Gingrich would of had Obama wetting himself at the thought of the debate tomorrow.
People (remember there are tens of millions of people voting, not just you) primarily make their Presidential choice based on likeability.
Gingrich had a massive gender gap WITHIN the Republican primary electorate - Romney has a big gap NOW in the general electorate, but Gingrich's would have been titanic.
Gingrich would have been savaged by the media ten times worse, and the all of the "asking for a divorce/open relationship over the phone" stuff would have annihilated him in the general far worse than it ended up doing in the primaries.
But hey, if you want to live in a delusional fantasy world that Gingrich would overcome that with a few debate zingers, go right ahead.
Gingrich would be down by 10-15 points now. You think he’d be polling better than Romney with any group? Especially women? You think the media wouldn’t be having even more of a field day with his past?
The era of the white male GOP presidential candidate may be over. White men are viewed with suspicion. Even if they are as squeeky clean and filled with integrity as Romney, they aren’t liked. If they are rich and white, even worse. As enough of the populace feels their wealth is ill-gotten. The GOP would only be doing better if they had a candidate like Marco Rubio or Ted Cruz, or a woman like Suzanne Martinez. Someone who reflects the changing demographics of the country, yet still is viewed as a reasonably solid conservative.