UNION LEADER PUBLISHER INADVERTENTLY HELPS THE CANDIDATE HE REFUSED TO ENDORSE?

Think Progress reports:

In a sign of the growing impact the 99 Percent Movement is having, New Hampshire Union Leader publisher Joe McQuaid explained today on Fox News that his paper endorsed Newt Gingrich rather than Mitt Romney for the GOP Presidential nomination because the latter represents the one percent and is politically damaged because of it. "I think -- and this is crazy, but so are we -- that Gingrich is going to have a better time in the general election than Mitt Romney," said McQuaid. "I think it's going to be Obama's 99% versus the 1%, and Romney sort of represents the 1%."

I guess McQuaid really thinks economic inequality is going to be the big issue in the 2012 general election -- rather than (as I'm predicting) whatever phony issue Republicans can trump up between now and then, plus the ongoing issue of holding President Obama accountable for all the things Republicans would never let him do.

But that's the general election. For the GOP primaries, I think the staff should be high-fiving at Romney headquarters, because Gingrich may be getting the Union Leader's official endorsement, but Mitt is getting the real praise. Or, rather, Mitt is getting what the average wingnut voter thinks of as real praise. Wingnuts, like their secular saint Ayn Rand, love the 1%. They root for the 1%. Their resentment of the 1% is limited to anger that the 1% soil themselves by taking aid and comfort from the (ick!) government. (The wingnuts have no idea that stuff they really love, such as fat-cat tax breaks and the corporate-personhood aspect of the Citizens United decision, are precisely the kind of unholy uncoupling of government and business they claim to hate.)

In any case, Gingrich is going to have to deny that he's going to represent the 99% in any way. He certainly can't come off as, God help us, a class warrior -- except on the side of the 1%. Romney already sort of seems like such a class warrior for the rich, but he foolishly keeps trying to pretend he's middle class. He shouldn't. To win the GOP nomination, he should wallow in his wealth. He should flaunt it. McQuaid just did that for him. He did Romney a favor.

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And if you think what I'm saying is far-fetched, remember who led the GOP race last spring: Donald Trump. Remember that the last GOP nominee owned even more houses than Mitt Romney does. Remember how much good being a "Wal-Mart Republican" did Tim Pawlenty.