Re: Has Gingrich Changed? et al

NRO ^ | 12/6/11 | Mark Steyn

[dervish]

Since Ramesh, Mona, Yuval & Co have got out the tire irons, I figured I might as well pile on. But then a reader from the Cayman Islands reminded me that I

[dervish]

Link to Steyn's 1998 article:

link

[Jim Robinson]

"The Democrats demonised Newt as an extreme right-wing crazy. They were right"

Woo hoo!! We can use some of this extreme right-wing craziness in a candidate!! Give them something to whine about.

[Lazlo in PA]

As usual, Steyn nails it. The amount of FReepers that give Newt a full pass for his past RINOism and endless Gov’t solutions to everything doesn’t make any sense.

[Cicero]

Priceless. And, no, he hasn’t changed, except that he moved even further to the left on things like Dede Scozzafava and global warming, or his recent comments about life beginning after successful implantation, which he then reversed after he was called out.

Newt is a very, very good talker, but he has never shown much interest in walking the walk.

Mark Steyn points out what was obvious at the time. Newt was one of the worst aisle-crossers ever during his last year under Bill Clinton. At the time, I suspected maybe clinton had found something in his FBI files. Whatever it was, Clinton would say “Jump,” and Newt would answer, “How high?”

[Jim Robinson]

At least Newt did support Ronald Reagan and the Reagan Revolution. He did build a successful Republican majority. He did cut taxes, did reduce the deficit, did balance the budget, did block HillaryCare, did reform welfare, did allow us to reap the whirlwind of the Reagan economy.

Romney saddled Massachusetts with budget busting RomneyCare, taxpayer funded "safe and legal" abortion, gay marriage, leftist judges and a completely destroyed Republican label. And RomneyCare did become the model and impetus for ObamaCare.

Not to mention the fact that Newt has the support of the Republican conservative base and the grassroots tea party supporters:

Romney has the support of the establishment elite and shares the moderate/liberal RINO vote:

http://www.gallup.com/poll/151355/Gingrich-Romney-Among-GOP-Voters-Nationwide.aspx

Who you gonna call?

[Old Sarge]

Paper covers rock, rock breaks scissors, scissors cuts paper, Newt beats Romney.

[Hugin]

So who does Stein support?

[Psalm 144]

“The amount of FReepers that give Newt a full pass for his past RINOism and endless Gov’t solutions to everything doesn’t make any sense.”

I would not call it a ‘full pass’. It is yet another bitter compromise in a long series of bitter compromises. His assets are that he can communicate a thought, once had fire in the belly, and is not as odious and weirdo as Romney. Most of all, he is not Romney. Personally, I am hoping he has an axe to grind with the Democrats and their media Igors for his shabby treatment in the 1990s.

[EagleUSA]

Well stated Jim. And I think the “right side” of the electorate has figured that out too. The voters will decide...not the media, or those that have no ability to separate candidates based on accomplishment or qualification.

[Lazlo in PA]

I totally agree that Newt is miles better than Mittens. I also think Mittens is finished in this race so I am not as worried about him turning his fortunes around. We all hate him in the base except for a small group of Washingtonians.

There are just so many dodgy policy pronouncements and issue changes in the past with Newt that until the last Conservative, like Santorum or Bachmann, is dead and out of this Primary, I will have trouble being excited about the prospects of a Newt Presidency. I am going to wait till some Primary state elections come in and the handwriting is on the wall before jumping fully on the bandwagon.

I just think we can do better. Call me a dreamer.

[Hugin]

BTW, speaking of TR...

"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat."

[samtheman]

So it’s unanimous. The geniuses at NRO are all parroting the anti-Newt party line. Even Steyn. I was half-hoping for something different from Steyn, but fully expecting this.

I don’t care.

And so far, neither do the voters.

If this election shows one thing it will show that the people don’t need geniuses, from Harvard, from NRO, from anywhere, to do their thinking for them.

[marty60]

“I just think we can do better. Call me a dreamer.”

I’ll join you in that Dream.

[LS]

Usually I like Steyn, but he's drinking the Mittsjuice if he thinks that as of now ANYONE but Newt can derail Romney.

