US 2012: Newt Gingrich battles his own party establishment as race for Republican nomination turns nasty This week, the 'air war' being waged by his better-funded, moderate-liberal opponent Mitt Romney, in which millions of dollars in negative adverts were rained down on Mr Gingrich's snowy-white head, finally went nuclear. As well as attacking Mr Gingrich for his past failings - a reprimand for unethical conduct as Speaker, the failed marriages and the $1.6m consultancy fees from the failed mortgage giant Freddie mac - the GOP establishment warned that a Newt nomination would spell electoral disaster. "It is now time to take a stand before it is too late," warned Bob Dole, the 1996 nominee who was trounced by the incumbent Bill Clinton after a nasty Republican primary contest that forced him to tack to the right. In my opinion if we want to avoid an Obama landslide in November, Republicans should nominate Governor Romney as our standard bearer. Looking at the poll numbers, it is easy to understand why the Republican establishment is quite so fearful of a Gingrich nomination. In a head-to-head against President Obama, Mr Romney is currently trailing by just three points according to the latest NBC/Wall Street Journal; if Mr Gingrich were to fight Mr Obama tomorrow, he would lose by 18, worse even than Even Rick Santorum, trailing a distant third in the Republican Primary contest. The problem for the Republican establishment, however, is that the hardcore base of the party doesn't agree, or care about these electoral realities. They want their man, and at the moment that is unequivocally Mr Gingrich. If asked to choose between Romney or Gingrich, 52 per cent of Republican primary voters chose the former Speaker, against 39 for the moderate management consultant. Back among the veterans in that Florida convention centre, the depth of the division is clear; these ordinary Republican voters are going with their guts, not the numbers. The statistical evidence is dismissed as a conspiracy cooked up by the 'mainstream media' or a confection of 'liberal bias' that is constantly blamed for ignoring the views of honest, homespun white Americans. Polls? What about the poll that tells you any Republican can beat Obama. Hell, a can a' oh-jay [Orange Juice] could beat Obama," says Shirley Goodwyne, an 84-year-old navy widow who wears a polo shirt with "Navy Seals 1, Osama bin Laden 0" emblazoned on the back. "I think he has the experience to do it," she adds, "He's got the experience in business and he doesn't take cr*p. Ask him a question, Sir, and he'll give you an answer. What will concern Republican strategists is the bitterness. Many at the Gingrich event were openly hostile to Romney who now appears to be gaining ground in Florida, with one poll showing him now 9 points ahead after a strong debate performance on Thursday night. The big question, say strategists, is what happens after the nomination race is decided. If Gingrich loses to Romney, will his conservative supporters rally behind the former Massachusetts governor to fight Obama, as George Bush Snr united behind the Conservative Ronald Reagan in 1980 to defeat Jimmy Carter? Or will the party descend into a whorl of self-destructive squabbling, as it did in 1964 when, bitter nomination fight with the liberal-moderate Nelson Rockefeller, the conservative Barry Goldwater lost to Lyndon Johnson by the biggest margin since 1820? "This is just the latest battle in what I call it the 'hundred years war'," Jeffery Lord, a former political director in the Reagan White House who has known Gingrich for a long time, told The Telegraph, "this has been going ever since the Progressives split from the party in 1912." If the atmosphere at Mr Gingrich's veterans' event is any indication, unity is far from a foregone conclusion. In interviews with The Telegraph, many of Mr Gingrich's supporters said they could not bring themselves to vote for Romney, the Bain man, if he won the nomination. "Not with a clear conscience, I don't think so," said Catherine Christmas, 22, a student who transferred her loyalties to Gingrich from Rick Perry after the Texas conservative pulled out, "I think American can warm to Newt Gingrich." The Party establishment and, for now at least, the polls, disagree.