Independence, Iowa – Newt Gingrich did not predict exactly what place he would get in tomorrow’s caucuses, but said he had no expectation of a win.
“I don’t think I’m going to win,” he told reporters, citing the barrage of attack ads that had aired in Iowa in recent weeks.
“I don’t think anybody else in this campaign could have withstood the sheer volume of negative ads and still be in the race,” Gingrich said.
For him, the key number for tomorrow is 41: the percentage of Iowans who haven’t made their final decision, according to the Des Moines Register poll released Saturday. “Who knows what’s going to happen?” Gingrich mused, saying the caucus format allowed voters to have a conversation about which candidate was best.
Speaking about rival Mitt Romney, who he described as a “Massachusetts moderate,” Gingrich did not mince words. “After five years of campaigning and what I think will be something like 20 million dollars plus in total spending, Romney is proving decisively that the moderate vote is about 23 percent,” he said.
“People who describe him as the frontrunner have to ask yourself for the question, ‘if you have to spend that many million dollars to get 23 percent, how can you possibly think he’s the most electable candidate?’” Gingrich added.