Newt wins SC by playing to the GOP's angry white base

Newt's acceptance speech was laced with the themes of McCarthyism, nationalism and racism. Andrew Sullivan sums up it well:

Then the Obama-Is-An-Alien line: "we will run an American campaign, not a Republican one." All the Republican candidates are Americans. But the elites are not. Key phrase: "Think of how radical Obama would be in his second term." Then the condescension toward this "absurdity" of a president. And the TelePrompter gag. Do these people really buy into the idea that Obama is unable to articulate himself?

And we have the core McCarthyite theme: American exceptionalism versus the Saul Alinsky radicalism. "We" are Americans. Obama is a traditional America-hater.

Then the religion card: the increasing anti-religious "bigotry" of the elites will be his enemy. He will deploy race and religion and nationalism as his themes. No wonder South Carolina loved him. And rather than retreating on the racially charged "food stamp president" line, he reiterates it.

This is what the GOP now is, and it deserves its spokesman. But do not under-estimate the appeal to some of the idea of humiliating and removing the first black president. That's what Gingrich is really about. He is giving them what they want. And it's meat that has barely seen a skillet.

The GOP base is getting exactly what it wants: a red-hot demagogue. Caveat emptor!