By Greg McDonald
Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani offered a vigorous defense of Newt Gingrich today in the face of a strong push by Mitt Romney to drive the former House speaker out of the Republican presidential race.
Appearing on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” Giuliani insisted that Gingrich knows how to bring moderates and conservatives together to beat President Barack Obama next year, and added that he was surprised that many in the GOP are coming after him “like he’s some sort of monster.”
Calling Gingrich “a totally smart guy” who connects with the suburban “Reagan Democrats” that Republicans will need to beat Obama, Giuliani said the former House speaker would likely surprise a lot of people if he becomes the nominee just like Reagan did in 1980 against Jimmy Carter.
“Ronald Reagan was the dumb actor; Ronald Reagan said incendiary things; Ronald Reagan was like Newt. Gosh, you never knew what he was going to say and the whole world would go crazy,” Giuliani said, noting that the Democrats were eager to run against Reagan “and they got trounced.”
