This Comedy Central spoof of the classic children's book 'Goodnight Moon' marks Newt Gingrich's resignation from the presidential race. 
 
 The once presidential candidate hopeful Newt Gingrich, who officially dropped out of the race for the Republican nomination today (May 2), famously advocated establishing a moon colony as part of his plan for NASA. Now, to commemorate the suspension of his campaign, television Channel Comedy Central has released a spoof on the classic children's book "Goodnight Moon." 
 
 Comedy Central presented the spoof, dubbed "Goodnight Moon Colony," as an image gallery of seven slides representing pages in the mock children's book. 
 
 "Our storybook farewell to Newt Gingrich's campaign, which we'll always remember for its nuanced policy positions and bold vision of... ah, screw it. We'll remember the moon colony thing," the introduction to the gallery reads on Comedy Central's "Indecision" website. 
 
 The gallery shows an illustration of Gingrich in bed with a large base clearly visible on the round moon shining through his bedroom window. The scene mimics the artwork in the 1947 Margaret Wise Brown picture book illustrated by Clement Hurd. 
 
 Other slides in the gallery bid "goodnight" to famous statements made by Gingrich during the campaign, such as "Goodnight, Dirty Unwashed Occupy Wall Street Protestors," referencing Gingrich's dismissal of the anti-corporate-greed activists, and "Goodnight, Bankrupt Health Care Think Tank," a dig at the fact that the Center for Health Transformation, which Gingrich founded in 2003, went under. 
 
 Gingrich announced his moon colony vision for permanent lunar base during a campaign speech Jan. 25 on Florida's Space Coast. If elected, he would direct NASA to establish a manned lunar base by 2020, with trips to Mars following later. 
 
 "By the end of my second term, we will have the first permanent base on the moon, and it will be American," Gingrich said at the time. 
 
 Yet space experts questioned the feasibility of the plan's timeline and economics, especially given that Gingrich also promised to slim down NASA's bureaucracy and reduce the agency's budget. 
 
 The leading Republican presidential candidate, Mitt Romney, has said he would boost the ties between NASA and private space companies if elected, and would convene a a coalition of leaders from the military, academia and business to determine a course for the U.S. space agency. 
 
 Comedy Central hosts the political satire programs "The Daily Show With Jon Stewart" and "The Colbert Report." 
 
 You can follow assistant managing editor Clara Moskowitz on Twitter @ClaraMoskowitz. Follow SPACE.com for the latest in space science and exploration news on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook. ||||| With Mitt Romney appearing poised to win a commanding victory in Florida’s GOP presidential primary on Tuesday, the candidates repositioned themselves on Monday for a series of unpredictable contests to follow, with no end in sight to the rift within the Republican Party. 
 
 Romney and his chief rival, Newt Gingrich, hurled personal barbs at each other in a final burst of campaigning here, signaling that they will remain at their battle stations as the nomination fight quickly pivots to Nevada, Maine, Colorado, Minnesota and Missouri — and on to delegate-rich states that will hold contests on Super Tuesday, March 6. 
 
 The two other candidates in the race, former senator Rick Santorum (Pa.) and Rep. Ron Paul (Tex.), had already pulled up stakes in the Sunshine State, where new polls showed Romney opening as much as a 20-point lead over Gingrich. 
 
 At the same time, at least 15 percent of Florida’s registered Republican voters had already cast their ballots before primary day. More than 630,000 voted early or returned absentee ballots, according to the secretary of state’s office. A Suffolk University-7News poll found that Romney led Gingrich 55 percent to 24 percent among early voters. 
 
 That shifted some of the focus of the primary campaign toward Nevada, where the four contenders will gather this week. Even as Romney and Gingrich dueled in Florida until the final hours, their advisers described plans for a prolonged contest, with Gingrich promising to take the fight all the way to the Republican National Convention and Romney pledging to wage a strong battle in each state. 
 
 “I don’t think you can ever count on a state being in your corner,” Romney told reporters. “I think people look at what happens in the give-and-take of a campaign, and what the messages are that you’re connecting with, and hopefully that will work in my favor. Time will tell.” 
 
 For Romney, who had once hoped to lock up the nomination with a victory in Florida, the vote now marks a milestone — but not a conclusion. 
 
 Florida is the largest state so far this year to hold a primary, and 50 delegates are at stake in a winner-take-all format. At least 1,114 delegates are needed to secure the nomination at the Republican convention in Tampa in August. 
 
 From Florida, the campaign’s footprint will expand rapidly. Contests in Maine and Nevada on Saturday, and in Colorado, Minnesota and Missouri on Feb. 7 will test the candidates’ organizational muscle and financial fortitude. 
 
 Romney hopes to progress rapidly toward the nomination by powering through each state. His aides have announced plans to fly to Minnesota on Wednesday before arriving in Las Vegas for a rally that night. 
 
 Gingrich said his campaign is only getting started. With an eye toward the next contest, he is scheduled to leave Florida on Tuesday for Nevada, where his strategy is to try to galvanize conservative grass-roots voters — the part of the electorate that nominated tea party favorite Sharron Angle over an establishment front-runner in the 2010 Senate race in Nevada. 
 
 “Newt Gingrich has established himself as the only conservative capable of defeating President Obama in the 2012 general election,” Martin Baker, the Gingrich campaign’s national political director, wrote in a memo to reporters Monday. “All of the money in the world can’t buy excitement or intensity.” 
 
 Paul and Santorum, trailing far behind in the Florida polls, have set their sights on February contests in smaller states, including Maine and Minnesota, where they think they could have stronger showings. 
 
 Romney aides said he will stay on the offensive in the coming weeks — not only with Gingrich, but also with Paul and Santorum. The Romney team considers Paul a particularly strong opponent in Nevada and Santorum in Minnesota, senior adviser Eric Fehrnstrom said. 
 
