There may only be a few hours left of Newt Gingrich’s campaign for the Presidency. What will we do without him? What will Romney, who, with Ron Paul, will be all that’s left of what was once such a florid Republican field do? Newt, whose lump-like presence in the race seemed immovable, even as it became impossible that he would win and very possible that the lights in his office would be turned out for lack of funds, said yesterday on NBC that he would “reassess,” based on how he does in Delaware, which is one of five states voting in primaries today. Three are big (New York, Pennsylvania, Connecticut), and while the fifth, Rhode Island, is also small, Delaware is the one he has decided to use as a test of his remaining ability to mesmerize voters, or to yell at them until they vote for him. Maybe that will work, and we’ll be hearing a victory speech; or maybe it won’t, and he’ll pretend it did. [Update: He lost, and on Wednesday his campaign let it be known that he’d suspend operations next week.] Or maybe, tomorrow morning, Newt and Callista will go back to trying to sell videos and children’s books and influence. Meanwhile, he told NBC that suggestions he might consider giving up his Secret Service detail were just plain “goofy.”

It is, at any rate, an odd note for the Republican primary race to end on, and a reminder of the disjointedness in our nominating system. For a stretch, there were debates twice a week—at times more festive than informative. Once the truly unviable candidates—those too extreme or too moderate, without an abiding constituency like Paul’s—had fallen away, the debates had ended, too, just as they would have been useful. There hasn’t been a proper one for two months now. A Presidential debate will be next, and, as it stands, that won’t be until October 3rd, in Colorado. We learned a lot about the character of various counties in Michigan and the Mormon population of Nevada (which at least might be useful general-election knowledge) but also about the local vagaries of Alabama and Mississippi (which aren’t even swing states). Now no one cares about New York or Texas or California. It wasn’t only a troublemaking spirit that provoked fantasies about brokered conventions. For all the chaos that would entail, it would be conceptually more coherent than the current system.

Is that a reason to miss Newt Gingrich, or any of the others? There is something of a nostalgia tour going on, with Jon Huntsman getting Republicans upset by comparing the party to the Chinese government, and Herman Cain, who has become a sort of walking bank of campaign campiness, addressing putative alien invaders on “The Daily Show.” There has also been a replay of old attacks on Romney from other Republicans, often shown immediately after the same person’s grudging endorsement. (It is striking that the losing candidates are rarely spoken about as vice-presidential choices—maybe they’ve all had enough of each other.) No more Callista; just Ann Romney and a lot of information about what she did around the house. But absurdity is not a satisfying distraction from ugliness. One can wish this campaign had been different—its candidates, its outcome, its tone—but can’t really be sorry its over. For a while there, serious people thought that Gingrich might get the nomination. What if he had?

And all is not lost, spectacle-wise. Ron Paul is still running.

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