Oh com’on, any of this crop of candidates could beat Obama, that’s not an issue. Newt’s a smart guy and he’s done a number of admirable thing during his career, but his political future is dead. Deal with it.
No Newts is good Newts, IMO.
He was part of the bunch that squandered an insane amount of political capital and essentially drove a steak in the heart of the Reagan Revolution by alienating working class whites. Newt was a big part of why Perot walked away with nearly 20% of the popular vote as a 3rd party candidate. Don’t fool yourself. He is as big a beltway RINO phony as you’ll find. Just another of the old guard trying to co-opt and pre-empt the TEA surge.
No sale for me. Your mileage may vary.
Newt may inspire some folks on the deep conservative right, but that's about it. In my opinion, he's not going to attract enough Independents and swing voters to carry him over the top in the general, or even enough solid conservative voters, for that matter. The man just ain't that attractive a personality, which is a trait that effective leaders (and presidential campaign winners) all have.
Then there's the 'baggage' problem. Up until now, Newt hasn't had to face a Palinoscopy, because he hasn't threatened to catch fire with the voters. Let him get any closer to front runner status, and it will begin. I don't think he'll survive it. Not from the left, or the right.
I had narrowed it down to either Cain or Newt. Cain’s handling of the harassment issue caused me to scratch him off my list. I want a president who is capable and who can deal with the tough stuff. Cain showed me he doesn’t have it. Newt, based on his past accomplishments, has the ability and based on the way he is handling his candidacy, he has the maturity to be president. His ‘baggage’ is not a concern for me. They all have baggage.
Newt received $300k lobbying on behalf of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to bail them out; now he talks about sending people to jail. Newt is a whore and hypocrite.
http://spectator.org/archives/2011/10/18/clark-clifford-republicans/
Newt has my vote. So what that he has baggage. Will he cut spending, stand for our military, keep taxes low, encourage business growth and pride in America and nominate judges who believe in the constitution? Yes I believe he will.
Newt is my favorite candidate now. No candidate is perfect, and Newt is far less frightening to me than the flip-flopping Massachusetts liberal Romney. And as you pointed out, Newt is all but guaranteed to destroy Obama in a debate.