I am very much leaning towards supporting Newt. I sent him a small amount the other day, and I talked to my parents, and found that my Dad is leaning the same way. We hadn’t even talked about it or the debates, so I found that interesting.
I do think that Newt needs to come out and acknowledge the baggage that he has. I’ll be the last person to condemn him for any of it, but he can’t go around talking about “Calista and I” all the time as if they are somehow the poster couple of marriages. I think he could find a way to do it in the form of a speech that would be well received and would insulate him from a lot of the criticism that will come his way. I honestly think Newt could get the nomination without doing that, but he wouldn’t want to be asked about it for the first time at a debate with Obama, who looks like a family values advocate compared to Newt. If he acknowledges it now and speaks openly and honestly about it, then if it comes down to him getting the nomination, he can always just say, “well, I discussed this in my speech in November, and I don’t have much to add to that, except that I’m grateful that I’ve been given a chance to show that I have learned from my mistakes.”
He already did a mea culpa. He went on Pat Robertson’s show and explained that his vast patriotism caused him to cheat on his wives.
And then there’s his “middle of the road on amnesty” speech from last week.
I too sent Newt a little money and last month I started talking Newt up to friends. I live in liberal Montgomery Cty, MD the most liberal county in the USA. You can’t even smoke in your own condo and no santa either. Anyway, at first everyone told me a was crazy in the head to consider Newt. Lately, ppl are listening and I’m not appearing so far fetched anymore. My aunt, who is a Michigan delegate, listened to my argument for Newt yesterday and was surprised by how much she didn’t know about Newt. I argee the personel stuff hurts him a bit especially with women but these are scary times. We dont have much time to fix everything if we can get a real conversative pres and large majorities in senate and house the USA has a chance. This isnt the time to play it safe. The media is scared of Newt too.