Obama's dream

This, from Paul Krugman's column last Thursday:

So much, then, for Mr. Obama’s dream of moving beyond divisive politics. The truth is that the factors that made politics so ugly in the Clinton years — the paranoia of a significant minority of Americans and the cynical willingness of leading Republicans to cater to that paranoia — are as strong as ever. In fact, the situation may be even worse than it was in the 1990s because the collapse of the Bush administration has left the G.O.P. with no real leaders other than Rush Limbaugh.

But then there's always Newt Gingrich, the former Dixiepublican congressman from Georgia and erstwhile 2012 presidential candidate, who, alongside of Limbaugh and Sarah ("Death Panel") Palin, has led the charge of the paranoids against Obama's healthcare reform and tried unsuccessfully, to deny Judge Sotomayor her seat on the Supreme Court by labeling her a "racist."

Yet Gingrich, desperately seeking a measure of credibility outside the shrinking base of the Limbaugh Party, now stands, anointed by Arne Duncan as the face of his Race-To-The-Top ed reform. Gingrich will stand next to Duncan on their current RTTT speaking tour. It's worth asking again, what is it about RTTT that makes it so attractive to the likes of Gingrich? And what is it about Gingrich that makes him so attractive to Obama and Duncan?