National Review: GOP Will 'Blow It' With Newt

The Republican Party has reached an "uncharacteristic degree of unity" and is capable of taking control of the White House and both houses of Congress next year—but it could blow it all if it nominates Newt Gingrich, warns the National Review. An editorial in the influential conservative magazine makes the case against Gingrich, urging the GOP to "reject a hasty marriage" to the frontrunner and choose Mitt Romney, Jon Huntsman, or Rick Santorum instead.

Gingrich's "character flaws—his impulsiveness, his grandiosity, his weakness for half-baked (and not especially conservative) ideas—made him a poor Speaker of the House," the Review writes, accusing the candidate of putting his personal interests above the conservative causes he champions. Next year's election, it writes, should be about the direction America is heading in instead of a referendum on Gingrich himself. "Gingrich has always said he wants to transform the country. He appears unable to transform, or even govern, himself." Click to read the editorial. (More Newt Gingrich 2012 stories.)