Newt Gingrich is the insurgent. It is an upside-down GOP race, far-fetched, unpredictable and, at this point, having three weeks of holiday joviality till the Iowa caucus, Newt Gingrich is the clear leader. Gingrich confounds many observers. It may be that this is the transformed robo-candidate that the party needs, a Happy Warrior for the 21st Century. Spoke Taegan Goddard, John Avlon, neither of whom can find obvious weakness in the Gingrich style. This is not about the general election. First, you gotta get the nomination. Puzzle, why are Biden and Axelrod pot-shotting Newt? What do they see in POTUS armory that matches poorly with Newt? The One vs. The Historian? It's a hoot to consider three or four presidential debates between Obama and Gingrich. We will never recover our sense of proportion. Grand opera. Demo op tells me that the idea of a Romney-Obama contest is drab to the point of a scream. If in the event, it is Romney and Obama, then no one at dinner parties will care to discuss the matter, and we will as a nation turn away from the banality of their vanity. For now, the Democrats have no tools to fend off the Gingrich boom. Mrs. Pelosi tries to smear him with promises of future chats on his ethics violations in the 1997 hearings, a laughable blast from the past by a deeply compromised partisan. Each time Mrs. Pelosi speaks against Gingrich, he rises in the GOP. What is there new to say about the old Newt? POTUS Obama was effective in 2008 in saying that he is speaking to the future, not to his unanswered past. Gingrich has the same opportunity in the general election. Did Richard Nixon satisfy the negatives when he ran in 1968? Nope. Is Newt Gingrich weighed down with more past errors and controversies than Richard Nixon's runs for the presidency in 1960 and 1968? Nope. The Democrats in Washington started hammering Nixon in 1948 and did not ever let up. See Herb Block (below 1954). In comparison, the Democrats and the Washington media have been hammering Gingrich as a threat only since 1992.
I haven't been a Newt guy. I have also criticized Governor Romney regarding his tenure here in Massachusetts. Yet I do not dislike either man. I liked then Speaker Gingrich for his contract with America, but was amazed at how he was a lightning rod for negative press. I like Mitt Romney and think he is a decent honest guy. I believe either one would be a much better alternative than POTUS Obama. I fear that either Nominee will be tsunami-ed by negative press from the mainstream media. Additionally the Unions and as well as the POTUS war chest may bury the GOP message enough to prevent the swing states from going red. It is after all about the electoral college and not the popular vote. I suppose that is why I am mystified that this election even looks close as opposed to a Reagan V Carter or Nixon V McGovern style blowouts.
I worry about Newt in the Oval Office. I am skeptical of his management skills. I'd be more comfortable with a solid manager in the White House with ideological leadership in the Congress.
I agree with CC and wonder who would Newt possibly select as a running mate? Himself?
Liberal media is despised by most in the GOP. Republicans have a sensitive nose for bias towards a conservative. Newt takes on the Government-Media-Complex head on, and the Republicans applaud.
I'm more concerned about taking any side of an issue to get on TV, or invited to a conference.
Dems have rooms full of data from the House investigations, it will leak out.
Newt is on top for one reason only. He is the only one that that has multiple sound bites that level Obama, Democrats and the press. He is not there for his ideas or past leadership though we know how bright he is and that he can articulate a point of view better than anyone. He is there because most hope he will level the opposition and their bad ideas and bad political behavior.
@ JB
"the banality of their vanity."
Nice turn of phrase.
@ Drexel
"He is not there for his ideas or past leadership though we know how bright he is and that he can articulate a point of view better than anyone. He is there because most hope he will level the opposition and their bad ideas and bad political behavior."
I can't square those two observations. Of course he's there because of his ideas, which aren't pulled out of his arse like so many other Republican amateur programs are. For a politician, this guy knows more about public policies, their orgins, their flaws, and how to fix them or dispense with them than anyone else on the planet. He makes all the Republican field look like the Sunday afternoon debating society they are. He makes The One look like a punk kid mouthing the fatuous empty socialist nonsense he heard his parents discussing at the dinner table.
