Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich is essentially admitting defeat in Iowa, with just one day remaining until voters cast their ballots for the Iowa caucus.
The former House speaker told reporters in Independence, Iowa, that he does not expect to be victorious Tuesday, admitting that the barrage of negative ads currently being run against him in the Hawkeye state have drastically decreased his chance at winning the nation’s first Republican primary election for 2012.
“I don’t think I’m going to win,” said Mr. Gingrich Monday. “I think if you look at the numbers, I think that volume of negativity’s done enough damage, but on the other hand if The Des Moines Register was right in its 41 percent potentially [undecided] who knows what’s going to happen.”
The Register poll released Saturday showed Mr. Gingrich in fourth place, with 12 percent of the votes, behind former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum at 15 percent, and Texas congressman Ron Paul who trails former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney by two percentage points.
That’s a drastic decline in support from a December 3rd Register poll that showed Mr. Gingrich in the lead, with 25 percent, ahead of both Mr. Paul who finished in second place and Mr. Romney who finished in third place at the time.
“If this is the Supebowl, then we just saw the pre-game show. But, everyone knows the real action happens after kickoff,” said Gingrich spokesman R.C. Hammond in reaction to the new poll.
Mr. Gingrich has found it difficult to stick to his own pledge of remaining positive in his campaign. Last week he took shots at Mr. Paul for a series of racist newsletters that ran under his name in the 1980s and 90s. He has also challenged Mr. Romney to a one on one debate with no moderator.
His statements Monday though were quite different from the confidence he evoked earlier in the campaign season when he stated that he would win the nomination, and show up four hours after President Barack Obama’s campaign speeches to downplay all of the president’s talking points.
On Sunday, Mr. Gingrich stated that he has been “Romney-boated” in experiencing a decline as a result of the negative ads being run against him.
Last week, Mr. Gingrich said that his campaign has been recruiting volunteers to be present Tuesday at voting locations, in an effort to sway undecided voters towards voting for him.
