Posted on 07/22/2010 6:54:13 AM PDT by Kaslin
Instead of commenting again on the ability of the Democratic House and Senate to ignore pay-as-you-go when they feel like it (i.e., passing unemployment benefits without paying for them), I have decided this week to indulge in a bit of folderol. In thinking through the following possible scenarios, just image what could be:
Sept. 6, 2012
After an 18-month roller coaster ride that has left most of the nation exhausted and confused, the final players have been determined for the last two months of the presidential campaign.
After former House Speaker Newt Gingrich received the Republican nomination last month, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton formally received the nomination last night. President Barack Obama interrupted the official roll call, delivered a short panegyric to Clinton, and moved that she be unanimously selected as the Democratic nominee.
So end eight months of drama and excitement for the Democrats.
No one could have imagined the 2008 match-up that some in the media had dreamed of, Clinton vs. Gingrich, would come true four years later.
But America is the land of opportunity.
The journey to this point has been tumultuous and unanticipated. Many believe this outcome to be risible and shake their heads in bewilderment.
How did we end up here?
After the Republicans won back the House in 2010, the assumption was that they would provide the necessary balance to Obama. Many pundits thought this would allow him to move from running against the ghost of George W. Bush to running against the House Republicans.
After two years of watching Obama campaign against Bush and two more years of listening to him blame Bush, the electorate was totally bushed about Bush.
But instead of smoothly transitioning to a new opposition, Obama received three flank attacks simultaneously: one from those who really believed his campaign slogan of 2008 (remember change we can believe in?), the second from Democratic moderates in his party and the third from the far left.
Those who believed in and voted for change became increasingly disillusioned over the continued passage of unfunded bills, as well as the Obama administration's rude treatment of the electorate. The tipping point appears to have been Eric Lichtblau's article "Across From White House, Coffee With Lobbyists" (New York Times, June 24, 2010), which reported offsite meetings between White house officials and lobbyists.
"But because the discussions are not taking place at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., they are not subject to disclosure on the visitors' log that the White House releases as part of its pledge to be the 'most transparent presidential administration in history,'" wrote Lichtblau
For moderate Democrats, the tipping point appears to be the continued unpopularity of the Obama administration's policy push to the far left. While his words were moderate, his agenda was liberal. The juxtaposition became too evident to ignore.
Those on the far left were almost happy with the policy and progress, but grew tired of Obama placating the moderates. Couldn't he just be proud of being a radical liberal? They were.
While trying to make everyone happy, Obama made no one happy. The factions broke apart eight months ago and turned to the only high-profile party-uniter on the horizon, Hillary Clinton.
Obama bowed out of the race at the last minute, citing the need to spend time with his family.
Clinton has been cheerful and gracious on the campaign trail.
The Republican run-up has been no less exciting. It began with a wide-open field. By early this year, a dozen candidates were vying for the nomination. Gingrich was in the middle of the pack, with great name identification but strong feelings for and against him on both sides.
Known as a visionary, Gingrich ran a campaign of ideas and solutions. Ironically, Gingrich has taken a page from the campaign plan used by former President Jimmy Carter (often dubbed by Gingrich as one of the worst presidents in modern history). Gingrich, an Army brat that served as a congressman from Georgia for 20 years, quickly and quietly knocked out the other Republican contenders. (Disclosure: Newt's my dad.)
For those of us who write about politics, we can only assume that this lineup is the result of many prayers. For two months, we will have a campaign full of big personalities and even bigger ideas.
Hold on, the fun has just begun.
Yes, I know. But the presidental candidates are not the only people on the ballot. I still will vote for Senate/House/Etc... But I will Newt vote for the Republican if they put Gingrich on the ballot.
That just about sums up my thoughts on Newt. And, when he sat on the couch with Speaker Pelosi and blathered about Global Warming, he lost me - a double dinger - Nancy AND global warming.
A long time ago, when Newt was riding high and throwing rocks at the crooked and subversive, Sandinista-hugging Speaker Jim Wright of Texas, Rolling Stone ran an article on Newt in which they reached back into the misty past to remind conservative Republicans (as a way of demoralizing them, no doubt) that back in the early 70's, when he first ran for Congress in a district, my old district when I lived there, that had elected for years a very, very conservative Larry McDonald, Newt had packaged as a soft liberal. McDonald had died on the KAL 007 flight that was shot down over the Sea of Okhotsk by a Soviet interceptor in a major international incident. Before that, Rolling Stone taunted, Gingrich had run as a Rockefeller Republican, much in the same mold as Rep. George H.W. Bush in Houston, the Ultimate ArchRiNO of All Senior RiNO's, and had become a strong conservative only after McDonald had left the scene. How could conservatives trust him to walk the conservative walk in the bigs?
