Gingrich had to think on his feet but his instinct should not have been to be clever nor magnanimous. He should have been mean.
This worked pretty well too. Newt embarrassed Cruz publicly and made it clear Cruz did not get away with anything here. Everyone was onto him.
“Gingrich had to think on his feet but his instinct should not have been to be clever nor magnanimous. He should have been mean.”
He was mean in a very smart way...think about it. He made Cruz look all the smaller by what he said.
Naaa... The damage done to Cruz is done. Newt handled it well. No need to be mean.
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Go No: Gingrich had to think on his feet but his instinct should not have been to be clever nor magnanimous. He should have been mean.
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‘He should have been mean.’
Positively not. I’ve been a Newt critique, but last night he was brilliant-off-the-charts.
Look at it this way. Trump needed three things: Cruz’ comments neutralized, the door left open for Cruz supporters to get behind Trump, and a loud and clear message sent that there is more unity than antipathy/dissent inside the convention hall.
Newt knocked all three out of the park. He turned Cruz’ comments into a Trump endorsement; he did so without unnecessarily ruffling a single feather of the Cruz supporters Trump hopes to absorb, and Newt did it all while making it appear that peace and harmony reign supreme at the convention.
Bravo, Newt; it was a tour de force.
Cruz essentially told his troops not to feel obligated to vote for the Republican nominee, but we actually do need as many votes as possible. Hillary starts off with quite a larger number of solid blue state electoral votes than we do electoral votes from guaranteed red states. We have to win a much larger number of swing states than she does.
Newt was using Cruz’s words to tell his supporters, by Cruz’s own standards, we all must vote for Trump. This is bigger than that little backstabber Cruz. We need a party as united as possible to defeat Hillary. I didn’t like seeing Newt on later with Hannity essentially defending Cruz, but I do think he probably did the right thing in his speech with his creative “reinterpretation” to get the Cruzers onboard the Trump train.
No, Gingrich was the "elder statesman" last night and that is a good role for him. Cruz provided enough nastiness, Gingrich didn't need to join in. And, he didn't. In fact, my hubby's opinion of Gingrich's speech was that "he is trying very hard to rescue Cruz's career for him". Personally, I don't think it is now possible to rescue his career.