Crunch Time for Gingrich in Iowa

Iowa may be as important to Newt Gingrich as it is for his fellow Republican presidential candidates who have invested virtually everything in tonight's Iowa Caucuses. 

That's because his ascension to the head of the pack last month was short-lived, thanks to big advertising buys from rivals who've heavily targeted the former East Cobb House Speaker.

Gingrich's Des Moines Register poll numbers in Iowa were 25 percent in December, and have plummeted to 12 percent as frontrunner Mitt Romney in particular has gone negative.

The Christian Science Monitor remarks that Gingrich's occasionally positive campaign may be working against him, no small irony given his track record for rhetorical bomb-throwing. 

On the campaign trail yesterday, our sister Patch sites in Iowa reported that Gingrich is asking voters there . 

And then he did some of his own. Specifically, he called Romney a liar who is offering the "pretense that he's a conservative." Romney has been dubbed the "Massachusetts moderate" for his record as governor in that state, including his support for universal health care coverage.

(In Georgia, Romney  of state attorney general Sam Olens, an East Cobb resident and the former chairman of the Cobb Board of Commissioners.)

Gingrich's problem is that he hasn't had the campaign cash to counter the advertising with commercials of his own. 

He also raised concerns for admitting on Monday he didn't think he would win in Iowa. That's a big reversal for a candidate whose stock soared in late November after he earned the endorsement ofThe Manchester-Union Leader.

With that state's primary and South Carolina's falling on Jan. 21, Gingrich could be a longshot to be around for the March 7 primaries in Georgia, his former political stomping ground. 

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports Gingrich has called South Carolina "a must-win" and is putting most of his resources there.

One of Gingrich's biggest local supporters, East Cobb state representative Sharon Cooper, is undaunted by the seeming long odds he's facing. On her Facebook page on Saturday, she said "I think Newt is poised to surprise a lot of people."