Adieu to Newt

Yesterday’s op-ed column by Frank Bruni in the New York Times argues that it’s time to stop paying attention to Newt Gingrich.  Newt, however, has no intention of retiring gracefully. I think what motivates Newt at this point is not winning, which even he can see is not in the cards, but the Oscar Wilde dictum "There is only one thing in life worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about."

It’s time to say good-bye to Newt

He’s been a lot of fun

But lately not a single race

Occurred in which he’s won.

He said one time that it was clear

He’d be the candidate

But now it seems he’s lost his touch,

He’s starting to deflate.

He says the most outrageous things

That cause widespread dissension

His motive in most every case

Is just to get attention.

Reporters have deserted him

His statements they ignore

He’s now become irrelevant

To those who know the score.

Newt says that he’ll continue on

And fight until the end

There’s no one thinks he’s got a chance

But Newt can still pretend.

He harbors stubborn fantasies

That in a wild convention

They’ll nominate him in the end -

A sad misapprehension.

I can’t believe he really thinks

That it’d work out this way.

What motivates him to go on

Despite what many say?

I think that Newt has come to see

by some he is abhorred,

But what he really cannot stand

Is just to be ignored.