Posted on 10/18/2006 10:25:32 AM PDT by rob777
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich has quietly positioned himself for a comeback to head the Republican Party as early as 2008.
GOP sources said Mr. Gingrich does not plan to run for president, but intends to be available as the savior of conservatives dismayed by candidates who seek to move the party to the left in the aftermath of George W. Bush’s presidency. Over the last few months, Mr. Gingrich has become the favorite of conservatives and has outlined a new vision for the GOP that seeks for the party to return to the moral clarity of the late President Ronald Reagan.
“I believe that whatever the results of the November elections, Newt will become a major force in the GOP for 2008," a senior Republican Party strategist said.
Mr. Gingrich has already become the choice of conservatives and the Christian Right. He has won the Human Events presidential straw poll for September, topping the list for the second month in a row.
The achievement marked a major boost for Mr. Gingrich. For much of 2006, Mr. Gingrich trailed Rep. Tom Tancredo, Colorado Republican, in the poll, but last month Mr. Gingrich led the House member by 31 to 17 percent.
Among conservatives, Mr. Gingrich is more popular than senior allies of President Bush and members of his administration. In the Human Events poll, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice dropped to sixth place with 6.68 percent. Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, the president's younger brother, reached 3.37 percent in the presidential straw poll.
GOP sources said Mr. Gingrich decided to raise his profile in 2006, with the publication of a weekly newsletter and the gathering of a brain trust. Over the last few months, he has been campaigning for Republican candidates and commenting on both domestic and foreign issues.
On several issues, Mr. Gingrich has taken positions that differ with that of the administration. While Mr. Bush has urged diplomacy to deal with a nuclear North Korea, Mr. Gingrich has been calling for regime change that echoed the Reagan era and the president's efforts with then-British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and the late Pope John Paul II to undermine the communist regimes in Eastern Europe.
"When you look at a country such as North Korea, you see tremendous poverty," Mr. Gingrich said in a radio interview last week. "You have to believe that there are thousands of people who might want to collaborate with the West. We're remarkably bureaucratic. Rather than work with the North Korean government, we ought to be cooperating with those willing to smuggle food into the country. We have to recognize what a bad dictatorship this is."
GOP sources said Mr. Gingrich will most likely not run for president in 2008. But they said he would seek to represent the conservative wing of the party, the endorsement of which would be regarded as crucial for any GOP nominee.
"It's obvious that in 2008, the party will move away from the Bush era and will be looking for a change in direction," another GOP source said. "I think Newt will be in a position to lay out a strategy that would appeal to both conservatives and old-line Republicans."
I was attempting to draft a post along those lines and couldn't get my thoughts into the right words. I read on... and found you had said it perfectly!
Marcus Alonzo Hanna was an Ohio senator and chairman of the Republican National Committee (or whatever it was then called) in the 1890s. He was easily the most powerful Republican in the country and it is doubtful that anyone would have stood in his way if he had sought the nomination for the presidency. However, he also recognized that he was a somewhat polarizing figure to non-Republicans (as is Newt), so he orchestrated William McKinley's successful campaign and remained McKinley's closest advisor during his presidency.
Yeah, look at what happened the last time we ran a candidate who had been divorced.
An interesting question. Reagan's was a Hollywood divorce a good 30 years earlier, and no one feels sorry for anyone from Hollywood. People see the stars as indestructable idols, and don't think seriously about either party as a victim.
Today, moral issues and moral consequences are legitimately front-and-center in a way they definitely were not in 1980. And from a merely tactical point of view, a Republican needs to be purer than Caesar's wife, because he needs to survive the attacks of (pro-divorce) media types, who will attack him for being divorced.
Someone like Santorum, rather than Newt, will have more selling power.
Ronald Reagan was good at all three:
1) Clearly ideologically/philosophically grounded in convervative thought.
2) Was pragmatic [without compromising uncompromisable principles]...[he had to be given congress at the time]...would "rather have a bill that has 75% of what I want then none at all"
3) Explained and articulated conservative ideology/philosophy and reasons why it is clearly better then the alternative, often times humorously.
"... the way most people think about what it takes to make a good candidate..." is probably the heart of the delimna.
With our empiricle evidence and history and our trackrecord it's more than amazing that we have gotten along as we have.
Marry that with our insane compulsion to ignore current affairs or alternatively tend to every micro-move an office holder makes, it's remarkable that any sane person even bothers with public life.
One quick look at our "circus" of public servants would chill any normal person. Side show freaks make better associates...when you rattle off just a sampler of who we got up there "taking care of business" Waters,Pelosi, Frank , Conyers, Kerry, Rangel and on and on.
Saints Preserve us!
Where are the Thomas Sowells? The sane ones? We gotta stop this "Gong Show" process that produces circus freaks.
Where are the Thomas Sowells? The sane ones? We gotta stop this "Gong Show" process that produces circus freaks.
BTTT
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