The problem for Newt Gingrich does not appear to be a lack of self-awareness. But self-awareness is not the same thing as self-control.
During his appearance on NBC‘s “Meet the Press” on Sunday, Mr. Gingrich, the former House speaker, clinically diagnosed what he called his own “great weakness” as he pursues the presidency: a lack of personal and political discipline.
“One of the most painful lessons I’ve had to learn, and I haven’t fully learned it, obviously, is that if you seek to be the president of the United States, you are never an analyst, and you are never a college teacher because those folks can say what they want to say,” Mr. Gingrich said.
And yet, the frank admission was even more striking because it came at the end of an interview in which Mr. Gingrich proved himself completely unable to follow his own advice. He slammed the Republican Medicare proposals in Congress, declared the city of Detroit “destroyed” by food stamps and implied that he supported the individual mandates at the heart of President Obama‘s health care overhaul.
What was supposed to be the beginning of a conversation with the American people about Mr. Gingrich’s big ideas became a nightmare of political damage control. And on Tuesday the week got worse, with reports that Mr. Gingrich — who urges fiscal discipline for the country — owed as much as $500,000 to Tiffany’s.
On Monday, as he began a 17-stop introductory tour of Iowa, Mr. Gingrich was forced to retract his comments about the individual mandate by condemning “Obamacare” in a hastily prepared video statement. That was followed by repeated apologies for undercutting Representative Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin, the architect of the Republican Medicare proposals. Late Tuesday, Mr. Gingrich apologized directly to Mr. Ryan in a phone call, an aide to Mr. Gingrich said.
Also Tuesday, his spokesman was reduced to a “no comment” on the Politico article about Mr. Gingrich’s jewelry debts. In less than three days, Mr. Gingrich’s lack of discipline cleared the way for a torrent of criticism, most of it from members of his own party.
“He’s done. He didn’t have a big chance from the beginning, but now it’s over,” said Charles Krauthammer, the conservative columnist, adding that Mr. Gingrich appeared “contradictory and incoherent” during the NBC interview. “It’s deadly.”
Gov. Nikki Haley of South Carolina, a Republican, chided Mr. Gingrich on Tuesday for the criticism of Mr. Ryan’s budget proposals.
“When you have a conservative fighting for real change, the last thing we need is a presidential candidate cutting him off at the knees,” Ms. Haley said.
Bill Bennett, the conservative pundit and radio talk show host, offered Mr. Gingrich the following blunt advice during his show on Tuesday.
“My advice to you to salvage your candidacy is to say, ‘I blew it,’ ” Mr. Bennett suggested. “‘People misunderstood me because I misspoke. I said the wrong words and I’m sorry.’ I think that’s your only shot or I think you are done, Newt. I honestly do. You have got to deal with this because it’s not working. What you are doing is not working.”
And perhaps worst of all, an angry Iowa voter confronted Mr. Gingrich, saying that his comments about Mr. Ryan’s budget were “unforgivable.” With cameras running, the man asked why Mr. Gingrich didn’t get out of the presidential race “before you make a bigger fool of yourself.” He added, “You’re an embarrassment to our party.”
By Wednesday, a week after he officially declared his candidacy with a video that urged Americans to “look reality in the face,” Mr. Gingrich had started blaming the news media, and in particular, David Gregory, the host of “Meet the Press.”
“I don’t think I realized until after Sunday’s ‘Meet the Press’ how big a threat my candidacy is to the Washington establishment,” Mr. Gingrich said on Mr. Bennett’s radio show. In a separate interview with the radio host Bob Gallagher, Mr. Gingrich said, “We’re in a phase here where, if you are a conservative, you better expect gotcha press.”
The barrage appeared unlikely to relent anytime soon. On Tuesday morning, an editorial in The Wall Street Journal was titled “Gingrich to House G.O.P.: Drop Dead.” Mr. Gingrich told Mr. Bennett that the headline was “baloney.”
And the story about the jewelry debts threatened to expose another side of Mr. Gingrich’s problem with personal discipline. The revelation came from financial disclosure forms that his wife, Callista, was required to submit as an employee of the House Agriculture Committee. They showed a “revolving charge account” at Tiffany’s of $250,000 to $500,000.
“I can’t comment on that,” his spokesman, Rick Tyler, said in an interview on Tuesday.
But Mr. Tyler disputed the narrative that Mr. Gingrich had had a terrible week. He noted that Mr. Gingrich last week playfully sent a Twitter message about when he would actually announce his candidacy, and that the humor was well received.
“I think we dominated with positive coverage for a solid week,” Mr. Tyler said. “I think that was a great start. We had all kinds of good things going through Sunday.”
Mr. Tyler compared the last several days for Mr. Gingrich to a star baseball player who disappoints the crowd during his first time up to the plate in an early-season game.
“Reggie Jackson once said they don’t boo nobody,” Mr. Tyler said. “Right now, they are booing Newt. We will hit a home run, and they will all be fans again.”