Mitt vs. Newt

As I have said before, Mitt Romney is far from perfect, but I could probably live with having him as the GOP nominee.  But Newt Gingrich recently won big in South Carolina and has endorsements from Rick Perry and Fred Thompson, and even got a quasi-endorsement from Sarah Palin, so there is still a fair chance that Newt could wind up being the nominee.

I think that's what the race has come down to, a choice between Mitt and Newt.  Even though Rick Santorum still has respectable poll numbers, I don't really see how he could win... but his endorsement just might end up swinging things one way or the other, if he ever decides to drop out.

As far as Newt goes, I'm still very concerned about some of the positions he has taken on the issue of illegal immigration.  I think Newt's "immigration boards" proposal will eventually lead to the complete unravelling of his campaign... if not now in the primaries, then sometime in the general election after it is too late to do anything about it.  Some sort of implosion is inevitable, especially now that he has made the mistake of trying to call Romney anti-immigrant.  (Newt may be trying to backpedal now, but so did Rick Perry after his "heartless" remark... and how well did that work out for Perry?)

Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich are both deeply flawed candidates, but I think Newt has flaws that will be much harder for him to overcome.  As much fun as it is to watch Newt stick his thumb in the media's eye, I'm really not looking forward to the prospect of him being attacked by Obama from the right on the issue of illegal immigration... not to mention the plethora of attack ads that will be calling him a hypocrite for stepping out on his own wife while presiding over the Clinton impeachment.

Update:  Here's some video taken from the Florida debate:

I think Newt comes off terribly here in his exchange with Romney, despite getting a few cheers at first when he mentions wanting English as the official language.  In fact, he came off so terribly that now his aides are trying to claim that the audience was unfairly packed with Romney supporters.

Update:  Here's another feisty exchange between Mitt and Newt, this one about Newt's proposal to build a colony on the moon:

Again, I don't think Newt comes off very well here... though I don't think this will hurt him nearly as much as the illegal immigration stuff.