Newt Gingrich is no longer a candidate for President. He should be treated as such. 

The bombastic long-ago congressman is no longer running with any hope of winning the Republican nomination — he cannot mathematically do it —  he is running to try to stay relevant as a public figure and to do damage to Mitt Romney, whom he believes hijacked his era of glory. How pathetic. 

Ron Paul cannot win either.  But he marches on holding a torch at least. No one can accuse Mr. Paul of not standing for something. Newt Gingrich, on the other hand, seems to stand only for himself. He holds no banner; he carries no beacon. Yet Mr. Gingrich now claims, straight-faced, to be staying in the presidential primary contest to hold Mitt Romney’s feet to the fire of conservatism. It’s a bad joke. Does anyone see lobbyist Gingrich — the man who proposed spending hundreds of millions of dollars to create U.S. states in outer space — as the standard bearer for American conservatism? 

Four years ago, Mr. Gingrich arrogantly suggested that he and his “bold solutions” would deign to enter the Republican primary if someone would give him $10 million. As hard as it is to believe, Mr. Gingrich actually convinced someone to do that for him this year. Mr. Gingrich accomplished one thing with the money: he made more Americans realize just how constitutionally ill-suited he is to serve as president. 

Mr. Gingrich evidently believes that by staying in the presidential race he can litter with obstacles Mitt Romney’s path to the presidency and burnish credentials as some type of elder statesman. But Mr. Gingrich’s problem is that he is no statesman at all.  He never has been. Nor is he a presidential candidate any longer.