Very strange. 
Posted on 05/14/2006 5:23:43 PM PDT by LouAvul
WASHINGTON - Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich agrees that Sen. Hillary Clinton is the Democratic front-runner should she make a bid for president in 2008. But winning, he says, is another matter.
"This is a country which has elected a peanut farmer, an actor who made movies with monkeys. I mean, you know, with chimpanzees. I mean, many things happen in America," said Gingrich, referring to Presidents Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan.
"But I think, you know, she has a lot of challenges, and there's a question whether or not there's a ceiling, that when you got down to the Hillary/anti-Hillary, whether or not she can break 50 percent in primaries," Gingrich said on NBC's "Meet the Press."
Calling Clinton "formidable" as a presidential candidate, Gingrich said: "If we beat her we're going to beat her with better ideas. We're not going to beat her with some kind of negative campaign."
In recent weeks, the architect of the Republican takeover of the House in 1994 has traveled several times to Iowa and New Hampshire, urging congressional Republicans to rein in federal spending and focus on maintaining — if not building — their majority in the November midterm elections.
Gingrich downplayed suggestions that he might be plotting his own run for president.
"I doubt it at this point," he said. "I'm not ruling out running, but I'm also saying we have real things to do in '06. We have real things to do in '07. And it'll be nice to have a couple of years of talking about solutions, not just talking about ambitions."
I hope his comment involves baseball bats.
I say Hillary Clinton is unelectable.
Of course she's beatable. The problem is the 8-10 years sentence the person would get.
I don't care what Newt says. All Newt cares is that some paper or microphone is in his face. It is about Newt.
If it wasn't for Newt, there'd be no Republican congress. Show a little respect, if gratitude is beyond you.
Ha, couldn't the same have been said about Bill's record as governor?
Yes this is his well past his 16th minute.
Shhhhhhhh. I just interviewed Newt last Friday. Nothing confirmed. Believe me, he is running.
I wonder why he didn't mention the serial sexual predator.
Newt, your Mom's comment whispered to Connie had it right although very understated.
The Clintons kicked Newt's butt back in '95. I'm surprised he forgets the beating.
Tire Iron? Rubber Hose? What?
The problem with this statement is that even if we're not running a negative campaign, the media will make it appear that we are.
Generally speaking, the American public will be inundated with Right Wing "quotes" from people we've never even heard of, in order to paint the Right as running a smear campaign. Any time a fact about Hillary's shady dealings pops up, the focus will be the "conspiracy" to smear her.
We saw this in the last election, and the election before that, and the election before that, and the pattern probably goes back to before I was born. The MSM ensured Democratic hegemony during the mid 20th Century, and it will try to do so again in the 21st.
But with the Internet, all bets are off. Elections are only going to get very, very nasty from here on out. And that's just the beginning.
Very strange.
Good. I hope he runs and is over his bimbo phase. If he had behaved himself, he would still be Speaker.
Ah, I miss Newt... If it weren't for him & those around him, we wouldn't have had the Contract for America. I'd love to see something like that again. I liked the GOP concerned with values and building a shining city on a hill!
Hillary is way too polarizing. You either really like her or really don't. Watch, as we get closer to 2007-08, she's going to pander more toward the Right.
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