As the Republican two-man rivalry heats up, Newt Gingrich–now outpacing former front-runner Mitt Romney in all polls–is expected to be targeted by all the GOP rivals in Iowa tonight.

But most political analysts recognize that Gingrich, the towering intellect of the Republican presidential field, has handily thrashed all comers in previous one-on-one debate confrontations.

Adding to his already daunting reputation as a brilliant political critic,social theorist, and historian, over the past few weeks Gingrich has stunned admirers and opponents alike with two new breathtakingly original pronouncements.

First came his thought-provoking proposals for addressing the plight of the urban poor (previously reviewed in Back2theRoot). And just yesterday he stuck again with a bold re-imaging of the Palestinians as an ‘invented people’. While most experts (as well as much of the human species) had previously thought the Palestinian people could trace their genealogical heritage back before the existence of the Ottoman empire–all the way to prehistory–and their political identity to at least to the 1834 Palestinian uprising against Egyptian-Ottoman rule of Palestine, the world will now have to seriously reconsider the legitimacy of the Palestinians’ claim to an identity in light of Gingrich’s stunning new analysis (relying for its authority mostly on Newt’s annunciation of it) that the ‘Palestinians’ are merely Arabs who ‘for a variety of political reasons’ chose to hang around in Israel even though ‘they had a chance to go many places.’

Such is the force of the Gingrich intellect.

Thus expectations run high that the vaunted Fanny Mae historian will repeat his prior triumphs and perhaps even outwit tonight’s ABC dynamic-duo of debate moderators, Dianne Sawyer and George Stephanopoulos—both of whom are considered to be quite brainy in their own right.

Demonstrating his razor sharp skills as a political analyst, Stephanopoulos summed up Romney’s predicament in the upcoming Iowa caucuses now just weeks away: “If Mitt Romney doesn’t come in the top three he will be severely hurt,” he said.

Given that kind of incisive strategic intellect to contend with, Gingrich will have to be careful not to be overconfident about tonight’s challenge. And one can only wonder what journalist-savant Sawyer may have up her sleeve.

Related articles

• The Newt-Gingrich-Pile-On debate preview (hotair.com)
• GOP Candidates Sharpen Their Knives For Debate Night In Iowa (The Note) (abcnews.go.com)
• All eyes on Newt & Mitt ahead of crucial Iowa debate (worldviewtonight.wordpress.com)
• Palestinians Are ‘Invented’ People, According to Newt Gingrich (inquisitr.com)