 “It’s not a two-person contest between Mitt and Newt Gingrich, no matter how much Newt may feel that way,” Fehrnstrom said, adding: “You’re not going to see Mitt Romney go into cruise control after Florida.” 
 
 Romney opened his first of three rallies Monday with an increasingly familiar attack. Just 30 seconds into his remarks at a Jacksonville construction equipment warehouse, he assailed Gingrich over his work with mortgage giant Freddie Mac and tried to link him to Florida’s housing crisis. 
 
 Romney asked a few hundred supporters to raise their hands if they have been affected by the crisis or know someone who has. Scores of hands shot up. “Wow,” he said, “this is what I see all over this state.” 
 
 At that, he talked about Gingrich’s work as a consultant for the federally subsidized company. “The idea that someone running for president was getting paid by Freddie Mac while that was going on — $1.6 million — that just irks people,” Romney said. “I think that’s the real reason why Speaker Gingrich has had such a hard time.” 
 
 One supporter interrupted Romney’s speech to say of Gingrich: “Send him to the moon!” Romney then poked fun at Gingrich’s ambitious space agenda. “The idea of the moon as the 51st state is not on the top of my mind,” he said. 
 
 Gingrich, meanwhile, sought to cast fresh doubt about Romney’s candidacy among Florida’s Jewish voters, accusing him of reducing kosher meals for the poor when he was governor of Massachusetts. 
 
 “For $5 a day, he said, ‘No, you can’t follow your religious beliefs,’ ” Gingrich said at a rally in a Tampa airplane hanger. One supporter replied: “Newt-ron bomb! Newt-ron bomb!” 
 
 ruckerp@washpost.com 
 
 gardnera@washpost.com 
 
 Gardner reported from Tampa. ||||| COCOA, Fla. — Newt Gingrich wants to colonize the moon. 
 
 He loves to talk space exploration and a campaign stop on Florida’s space coast provided the perfect opportunity. 
 
 Text Size - 
 
 + 
 
 reset Newt wants moon base by 2020 
 
 “By the end of my second term, we will have the first permanent base on the moon and it will be American,” Gingrich said, drawing applause from the crowd. “I will, as president, encourage the introduction of the northwest ordinance for space to put a marker down that we want Americans to think boldly about the future and we want Americans to go out and study hard and work hard and together, we’re going to unleash the American people to build the country we love.” 
 
 It’s just the kind of Gingrich big-think for which he has been ridiculed by others in the GOP field, including Mitt Romney. But Wednesday’s speech — which Gingrich himself called “grandiose” — could actually resonate politically in Florida, where space exploration is good politics 14 miles away from Cape Canaveral. The space coast, home to many NASA employees, has been struggling lately as the space agency launched its last shuttle in July, and President Barack Obama canceled the lunar landing program in 2010. 
 
 But Gingrich wants to bring it all back, and more. 
 
 In his remarks, Gingrich dismissed the notion that his ideas are over the top, pointing to previous presidents and inventors who fueled changes in technology. 
 
 “I was attacked the other night for being grandiose,” he said. “I would just want you to note: Lincoln standing at Council Bluffs was grandiose. The Wright Brothers standing at Kitty Hawk were grandiose. John F. Kennedy was grandiose. I accept the charge that I am grandiose and that Americans are instinctively grandiose.” 
 
 He added, “Does that mean I’m visionary? You betcha.” 
 
 When working a particular state, Gingrich frequently talks about local issues — like ethanol in Iowa, a power line in New Hampshire and an interstate project in South Carolina — but Wednesday’s speech gave him the opportunity to sink his teeth into a pet topic. 
 
 “I want you to help me in Florida and across the country so you can someday say you were there the day it was announced that we’d have commercial space, moon colony and moving toward Mars,” he said. 
 
 Gingrich laid out a multifaceted effort to restart the space race, including devoting 10 percent of NASA’s budget to prize money for inventions to speed up manned travel to the moon and Mars. He said he wants the country to be able to launch multiple spacecraft daily and partner with private industry to eliminate bureaucracy and make development cheaper. 
 
 Gingrich even envisions a moon state. 
 
 “When we have 13,000 Americans living on the moon, they can petition to become a state,” he said, drawing laughter from the crowd. 
 
 “I wanted every young American to say to themselves, I could be one of those 13,000. I could be a pioneer. I need to study science and math and engineering. I need to learn how to be a technician. I can be a part of building a bigger, better future. I can actually go out and live the future, looking at the solar system and being part of a generation of courageous people who do something big and bold and heroic,” Gingrich said. 
 
 But Gingrich’s space fantasies don’t stop at the moon. He wants to see trips to Mars by 2020. 
 
 “By the end of 2020, we will have the first continuous propulsion system in space capable of getting to Mars in a remarkably short time because I am sick of being told we have to be timid and I am sick of being told we have to be limited in technologies that are 50 years old,” he said.
– Now that Newt Gingrich has finally, finally, finally dropped out of the presidential race, Comedy Central bids him adieu with an inspired take on a classic children’s book. It’s a "storybook farewell to Newt Gingrich's campaign, which we'll always remember for its nuanced policy positions and bold vision of ... ah, screw it. We'll remember the moon colony thing," reads the introduction to "Goodnight Moon Colony," spotted by Space.com. The "book," actually a series of slides, also says goodnight to other classics from the Gingrich campaign, including the "food stamp president" and "poll numbers showing beyond a reasonable doubt that Newt Gingrich will win the nomination." The artwork is the highlight, particularly the last page, showing Gingrich in bed with the moon base visible from his window in a spoof of the classic Clement Hurd illustrations in Margaret Wise Brown’s Goodnight Moon. Click to see for yourself.