One of JB's flyby's worth anchoring in text:
Standard and Poor’s threaten to downgrade Kepler 22-b credit rating
Credit rating agency Standard & Poor’s has today warned newly discovered planet Kepler 22-b that it may downgrade its AAA credit rating if it fails to put appropriate measures in place to kick-start its flagging economy.
‘The planet has similar life-supporting conditions to Earth,’ said one scientist. ‘However, like Earth it also has soaring levels of national debt, high unemployment and first-time buyers and small businesses who are struggling to obtain finance.’
The markets reacted badly to S&P’s announcment, with the Kepler 22-b FTSE losing 164 points in the first light year of trading today. ‘Unless they approve a programme of austerity measures quickly they may have to default on their debts and effectively become bankrupt,’ explained the BBC’s Robert Peston. ‘That could see them having to leave the Euro, or even the galaxy.’
However, politicians around the world remain hopeful that a planet may exist somewhere in the Milky Way that is capable of sustaining a thriving capitalist economy. ‘Surely there must be one out there somewhere that can lend us the billions of dollars we need to bail us all out,’ said US President Barack Obama, ‘and until we find it we’ll continue to pump billions of dollars into looking for it.’
http://t.co/j1S6Avrk
December 6, 1941
Dear President Obama,
I’d like to apologize to you for not writing recently. It is just that every time I sit down to inform you of my thoughts the news events of a world guided by your philosophy spiral down so fast I’m even unable to catch my breath long enough to put it down in some, if I don’t say so myself, humorous manner. For example, scientists recently discovered the largest black holes ever; I could have saved them all of the trouble, they are clearly located in Washington D.C.! It’s epicenter is Nancy Pelosi’s brain. Like most black holes energy goes in, but only garbage comes out of the orifice. That’s not working for you? I’ll do better:)
GM apparently has had another bright idea. They are going to build a car called the “Roman Candle.” Complete with a battery pack, solar panel, a tank of gasoline, caustic coolant, and a cigarette lighter for easier ignition! And if ignition fails all one has to do is run it into a pole and then let her rip! In time, a solar panel will replace the battery, and the gasoline, this vehicle though will be equipped also with an irrigation system to better prepare it for it’s future roll as a planter. GM might even add in a packet of corn seeds to demonstrate how much greener this car can actually make you feel. Though as far as the green in your wallet, that you can kiss goodbye because the sources of energy for your new vehicle are going to be taxed into extinction, ergo the solar panels and the bag of corn seeds. Now where did I put those plans for that still? Oh yea right next to my “Dukes of Hazard” lunch box.
Mr. Obama are you for real? Recently I made an off color joke about sending a blow up doll of you to the folks at “media doesn’t matter,” but as I pulled out the credit card to send them their much needed source of comfort. Think Linus from Charley Brown without a conscience and his blanket - that’s the guy who runs that bunch of basket cases of a Soros funded group of people - those are the people that need some really good “Obama Love.” Why? Well, Sir, they are still concerned that the Republicans may not pick Mortimer Romney as the Republican nominee, Like I’ve said before, I’m voting for him if I have to and a large enough quantity of Vicks Vapor Rub to stuff up my nose is in arms length, but before then I want a knock down drag out fight that truly prepares him to face you. I’d rather it be Gingrich, like I said before, I want a guy who knows the plumbing, and does not want to burn the house down, and give the insurance company the bill. I just want the water to run right:)
And then there is the important stuff. Like the guys who actually want to use real bombs instead of writing you letters and emails, I don’t tweet, but I’m considering it. It takes me a long time to do something new. I like tried and true which is why I like big cars with big engines and big bombs in the hands of responsible militaries like ours. I’m just wondering how close we are to using them on Iran. They are nuts. Your crazy. But they are nuts.
You know it.
Tomorrow I will remember Pearl Harbor. Do yourself a favor while you are on your 5,000th vacation to Hawaii, and give it a visit. It may provide some needed perspective on what we as a nation are about to face. Might give you some much needed resolve to tell the left in this nation to take it’s thumb out of it mouth.
