Gingrich likens his Virginia failure to Pearl Harbor

Newt Gingrich says his failure to qualify for Virginia's March 6 primary is his campaign's Pearl Harbor, a sudden setback that he insists will not destroy his presidential bid.

"Newt and I have talked three or four times today and he stated that this is not catastrophic — we will continue to learn and grow," Gingrich's national campaign director, Michael Krull, said in a message posted to Facebook late Saturday night.

"Remember that it was only a few months ago that pundits and the press declared us dead after the paid consultants left. They declared that the decision not to compete in the Ames Straw Poll would mean that Iowans would ignore us. Some will again state that this is fatal.

"Newt and I agreed that the analogy is December 1941: We have experienced an unexpected setback, but we will re-group and re-focus with increased determination, commitment and positive action."

Gingrich, a former assistant professor of history at West Georgia College, has co-written novels about World War II, the Civil War and the Revolutionary War.

The Republican Party of Virginia announced at 2:40 a.m. Saturday that Gingrich, like Texas Gov. Rick Perry, had failed to collect the required 10,000 signatures of registered voters to get on the ballot for the Super Tuesday primary. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and Texas Rep. Ron Paul are the only candidates who will be on the ballot.

The Gingrich campaign has attacked Virginia's strict requirements for ballot access, calling it a "flawed system" under which Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota, former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania and former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman also failed to qualify for the ballot.

Krull had said Saturday morning that Gingrich, who lives in Fairfax County, would mount an aggressive write-in campaign to get on the ballot. But state law prohibits write-in votes in presidential primaries.

Section 24.2-644(C) of the Virginia Code states: "At all elections except primary elections it shall be lawful for any voter to vote for any person other than the listed candidates for the office by writing or hand printing the person's name on the official ballot."

In his Facebook message to campaign supporters Saturday night, Krull continued to fault Virginia's ballot rules, but no longer mentioned a write-in campaign.

"By now you've likely heard that our effort to gain access to the primary ballot in Virginia was not successful," he said. "This was not due to a lack of effort by our volunteers, but the cumbersome process in Virginia. We are exploring alternate methods to compete in Virginia — stay tuned."

The debacle has spotlighted Gingrich's thin organization. He has not run for president before and has nothing like the network or infrastructure that Romney began building in his 2008 campaign.

Romney's campaign sought to capitalize on the failure of Gingrich — Virginia's GOP front-runner in the latest poll — to get on the ballot in his home state.

Eric Fehrnstrom, a senior adviser to Romney, told The New York Times that it is "cringe-worthy."

"It's a gut-check moment for Republicans," Fehrnstrom said. "Winning campaigns have to be able to execute on the fundamentals. This is like watching a hitter in the World Series failing to lay down a bunt."

Krull pledged to Gingrich supporters that the campaign will not repeat the stumble.

"Going forward, we will be as in-front of the process as possible and with the help of our grass-roots volunteers we will make all other deadlines," he said.

"Throughout the next months there will be ups and downs; there will be successes and failures; there will be easy victories and difficult days — but in the end we will stand victorious."