Could $100 million buy Newt Gingrich another chance?

Billionaire casino magnate Sheldon Adelson is doubling down on Newt's floundering campaign, and might even pony up $100 million. Is that a losing bet?

Newt Gingrich
(Image credit: Dennis Van Tine ./Retna Ltd./Corbis)

Though most political observers are counting Newt Gingrich out of the 2012 presidential race, billionaire casino magnate Sheldon Adelson is keeping the faith, and then some. Earlier this year, Adelson gave $5 million to a Gingrich-aligned super PAC, then another $5 million, almost single-handedly reviving Gingrich's campaign after back-to-back embarrassments in Iowa and New Hampshire. Now, not only is Adelson, 78, reportedly pumping another $10 million into Gingrich's camp to get him through March 6's Super Tuesday elections, he tells Forbes that he still "might give... $100 million to Gingrich." While that seems like an awful lot, it's still just a fraction of Adelman's $25 billion fortune, notes Forbes' Steven Bertoni. Would even this unprecedented individual political donation be enough to revive Gingrich's presidential campaign?

This cash could resurrect Newt: Gingrich has already seen "more comebacks this Republican presidential primary season than anyone can remember," says Karyn McDermott at Examiner. And none other than Rush Limbaugh is predicting another rebound for Newt. "Conventional political punditry and wisdom have Newt looking good in the South," and if Adelson keeps writing multi-million-dollar checks, there's no reason Gingrich can't go all the way to the Republican convention.

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