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Being reviled doesn’t make one “not a D.C. insider.” If you’re an insider, it just means you’re a reviled insider.

Newt is the penultimate typical — even stereotypical — Washington pol. He’s not an outsider. Rather, he’s an outcast. And that is far different from being a true outsider.

Insurgencies are usually led by "reviled"insiders. No, Newt is not an "outcast." Without trying to make anything like an exact parallel, Newt is more like Churchill in his years as a "has-been," as something dismissed as lacking "judgment," although that had been true of him since he entered politics. One lady described this as a "lack of antennae". Malcolm Muggeridge disliked Churchill, seeing him as very much the poseur. Even his famous language was overblown. Churchill was not near as glib as Newt, his best quips were rehearsed.

Newt's style is much more pedantic, as befits a professor. What he most lacks is Church's focus. Newt is all over the place, with opinions about everything, but he is far from being a polymath, more the dilettante. The real question is: does he have Churchill's ability to stay the course on the great issues confronting the country?

Lincoln had that ability. He focused on the war and left the secondary matters to Seward, Chase, and the Republican Congress. One impression I got from Palin--as governor--is that she had that ability. She had strength of will. As president, she might have brought the same focus. But as a genuine outsider, with pedigree or polish, she could never win over the Establishmentarians. Lincoln did, at least enough. We forget how much he owed to Horace Greeley. Greeley not only polished his debates with Douglas --the ones we read today were redacted by Greeley's paper-- but brought him East to give the Cooper's Union speech which was wildly applauded by the elite audience there.

Palin is not capable of finely crafted speeches. Lincoln had a love and a gift for the language that Palin lacks. But, as Elizabeth I, said on a famous occasion, She might have the heart of a woman, but she has the stomach of a king. Does New have the stomach? I don't mean the self-confidence, but the courage to go against elite opinion when it matters. Neither Bush really had that. Reagan did.