Respectfully,
Joe Doakes
Nice detail, re recommend POTUS visiting Arizona at 70th remembrance.
the sight of trump makes me wish for a high wind.
"Standard and Poor’s threaten to downgrade Kepler 22-b credit rating"
I heard a rumor that seems to indicate the exact opposite: That Kepler 22-b hired Milton Friedman eons ago as an advisor to help it compete universally. The result is that it now has a pure capitalistic system which Samantha Power has characterized as giving our sister planet an "unfair" economic advantage. Her advise: Use The Responsibility to Protect doctrine to blow the hard-working Keplerians to smithereens. It's not clear, however, who she's trying to protect. One wag suggested it was her husband.
JB should interview Walter Russell Mead who has become a popular commentator in the last couple years. He describes Gingrich as a TR Republican. It is interesting that TR has taken a downfall in recent years as we learn more about him. Jonah Goldberg really did him in and JB had some devastating interviews about him. He was a big government meddler in the affairs of individuals and had plans for the world.
In other words Gingrich is just the opposite of what the Tea Party says it wants, one who will do social engineering from on high but a different type than the left wing progressives but instead from a right wing progressive viewpoint. Is Gingrich a Hoover wannabe but the Hoover before 1929. Remember Hoover was the truly "golden boy" of the 20th century.
Now the question is what is left wing and right wing and what does the Tea Party really want. They want small government because that is protection from the left wing statists but are they truly small government people if government lets them run their businesses and lives as they want. The problem with Gingrich's approach is that once government is large it will want to meddle everywhere it can even if it starts out with good intentions.
WHEN AN UNSTOPPABLE FORCE, SUCH AS NEWT
MEETS AN IMMOVABLE OBJECT, SUCH AS BARRY
Barry's gotta give, Barry's gotta give, Barry's gotta give
NEWT IDEAS V. TIRED WORN-OUT IDEAS FROM THE 30S
Newt ideas wins.
"He was a big government meddler in the affairs of individuals and had plans for the world."
No f'n kidding! I love the image of the NY pols kicking him upstairs to VP spot, where they thought they would get him out of their hair, and suddenly finding him president, with all his sickening "progressive ideas," running the country.
'' ... Gingrich is just the opposite of what the Tea Party says it wants, one who will do social engineering from on high but a different type than the left wing progressives but instead from a right wing progressive viewpoint."
A chilling thought. Newt does seem to me tp be full to the brim with the "I can fix this; I can fix that: and that over there too; I can fix anything." maybe too many ideas.
Blago-wago gets 14 years.
John Bolton as Sect of State?
Cleaning out Foggy Bottom of its weenie appeasers and its grovelers to tyranny?
http://gop12.thehill.com/2011/12/newt-gingrich-id-nominate-john-bolton.html
Be still my heart.
Even better. A slightly longer video with Newt's commitment to restore our intel capabilities, presumably with shoe leather and brains instead of the kinds of career clowns who came up with that foolish, treasonous intel assessment in 2007 re Iran.
http://hotair.com/archives/2011/12/07/gingrich-ill-make-john-bolton-secretary-of-state-update-newt-up-big-in-ia-sc-fl-in-new-cnn-polls/
Hy,
"Cleaning out Foggy Bottom of its weenie appeasers and its grovelers to tyranny?"
Alas, that ain't gonna happen absent a missile strike, a direct hit, on Foggy Bottom. They aren't there because they are part of the Obama nightmare team. They're there because they are the essence of State. 'Twas ever thus.
I do not underestimate the size of the challenges. But the 2012 elections will produce: (i) 2-5 more Senators endorsed by Jim DeMint; (ii) new GOP reps who will please Eric Erickson far more than they will please John Boehner; (iii) a Sect of State more like Bolton than Albright or Christopher; and (3) a President who has pledged to rock the boat in Foggy Bottom. Similar actions must occur at EPA, DoJ, CIA, Energy and Education. Incremental yes, but steps in the right direction.