Who sank Newt's boat?

Pundits and media articles are blaming the negative ads for Newt's plunge in the Iowa polls. One source said that half of all the ads run in Iowa since December 1 were negative ads about Newt.

I'll grant that this was an unprecedented amount of TV attacks on Newt. But let's don't lose sight of the other fact, as said by one of the pundits on Sunday talk shows (I forget which):

Everything they said about Newt is true.

That is what distinguishes them from the usual attack ads, such as the lies told about John Kerry by the Swiftboat crowd. And like they're all saying about Obama.

You don't have to make stuff up about Newt. In fact, some of what he has said would be rejected as too extreme if you submitted it as a made-up story about him.

I stick by my earlier claim that Newt will defeat Newt.

He said as much himself -- although in his typical style, it was a bit grandiose. In an interview with Matt Bai in Sunday's New York Times Magazine, he said:

"I only exist because the country is in trouble. . . . The question is whether I can in fact help the country work its way out of trouble. If we had 4 percent unemployment and no foreign threat, I couldn't be a candidate. It would be absurd. There are 20 guys you could pick in peaceful, calm and pleasant times who would be adequate as president, none of whom would have my liabilities."

In other words, our country is in peril; and only Newt can save us, so we have to just overlook all his flaws and failings. And Matt Bai added:

"It was an unusual admission from a presidential candidate near the top of the national polls, but it was a candid assessment from a man who thinks of himself in the mold of Churchill or Reagan. The way Newt sees it, fate doesn't hinge on his being a perfect man. Only a great one."

And what if he isn't a great man?

Ralph