We need conservative ideas from somebody new, not Newt.
Newt of course started out strong but by the end of '95 he was damaged goods.
Posted on 11/23/2006 6:36:57 PM PST by no dems
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is telling associates that he’s launching a major new grass-roots movement to recapture the soul of the Republican Party, and quite possibly the White House.
Gingrich says that the effort will be much larger than his founding of GOPAC and his creation of the Contract with America.
The Georgia Republican is spearheading a program called "American Solutions for Winning the Future” in an effort to revitalize the GOP with Ronald Reagan conservatism.
This is the third time Gingrich has led a drive to steer the Republican Party toward traditional conservative values. In 1986, Gingrich took the chair of the Republican political action committee GOPAC and transformed it into an effective tool for electing conservative candidates. The stated theme of GOPAC was "a conservative opportunity society replacing the liberal welfare state.”
GOPAC was a key element in Gingrich’s rise to the leadership of the Republican caucus in Congress.
Then in 1994, as House Minority Leader, Gingrich was a co-author of the Contract with America, a conservative political platform that helped the GOP gain 54 seats in the House and end 40 years of Democratic majorities there.
Gingrich’s new program echoes the title of his 2005 book, "Winning the Future: A 21st Century Contract with America.”
Sources close to the former speaker say Gingrich believes the Republican Party has once again lost its way, and needs to refocus its agenda with an eye toward regaining Congress in 2008.
Stepping back into the political spotlight could help Gingrich’s presidential aspirations as well.
He recently told an interviewer that he won’t decide whether to seek the White House in 2008 until September of 2007.
But insiders predict Gingrich could throw his hat into the ring if a true Reagan conservative doesn’t emerge as a likely GOP candidate.
For the time being, he’s playing his cards close to the vest. "I am not ‘running’ for president, I am seeking to create a movement to win the future by offering a series of solutions so compelling that if the American people say I have to be president, it will happen,” he tells Fortune magazine.
Gingrich said he plans to build grass-roots support for the health care, national security, and energy independence ideas he has been promoting for the past six years.
I like Newt, but he has so much negative personal baggage on him including but not limited to his having an affair with another much younger woman while he was married and while he was creating "better morality" legislation, negative political baggage for only being in the U.S. House of Representatives and not ever being, for example, also a Governor of Georgia at either an earlier point in his political career or later, and his ego is also huge and can create some problems between Newt and the general public at some later point in time.
Newt Gingrich has been a great idea man, architect and go-to guy in the past, and we certainly are in dire need of vision and structure going forward, but I just can't envision his being as successful in pursuit of the presidency.
He gets put up, we lose. Bet the farm. The 'Rat/Media conglomerate knows how to play this game with blood on it's teeth.
I liked Gingrich a great deal when he was a revolutionary leader. I thought when he was Speaker he allowed himself to be rolled by the liberals a bit, especially on the "shutdown." Perhaps it had to do with skeletons in his own closet which are still there.
Is he capable of taking the offense as a leader, that is beyond the revolution? His personal foibles that would make him an icon among Democrats make him a pariah among conservatives. Can he explain them so as to overcome them?
It is imperative that our leaders understand the times we live in as well as what self-government is about. Just recycling an older time will not work.
Dream on...
Sure some of the old and some clear, understandable, pleasant presentation. The GOP is not winning over the majority of the people with this same old same old.
Newt is needed.
Republicans squandered their power and went limp.
Who? Have you been reading the choices? At the rate FR is going, and if we are a sample of the public at large, we don't stand a chance in '08.
That's the stupidest thing I've ever seen posted on this website.
Newt's old ideas are better than any new idea that the Republicans have come up with in the last fifteen years. If you are familiar with Newt, you already know what his ideas and beliefs are ... they don't change with the political tide. I find him to be one of the great thinkers of our time.
The other day someone made a comment that he didn't have enough charisma; personally the man is so brilliant and has such a twinkle in his eye when he takes on the lefties like Alan Colmes, that I find him very charismatic.. his mind fascinates me.
Who is this "we" you speak of?
We need conservative ideas from somebody new, not Newt.
Newt of course started out strong but by the end of '95 he was damaged goods.
Is there one of us here that knows what really went on with Newt and his wife? Sometimes I think the biggest mistake made in politics was when the media started playing up personal lives; no one is perfect enough to walk on water.
As much as we agree with his ideology, you couldn't be more correct about the person.
All the present "frontrunners" for the GOP have too much baggage but Newt is buried underneath a mountain of attache cases.
It would be like the Dems electing Dean in regards to media coverage. We just can't throw them a bone like Newt...or Rudy...or McCain.
Does Romney have any skeletons in his closet?
Who do you think is electable?
AMEN!!
He is a good thinker. But we live in difficult times and there are new ideas needed as well as new applications for the old. The public is prety clear what the GOP stands for and we lost.
while he was creating "better morality" legislation
So if someone's own morality is not perfect, he should not be able to push any legislative proposal to improve public morality?? That is an argument for continually increased social depravity.
only being in the U.S. House of Representatives and not ever being, for example, also a Governor of Georgia
He was Speaker of the House and 3rd in line of succession to the Presidency. Jimmy Carter was governor of Georgia, and Bill Clinton was governor of the smaller state of Arkansas. Perhaps being governor of a medium sized state is not the greatest preparation.
his ego is also huge
You know of someone running for President that doesn't have a huge ego? Like Rudy and McCain?
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