I have been impressed with what Newt has said he would do if elected. When he was Speaker, his first 100 days and the “Contract with America” was great. Problem is, IMHO, it all went down hill from there. He had Republican majorities but let the Democrats walk all over him. They called the shots, not Newt. Did he learn his lesson? Would he roll over for the liberals once in the White House? I don’t know.
We need someone who will be just as brutal and persistant for the conservative agenda (read -Tea Party) as these Marxist are who control our country now.
As many have already said, we will not find the perfect conservative to run. Everyone will have their faults and weaknesses. For me, the question is “Will they overturn the Obama/Marxist/socialist/communist agenda that has been put into effect and return us to Constutional government?”
We need a leader, not just somebody who looks good and might beat Obama.
The new guy will have to rebuild our government from the ground up and Newt's the guy to do it.
I like to listen to Newt, but I can’t seriously consider him for president or vice-president. He’s too unpredictable and, sometimes, full of himself.
I too am leaning toward Newt. I think a Newt/Cain ticket will be the best ticket. Newt knows the system better than any candidate up there. Cain is a savy business man and he connects with the people. They can beat Obama and I think republicans, conservatives and libertarians will rally around them.
Newt is a good debater, but that’s about it.
How soon some forget just a couple months ago Newt was busy throwing virtually every House Republican under the bus by calling Ryan’s budget “right wing social engineering” because it actually dealt with reigning in Medicare.
And have we already forgotten Newt posing on that couch with Pelosi to combat the complete fraud that is global warming.
And sorry, Newt’s wife is just scary and his Newt’s personal life is a train wreck that would dominate the news were he nominated.
I enjoy listening to Newt debate, but he is not a leader and not presidential material.
No. No. No. How’s that?
I love Newt but the answer is two words:
baggage
electability
My prayer is that someone should emerge who is reasonably conservative, able to articulate conservative principles even if he/she is not ideologically perfect who is also electable. As crass as it is, this means someone without “baggage”, someone reasonably telegenic, reasonably articulate, personable, likeable. As much as we might love Newt’s intellect and his ability to articulate conservative principles, I think he loses out on the baggage/electability criterion.
If only we could put Newt’s brain into Perry’s or Romney’s body and persona....
Don’t get me wrong, as much as Romney has that “electability” factor, his flip-floppiness, his somewhat plastic quality, his starkly liberal policy history and, specifically, RomneyCare, all make me a little sick at the thought of supporting him. If he’s the nominee, though, I think he has a good chance of beating Obama and that’s what matters to me most.
Candidly, I am shocked by the number of people on FR who are saying they won’t vote for Romney under any circumstances including the general election. How could anyone think of having the present America-killing marxist in the White House for another 4 years? 4 years that he won’t even care about getting re-elected? It chills me to the bone to think of what he might do, given how outrageous he has been while facing re-election.
Yes, Newt is very intelligent, understands the problems, is well spoken, I think he would make a good president.
On an unrelated note however, have you ever seen so many bowties as we’ve seen this week on television? What is it with elections and bowties, it’s like there’s these reporters that crawl out during the election cycles only and they wear bowties ...
Newt....Nah!
The Contract With America was brilliant but Clinton played him afterward, big time.
The Nancy Pelosi couch.
His propensity to court a new wife when he still has a wife (occasionally said wife is suffering from cancer.)
He dissed the Ryan Plan.
There are many, many other but those are the biggies for me.
But if Newt secures the nomination, I will wholeheartedly support him. A.B.O!!
He was a has been before his zipper-control problems even surfaced. He let Clinton coast to reelection by running against him (not the cardboard cutout of Bob Dole) in 1996. Then he let Hillary coast to election in New York in 2000 by doing essentially the same thing.
He is great on stage against Republicans, some of them who richly deserve to be eviscerated. But put him on stage against Democrats and his natural instinct is to do the kissy-faced couch commercial like he did with Nancy Pelosi.
Newt is one of the largest symptoms of the problem We the People out in Flyover Country have with DC...
Other Republicans on Freddie's payroll included former Senator Al D'Amato and Congressman Vin Weber, and then House Majority Leader Tom DeLay's former chief of staff, Susan Hirschmann. As we know by now, Fan and Fred tried to buy everybody in town from both political parties, and the companies did it well enough to make themselves immune from regulatory scrutiny.
Almost everybody that was in Washington in the last 20 years played a role in the current economic meltdown - including Newt. Solutions that come from people that didn't participate in the problem in the first place have more credibility.
Newt is fantastic. He sorts out the chaff and presents sterling wheat. Too bad he has such negatives and can’t possibly be our nominee.
Newt is the most brilliant of all of them, but I fear he is too polarizing to be elected. Whoever wins the nom and becomes president would do well to put him in a high position. I always thought he would make an excellent Secretary of State or even Defense.
In a debate with Newt Obama would respond with “present”.
Cain and Newt seem to have a bond, I think they should ‘Team Up’ now, combine there resources, and sweep the Nation Clean.
I think Gingrich has too much baggage to be at the top of the ticket, but he would make an awesome VP.
I don't think any of the candidates are perfect, but of the candidates, these two are my favorites.
Your research must be flawed, or non-existant.
yes, but...
remember after the inauguration and rush said he hoped that obama’s policies failed?
newt agreed.
until the democrats demanded that he apologize.
so, newt apologized.