorly of conservative hero President Ronald Reagan.
On Thursday morning, Politico theorized that conservatives concerned about Gingrich’s electability were trying to derail the campaign.
Gingrich took to Facebook and Twitter to end the rumors that he wasn’t a loyal “young lieutenant” of Reagan’s conservative coalition. On Facebook, he linked to a lengthy blog post at Newt.org with excerpts of articles that praised the relationship between the former House Speaker and the 40th president. The post gained more than 1,500 likes in nine hours.
Gingrich also spread his praise of Reagan to Twitter, tweeting that “[w]e need a Bold Reagan Conservative & not a moderate in the [White House].”
Gingrich was also posting long interviews on YouTube where he defended his record and relationships with conservatives.
And leading the online attacks on Gingrich has been Romney, who has the most to lose in Florida’s primary next week. And it’s a tactic that may be working: According to RealClearPolitics, Romney was once again climbing in Florida polls late this week.
Photo by Gage Skidmore
