Newt Gingrich is taking the traditional frontrunner's tactic of acting like his party's inevitable presidential nominee to a whole a new level.
In an interview with Jake Tapper of ABC News, Gingrich sounded like LeBron James vowing to bring Miami an NBA championship.
GINGRICH: "I'm going to be the nominee. It's very hard not to look at the recent polls and think that the odds are very high I'm going to be the nominee. And by the way I don't object if people want to attack me, that's their right. All I'm suggesting that it's not going to be very effective and that people are going to get sick of it very fast. And the guys who attacked each other in the debates up to now, every single one of them have lost ground by attacking. So they should do what they and their consultants want to do. I will focus on being substantive and I will focus on Barack Obama."
This is just the latest example of why "humble" isn't a word typically associated with Gingrich. It's also an example why Gingrich may not wear well with many voters who might prefer their eventual nominee to at least wait until voting actually begins in the Republican caucuses and primaries before he begins writing his convention-acceptance speech.
Gingrich's position on attacking his rivals dovetails with what he has reportedly told his staff, that they aren't to attack the other candidates for the Republican nomination, particularly the man who was previously the odds-on favorite for the nomination, Mitt Romney.
According to Real Clear Politics' Erin McPike:
According to Gingrich campaign spokesman R.C. Hammond, "In response to the dynamics over the last 24 hours about the attacks coming our way, his instructions to us were to not say anything bad about Mitt Romney."
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