Given Newt’s surge in the polls, I figured I’d go back and look at what I said about Newt after his crash off the starting line last May. I was pretty critical in this post, but not as harsh as many conservatives at the time. I still agree with everything I wrote back then, but what is interesting to me is the comment section, where I got flayed for not flaying Gingrich nearly enough. It’s wholly unscientific, but after talking to a lot of rank and file conservatives from all across the country over the last few weeks, it seems Newt has at least succeeded in winning back some good will from the base of the GOP. Whether it translates into much more than a boomlet remains to be seen. But I am glad that Newt (and for Newt) has clawed his way back into respectability.