I guess the answer is finally in, and Rolling Stone, bless their maggot-eaten little hearts, has at length been proven right. Gingrich failed in the clinches as Speaker, he was beaten like a red-haired boy by Slick and Beast and Little Tommy Dasshole, and he almost let Slick sneak up on him by spiking up the black vote in the 1998 election to recapture the House and repeal the then smoking-fresh bill of impeachment Newt's Republicans had passed against Slick.
Never mind the deathbed divorce scene (which may or may not have happened like that -- do you believe anything they said then, knowing what you know now about Media?), never mind the book deal and the serial affairs. He did, after all, ring up some serious wins, like welfare reform -- which Obama has now reversed by building on Republican Congressional failures which Newt helped inaugurate, by refusing to purge weak, corrupt Republicans -- a failure in which the cipher Denny Hastert followed him by likewise failing to discipline the GOP Representatives, thus opening a huge door for Rahm Emanuel and Red Nancy Pelosi to walk through.
How to write "EPIC FAIL" in bigger letters? Well, then he did the couch scene with Nancy and tried to "grow" in other ways, to attract a Power Structure digit of re-empowerment from above, the one the Mexicans call "dedazo". So far, no sale.
You're right, he's about done. If he wants to rebuild his career, he'll have to go home to his old district and run again, and then he'll have to prove himself to conservatives all over again by coming up with new, constitutionalist ideas for undoing the damage the Big Government parties have done since Woodrow Wilson -- and even Abraham Lincoln.
If you stop and think about his suggestion to “Meet at the local level”. That is the best way to overcome the extremism of the National leadership.
Otherwise the barriers persist.
Thank you for writing my post for me :)
Faceoff? They’ll be running mates!
Well, good for you!
I only referred to the Architect because his analysis of ‘08 was that a lot of conservatives refused to compromise their votes (according to him) and did not show at the polls - a point the person I was responding to made...
As far as his record in ‘06, can’t win ‘em all, I guess...
Sorry, lent...I assume (wrongly, it appears) that there is a kind of patois/slang/insider info that most of us here are familiar with because we all seem to be politicos at Free Republic....so I thought EVERYONE here knew who the Architect was...Rove.
I will leave the Country
I realize this is the received wisdom, based upon Republican gains in the Clinton era credited to Gingrich.
I seriously question the veracity of this, given the gross overreach of the administration and the revulsion of the voting public at the time, as well as the sheer idiocy displayed by Gingrich both politically and in his personal life since then.
He's a relic, of questionable provenance. That I don't question.
... that, plus he looks and sounds like one of the wimpier Jim Henson creations.
The idea of Gingrich running at the top of the Republican ballot regardless of the opponent makes me want to throw up.
That was who I thought of when I heard that phrase.
LLS
Clash of titans?
More like midget wrestling.
I have often heard that but I have never seen any data that shows Conservatives did not vote or voted third party. obama and acorn manufactured his win by 4 million votes... that is what happened... mcnasty was such a bad candidate that new voters never even considered him. Everyone that I know voted for Palin.
LLS
But Karl Rove, self proclaimed Idiot Savant is also a deep thinker. It is he who convinced the Bushes, Father and Son, that the offspring of illegal aliens, welcomed into the country in their many millions, would become "The Republicans of the Future."
Karl Rove is very intelligent; not as intelligent as he thinks, but plenty intelligent enough to rake in the big bucks from many so-called "Republicans," when Dick Morris is too busy working for the Clintons and George Soros to bother to run their campaigns for them. He is also plenty smart enough to talk with Sean Hannity, when Sean can't get Dick Morris on the phone.
Today's Republican Party is the bastard love-child of Karl Rove and Olympia Snowe, and one real reason grass-roots financial support for the RNC can no longer be found.
I was thinking of him as a “mental giant” from the perspective of his background as a historian and his ability to understand the significance of events. His problem is that his response to situations (other women, political events) isn’t what it should be.
I think Newt really wants to be POTUS.
I imagine Newt sitting in front of the television camera on a sofa with Hillary.
Hillary keeps slapping him, he sits quietly, not wanting to seem controversial.
Until he quits.
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