Krauthammer: Newt Gingrich is 'done'

Dr. K said so tonight on Fox’s Special Report. Just to make sure everyone understood exactly what Krauthammer thinks, he added that Gingrich’s hit on the Ryan plan (“social engineering from the right”) and his self-debate on the ObamaCare individual mandate constitute a “capital offense” in conservative politics. When you have nice Iowans at town halls telling you to get out of the race before you embarrass yourself any more, and Dr. K declaring you dead, you have a problem.

Rush Limbaugh, meanwhile, spent a chunk of his airtime today dealing with “the inexplicable Newt Gingrich.”

And meanwhile, as if to establish that he is the big dog in the pack, Mitt Romney today raised $10.25 million. Nice haul. If my math is right, he only needs 99 more days like today to raise as much as Obama plans to raise.

I don’t think Gingrich is all that inexplicable. He’s unprincipled and undisciplined, and puts too much stock in being original and clever. That adds up to a sound bite machine capable of uttering headline-generating quotes that end up completely at odds with one another. Pols could get away with this sort of thing 15 or 16 years ago in Newt’s heyday, but not now, with blogs picking through every word a candidate says. It’s a different world, and Gingrich has yet to adjust to it. Now, you can probably stick a fork in his campaign.