Newt Gingrich is continuing his campaign but increasingly sounds like likes he's already thrown in the towel, which begs the question of why he's even bothering anymore. Today on Fox he admitted his campaign is "slightly less" than $4.5 million in the red, but said that was not a big deal as all campaigns can overspend at times, citing Hillary Clinton's 2008 campaign when she went $25 million in debt. The actual number was slightly over $20 million but let's compare the two.

According to her FEC report, Hillary Clinton raised $224 million including $13.2 million of her own money, which she later wrote off. By contrast (to the end of Feb 2012), Newt Gingrich had raised only $20.7 million which didn't include even 5¢ from him. Hillary Clinton finished narrowly behind Barack Obama in delegates. Newt Gingrich has won only two states and last Tuesday finished fourth in Wisconsin behind Ron Paul.

Ann Coulter was right about one thing: the GOP does have a problem with "con men and charlatans", people who use the conservative movement to bilk money from their gullible followers. Coulter was referring to the Wasilla Grifter herself, Sarah Palin, but she could just as easily have been talking about Newt Gingrich.

via Fox News:

Newt Gingrich acknowledged Sunday that his campaign is "operating on a shoestring," as he signaled he is preparing to transition from candidate to surrogate in anticipation of Mitt Romney winning the nomination.

While not throwing in the towel just yet, the former House speaker spoke frequently in past tense about his presidential bid in an interview on "Fox News Sunday."
...
Gingrich spoke openly about his campaign's money troubles. He said the campaign has had to dip into personal funds -- "a little bit, but not dramatically" -- and that the campaign is "slightly less" than $4.5 million in debt.

"We owe much more than we wanted to," Gingrich said. He explained that the Florida primary in late January "got to be a real brawl" and that his campaign "tried to match Romney."

Gingrich said his campaign won't "go broke" and that he'll raise money after the election in order to pay off his debt.

GINGRICH: I'm glad I did this. For me, it was important as a citizen to try to do some very hard things, to try to bring ideas and new approaches. It turned out to be much harder than I thought it would, but it was right thing for me to do at that both in my life and for where I though the country was. I have no regrets.
But it's clear that Governor Romney has done a very good of building a very substantial machine. And I think Santorum is discovering in Pennsylvania right now, it's a challenge.

HUME: Do you think -- for his own good, do you think Santorum should get out?

GINGRICH: No, I think he has to make that decision.

And let me say, I hope everybody watching will have that family in their prayers. Their daughter I think is back in the hospital in a difficult situation.

HUME: (INAUDIBLE).

Now, what is the situation regarding money? You've gotten broke doing it.

GINGRICH: It's hard. No, we are not going to go broke. But --

(CROSSTALK)

HUME: -- personal funds.

GINGRICH: No, not -- well, a little bit. But not dramatically. But we'll probably --

HUME: Carl Cameron, our Carl Cameron, reported this that you were something like $4.5 million in debt. Is that a fact?

GINGRICH: I think slightly less than that. But we owe much more than we wanted to. Florida got to be a real brawl. And I think -- unfortunately, our guys tried to match Romney. It turned out we didn't have anything like his capacity to raise money.

HUME: And also tell me how you could pass that.

GINGRICH: Well, we didn't see -- I mean, Hillary came out of the 2008 campaign owing $25 million. I mean, you go out and you do fundraisers and you work things out with people and spend a fair amount for a couple of years raising money.