Gingrich’s bumpy start deepens doubts about his presidential candidacy

By Amy Gardner and Karen Tumulty,
WashPost
Published: May 17

MASON CITY, Iowa — Newt Gin­grich’s first outing as a 2012 presidential candidate has confirmed and even deepened Republicans’ doubts that the former House speaker has the discipline it will take to be a credible contender.

The second day of his 17-city swing through Iowa again saw Gingrich in full damage-control mode and seeking to tamp down the backlash that he generated with remarks Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” in which he criticized a GOP plan to overhaul Medicare and defended a central tenet of the Democrats’ health-care law.

And in the middle of it all, Gin­grich had a new problem to contend with: a report in Politico that he had at one point owed $250,001 to $500,000 to the upscale jewelry store Tiffany and Co. The amount was disclosed as a liability from a “revolving charge account” in financial disclosure forms for 2005 and 2006 filed by his wife, Callista, who was then employed by the House Agriculture Committee.

In response to an e-mail from The Washington Post inquiring whether he would be willing to disclose what he bought for that sum, Gingrich responded with one word and a sign-off:

“No

Newt.”

(More here.)