Last week in his Politico column, MSNBC “Morning Joe” host Joe Scarborough wrote that “only three species destined to survive a nuclear holocaust will be cockroaches, Cher and Newton Leroy Gingrich,” referring to the sustainability of Gingrich’s campaign.
The Real Clear Politics polling average for the upcoming Florida primary contest shows former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney with an expanding lead. And even if that should hold up in Tuesday’s outcome, Scarborough wrote, don’t expect former House Speaker Newt Gingrich to drop out.
“And let me tell you something, a 20-point loss in Florida — that’s not a nuclear holocaust,” Scarborough said on Sunday’s “Meet the Press” on NBC. “February is a down month. That gives the strategist three or four weeks to plan and then look at the calendar. You look at Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Texas soon after that. If I have to bet on Newt’s strongest state, I list all of those. That’s exactly what he needs.”
Scarborough predicted this would go well into the summer, which he wrote was “bad news” for both Romney and the GOP.
“This is not the end of Newt Gingrich, and this is not the beginning of the end of Newt Gingrich,” he continued. “This battle is going well into the summer, and that’s really bad news for Mitt Romney and bad news for the Republican Party.”