Branstad says Gingrich is “in real trouble”

Governor Terry Branstad is the guest on this weekend’s Iowa Press on IPTV and he offered his analysis of the latest news from the presidential campaign trail.

“I think his campaign’s in real trouble,” Branstad said of Newt Gingrich. “Obviously he got off to a bad start and then he took a big vacation and I think that was a big mistake and now I think a lot of the staff has just kind of had it…Whether this is the end for the campaign or not, I don’t know, but it doesn’t look very good.”

Gingrich has been on a two-week cruise to the Greek Islands. “I think you do a cruise to the Greek Islands after the campaign’s over, not before,” Branstad said, laughing. Branstad, as you may remember, took his wife on a trip to Paris in November, after he won his fifth term.

Branstad noted Gingrich drew “some pretty good crowds” in Iowa shortly after he formally launched his campaign, even amidst the thrashing Gingrich was getting for criticizing the Paul Ryan plan (along with the revelation that Gingrich had a $250,000 to $500,000 line of credit at Tiffany’s).

“If he really wanted to sustain, get things back on track he should have stayed with it and not taken an extended vacation,” Branstad said.  “…I think he missed the opportunity, obviously.”