As for "a cross between Teddy Roosevelt and Alvin Toffler," compared to Obama, I'd say that's a damn easy decision.

Man up, Mark. Get off the Canadian joyjuice.

[Lazlo in PA]

I am hoping he has an axe to grind with the Democrats and their media Igors for his shabby treatment in the 1990s.

One would think so, but just a few short years ago he sat on Algores couch with Queen Nancy, the woman who was behind that shafting he got in the ethics committee. We all knew at the time that was a corrupt endevour on the Rats part.

[StraightDave]

America’s economy and security has become one big junkyard. It will take a “junkyard dawg” to clear the place
up. I’ll give Newt a 4 year shot at it. He knows his way around the yard and is not afraid to bite. He knows
he has only one shot left to go down in history as the President who saved America from the
Marxists/Socialists/Communists. Its Newt’s time.

[samtheman]

I think our resident gurus are much better than the pundit class, left and right, out there in Professional Pundit Land.

Example:

At the end of the day the Tea Party will embrace Newt Gingrich. To assume that the Tea Party was about a checklist of conservative principles is to misunderstand the energizing impulse that created and sustains the tea party. The tea party is aroused because they feel, quite reasonably, that their country is slipping away and the danger is not remote but imminent and catastrophic.

They did not gather in their millions across the village green of America because the Congress did not put the decimal point in the right place, the Tea Party exists out of the conviction that they must save the Republic.

So they seek policies toward that end and those policies inevitably are conservative policies because conservatism is patriotic and prudent. But they are not conservatives who seek conservative policies, they are patriots who seek national salvation.

When they judge a presidential candidate they will not measure him against a conservative matrix, they are going to ask themselves whether he can save the country. In other words, above all they want a man of vision, a man who can articulate that vision, a man who can carry the country.

Gov. Perry simply disqualified himself from that description. Newt Gingrich among all the candidates alone possesses the potential to be great. He could also be a great disappointment. But we must take the chance because a business as usual president simply is not the man for the times. There is a sense that this is a time of destiny for Gingrich.

To offer the following observation is knowingly to court the cheap and easy rebuke but it nevertheless must be said: the American people are awakening to the danger which is buffeting them from abroad and from within. They fear for their country and for their children. They are turning to a man whom they would not otherwise consider normal times. The historical parallel is Winston Churchill in 1939-1940.

This is not to say that Gingrich is in the same class with Churchill but the resemblance is remarkable. Both are possessed of the highest intellect, both are successful authors, both have vast parliamentary experience, both are seemingly controversial, both are accused of being fountains of bad as well as great ideas, both are masters of oratory, both have been cast into the wilderness and come back, both have been accused of ideological impurity, Churchill having crossed the aisle twice, both have farsighted vision.

England would never have turned to Winston Churchill if it were not the hour of her greatest peril. Newt Gingrich is not Winston Churchill but he might just be Margaret Thatcher. The rest of the field cannot even compete in the same league. If we entrust Gingrich with the office and he missteps at least we will have taken our best shot. It is not ideological purity that we need to save the country but leadership, even charisma. We have no choice but to take the risk of nominating Gingrich just as England had no choice but to turn to the one man that could save her.

This is why The Tea Party is able to embrace Gingrich and this is why the base of the Republican Party is even now embracing Gingrich, and this is why he will prevail in the election. It is not just a matter of eliminating the other candidates, that is not why England turned to Churchill, there were, after all, other men of substance but there was no one else who held the promise that Churchill held to save the world-and no one carried such a risk as Churchill.

They had to assume the risk to get Churchill.

...nathanbedford

[nickcarraway]

A man who said his adultery was patriotic is not weird?

[samtheman]

Here’s a post from Jim Robinson on the difference between Mitt and Newt, which isn’t the exact subject of this thread but nevertheless relevant.

Steyn claims he’s not in the tank for Mitt.

We know NRO is.

And Steyn doesn’t say who he likes.

Anyway, here’s Jim Robinson on the Mitt vs Newt comparison:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2817048/posts?page=40#40

[Hugin]

NB brilliantly set down the thoughts that have been rattling around in my head for some time, with far more eloquence than I ever could. Kudos!

Hugin