My Newt Gingrich campaign deathwatch thread was about a year ahead of its time, but Gingrich finally suspended his presidential campaign this afternoon.  

During his live televised speech, which ended a few minutes ago, Gingrich singled out a number of people who particularly helped his campaign, including Iowa House Majority Leader Linda Upmeyer. She was one of the first prominent Gingrich endorsers here and stuck with his campaign through some very low points. Gingrich also mentioned Iowa House Speaker Kraig Paulsen, who came on board two weeks before the Iowa caucuses, while a super-PAC supporting Mitt Romney was running countless negative ads about the former U.S. House Speaker.

Gingrich thanked Sheldon and Miriam Adelson, who have donated more than $20 million to the Winning Our Future super-PAC.

Gingrich vowed to keep taking his message about important issues to audiences around the country during the rest of this election year. It felt like a long time before he mentioned Mitt Romney.

I don’t understand why anyone would listen to Newt talk about fiscal responsibility. His presidential campaign is more than $4 million in debt. Chartered plane travel (Moby Dick Airways) accounts for more than $1 million of that debt. Gingrich should have listened to his old friend Greg Ganske. Former Iowa staffer Katie Koberg is owed more than $10,000, and several other vendors still haven’t been paid for services rendered before the Iowa caucuses.

This thread is for any comments about the presidential race. If you’re into political collector’s items, check out these I heart Newt women’s t-shirts.

I posted below a web video released today by President Barack Obama’s campaign called Newt Gingrich: Frankly, not Mitt Romney’s biggest supporter.

UPDATE: One newly-elected member of the Iowa GOP’s State Central Committee is refusing to help Romney’s presidential campaign. Jamie Johnson supported Rick Santorum. No one on the 18-member State Central Committee publicly supported Romney before the Iowa caucuses.