Matt K. Lewis at The Daily Caller provides a little context, via a Gingrich campaign internal memo, to Gingrich's prediction of a "straight-out contest for the next 4 or 5 months."
The memo reiterates that the GOP race is "just getting started."
Additionally, the memo stresses that the proportional nature of the upcoming contests “essentially guarantees that no candidate will secure the nomination anytime soon and the map quickly becomes more favorable for Gingrich.”
More than 20 percent of the available delegates (467) will be awarded on Super Tuesday, and the memo notes that, one of the Super Tuesday states is Georgia, with 76 delegates at stake. To put that in perspective, “even if Romney wins Florida on Tuesday, he will only have 83 total delegates; Newt’s home state could effectively cancel out his entire delegate count to date.”
The memo also describes Tennessee (58) and Oklahoma (43) as “favorable” Super Tuesday states, and notes that just one week after Super Tuesday (March 13), 90 delegates will be in play in Alabama and Mississippi. And if the point that a Florida loss is survivable wasn’t already hammered home, the memo notes, “these 90 [delegates] alone are more than the 83 Romney will have in hand on Wednesday morning if he wins Florida.”
While the campaign memo downplays the importance of Florida, it hasn't stopped Gingrich from a last minute push and narrowing the Romney lead to single digits from double digits just a day before primary day. Neither has the fact that Romney and pro-Romney forces have outspent the Gingrich campaign and pro-Gingrich forces by over quadruple the amount.
Through Friday, the Romney campaign and the super PAC Restore Our Future had spent a combined $15,340,000, the source said. Gingrich’s campaign and the super PAC Winning Our Future spent a comparatively paltry $3,390,000.
Side Note- Spoke to my father who lives in Miami, Florida, this morning and he tells me the campaigns ads in Florida are inundating the airwaves.
Quote "Florida votes tomorrow, maybe then they will all go away!"
Poor Dad, he hates politics.