Skipper

Being a political junkie/anorak, I love election contests and the Republican candidates for the presidency are putting on a great show. That most unlikely candidate, Newt Gingrich, won South Carolina, thus upsetting the assumed lordly progression of Mitt Romney towards the big fight with Obama in November.

I say unlikely because a) he looks much odder than Ed Miliband- yet, like Robin Cook, has attracted three wives and at least a couple of extra-marital affairs. b) his personality has not exactly impressed his colleagues. He rose to be a formidable Republican politician in the 1990s as speaker of the House of Representatives. In 1994 he helped write the Contract with America which detailed then ten policies the party would introduce during its first 100 days if successful; this included lowering taxes and shrinking the state as well as reforming welfare. But Gingrich can be argumentative and irascible and fell out with colleagues. He lost the Speakership in 1998. He has married three times and his first wife accused him of divorcing her when she was in hospital with cancer.

In the mid-1990s, Gingrich began an affair with House of Representatives staffer Callista Bisek, who is 23 years his junior. They continued their affair(hypocritically by Newt, who played the morality card against Clinton) during the Lewinsky scandal. In 2000, Gingrich married Bisek shortly after his divorce from second wife Ginther.

Having trounced Romney in the last round, Newt is riding high in the Florida polls. It seemed his fortunes changed when he exploded in the last primary's televised debate and attacked the 'liberal' media for focusing on his unorthodox emotional history. Apart from being the most monstrous example of the pot calling the kettle black- what about Fox News and the shameless lies about Obama's birth and religion?-Newt cannot think he has laid this to rest- in the real thing he can expect an infinitely more merciless examination.

Moreover, the Tea Party, so effective in winning more seats in the Mid Terms, will surely serve Newt ill in the big contest, should he make the final. Newt is so far to the right his views will be exposed as out of step with mainstream voters. Obama, who has certainly underachieved in his first term, will, I suspect, have another four years to make amends. But, a small voice whispers, we never thought Obama would make it back in 2008 and just as he caught the imagination of voters back then, who is to say Gingrich might not succeed this time? But the odds must be against this. However, in this volatile contest, Newt's early lead seems to have evaporated and Romney now seems the firm favourite. Either way Obama can still sleep soundly for a while longer.