There's a broad fear in the Republican political class that Newt Gingrich has a shot at the nomination, but simply can't beat Barack Obama. He is, they think, too undisciplined, too angry, too much a figure of the past.
The same confrontational appeal that propelled him to victory tonight, they worry, will doom him in the fall.
Emails one well-placed Republican operative:
The 2012 GOP Presidential Primary may end up becoming a national scale replay of the 2010 Nevada Senate Race. Harry Reid was hated so much by the base they nominated Sharron Angle because she would give him hell...and they got six more years of Harry Reid.