The GOP Wheel of Misfortune

Why Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum are next in line to play the anti-Romney

Illustration by Hieronymus for TIME

A surprisingly large crowd, maybe 300 people, was waiting to hear Newt Gingrich speak in Davenport, Iowa. "Newt's my guy," a laid-off machinist named Scott Lorenz told me. "I was thinking maybe a Herman Cain--Newt ticket, with Newt as Vice President, but I'm not sure about Cain anymore. It's becoming pretty clear that his political roots aren't solid. His position on abortion"--Cain said in a CNN interview that abortion wasn't an issue for the government to decide--"isn't conservative. His mistakes are adding up."

That thud you're about to hear is the Herman Cain campaign crashing back to earth. A new Time/CNN...

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