Newt Gingrich on the Art of Romney's "Baggage Handlers"

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich was on Greta last night talking primarily about presenting a positive message and his opponent Mitt Romney's negative campaign ads, this time against Rick Santorum in Michigan.

Gingrich thinks the ads are turning off voters. In Maine, Gingrich notes, Romney barely defeated Ron Paul, with 39% of the vote. Maine is in Romney's back yard, and should have been an easy win, Gingrich said. Gingrich didn't point out, but should have, that the northern Florida counties that Gingrich won in the late January primary had increased voter turnout. The southern, mostly urban areas, where Romney won, had depressed turnout, both areas compared to the 2008 GOP primary. South Carolina, where Gingrich won by a remarkable margin, had record turnout.

Here is the interview:

Over at Newsmax, a Gingrich strategist Randy Evans wrote an interesting article on the insider take on the strategy of the Gingrich campaign:

In emphasizing “inevitability “ and “electability” as Romney’s raison d’etre for running, the Stevens-Roades duo had sought to replace the usual substantive or policy messaging with multimillion dollar attacks run by themselves or  the pro-Romney Super Pac and designed to blow away any credible challenger.

Gingrich mentioned that he is promoting positive policy ideas, one of which is a plan to drop gas prices to $2.50 per gallon, something that may resonate in the mass transit-starved south, where the next primaries are.

The question is, are positive messages from a negative ad-damaged candidate good enough to win the nomination?