Posted on 11/16/2011 9:24:58 AM PST by SeekAndFind
He’s baaack!
Former speaker of the House Newt Gingrich is back in the saddle after falling off his horse at the starting line. At least according to one poll (Public Policy Polling), Gingrich is actually the GOP frontrunner.
Many say it’s simply Gingrich’s turn to be the not-Mitt contender, now that Michele Bachmann, Rick Perry, and Herman Cain have had their chances.
But that’s not entirely fair. Gingrich has been relentlessly seducing GOP voters in the debates. Romney may have been winning on points and technicalities, but Gingrich has been consistently winning the crowds.
Moreover, he’s been deftly using the debates to develop a sales pitch to GOP voters. His Reaganesque refusal to attack fellow Republicans has been appreciated, as has his more mercenary determination to ridicule the media by pouncing on stupid — and sometimes not-so-stupid — questions from debate moderators.
But the core of his strategy has been to plant a question in the minds of Republican voters. The question he wants them to ask is, “Whom would you most like to see debate Barack Obama?”
In each debate, he keeps mentioning how he wants to challenge the president to as many Lincoln-Douglas-style debates as possible. And if the presidential baloney won’t march into the Gingrichian grinder? Well then, the grinder will come to the baloney. Gingrich vows to follow Obama on the stump, offering rapid response after every presidential utterance.
It’s a brilliant tactic. Watching Gingrich walk onto the debate stage, it’s like seeing a great beast returned to its natural habitat. They should play “Born Free” whenever he comes out from behind the curtain.
The tactic works because the unifying conviction among hard-core Republican voters is that Obama is both overrated and full of it, a man pretending to be presidential and intellectual rather than the real thing. (Ironically, Gingrich has long been the subject of similar criticisms, mostly from the left.) Gingrich’s promise to goad Obama into a fair fight is beyond tantalizing.
Talk to rank-and-file conservatives about such a matchup and they grow giddy, like nerds asked if they’d like to see a battle between Darth Vader and Gandalf the wizard. Ask them if they’d like to see an Obama versus Romney debate (the thrilla with vanilla!) and they shrug. Meanwhile, if you nominate Gingrich, you’ll get a ticket to the fight of the century.
The risk for Gingrich is that primary voters may eventually recognize what he’s up to. After all, as a purely practical matter, the point of picking a Republican nominee isn’t to find the candidate who can beat Obama in a debate but to pick the nominee who can beat Obama in an election (oh, and be a good president too, a worthy subject for another day). Winning debates is great and important — as Perry has painfully learned — but they are a means to an end, not an end unto themselves.
It’s an open question whether Gingrich can defeat Obama in 2012. It’s taken as a truism that he has “too much baggage.” Well, some of the baggage is lighter than it appears. He was cleared by the Clinton-era Internal Revenue Service of wrongdoing in alleged ethics violations stemming from a college course he taught in the 1990s. The charge that he surprised his cancer-stricken first wife with divorce papers has been, at the least, exaggerated.
But, as with Kim Kardashian’s attic, you can throw away a lot of old baggage and still be left with too much for one person to carry. His marital infidelities, his verbal indiscipline, the strange mix of God and Mammon that is Newt Inc., and his grandiose way of talking about himself as one of the lions of the 20th — and now 21st — century: It may just be too much muchness for voters once they’re reminded of it all. And, oh boy, would they be reminded of it if Gingrich got the nomination.
On the other hand, this could be Gingrich’s moment. Perry was undone by the debates because voters understand that the only way to beat Obama is to take the argument to him, particularly because — from a Republican perspective at least — the mainstream media has little interest in holding Obama accountable.
Maybe it is time to cue “Born Free.”
— Jonah Goldberg is editor-at-large of National Review Online and a visiting fellow at the American Enterprise Institute
Might want to hold off on the coronation of Newt. Seems he is now in the smear machines cross hairs.
Let see how well he weathers it.
Say what you want about Newt and his past and his ‘baggage’, but he IS the most intelligent man in the room almost all of the time,
AND
He almost single-handedly organizes the GOP takeover of Congress in 1994
AND
He almost single-handedly balanced the federal budget by the year 2000 (Forcing Bill Clinton, of all people, into a corner)
All fine and dandy, but the left will still use the
“debating 0bama is racist”
argument.
What I keep thinking about at this point in the primary season is that Gingrich is taking the same historical perch that McCain took last time around. If you think about it, Gingrich IS the establishment GOP candidate in the race. More so than even Romney. This cycle could turn out to be a blueprint of the 2008 cycle. We had certain candidates that had their day in the sun, but eventually the Washington insider candidate rose to the top.
I don't really want that to happen if we can help it.
Great a choice between a former ACORN employee and a RINO who has co-endorsed a candidate with ACORN, who cuts commercials with Pelosi, and is in favor of a national mandate.
Let's further suppose he gets the questions and is able to prepare in advance while Newt must deal with hypothetical questions which may or may not be asked. This probably is normal enemedia operating procedure.
Is there any doubt that the final result wouldn't look something like a final result of a football game between the Green Bay Packers and the last place team in your local Pop Warner league? Is their any way the Packers or Newt wouldn't be hated by the audience for even agreeing to such a mismatch?
And if the presidential baloney won’t march into the Gingrichian grinder? Well then, the grinder will come to the baloney...
Good one!...
The guy did not come through with Contract with America.
I do not consider stating facts as smears.
Just SOME of Newt’s inconvenient Facts:
>> Criticized Paul Ryan’s plan saying social engineering from the right is bad
>> “We are not going to deport 11 million people”
>> “Era of Ronald Reagan is over”
>> For healthcare mandates before he is against it!
>> For man made global warming before he is against it!
Newt was actually FOR Cap & Trade!!
>> Partnering with Al Sharpton on Obama’s education reform.
>> Partnered with Hillary Clinton to advocate health-care legislation.
But Newt of all the candidates refused to criticize other Republicans, repeatedly challenging media libtard questioners who posed nonsensical scenarios. I remember him saying "Any one of these governors has done a better job of creating jobs than Barack Obama." And on and on.
Newt isn't my first choice, but he's an easy anti-Romney choice. And so far, of all the candidates, he's the one who really gets that the enemy is Obama, not another Republican. That message hasn't changed.
Actually he didn't. A whole lot of people were involved in that. Including a guy name Rush Lijmbagh. Newt has just been the one most self promoting claiming he was responsible.
He almost single-handedly balanced the federal budget by the year 2000 (Forcing Bill Clinton, of all people, into a corner)
Again, no he did not. John Kaisch, JC Watts and the Republican freshmen of the 1994 class had more to do with that then Newt. Newt was pretty much a John Bohner typle "get along" leader who was smart enough to hook up to, rather then fight, the tea party style congress people of the GOP class of 1994.
RE: The guy did not come through with Contract with America.
Which part of the Contract did not come through and whose fault is it?
Delegates, by CampaignCampaign Projected Delegates ***UPDATED Color-Coded Map***
Delegates, by CampaignCampaign Projected
Cain 986
Romney 283
Gingrich 66
Perry 45
*** http://beta.hermancainexpress.com/activism/polling.aspx
his verbal indiscipline, the strange mix of God and Mammon that is Newt Inc
I once posted that Newt has ADD on his ideas- I mean this seriously... I read that his aids in Congress were critical of his inability to reflect on new ideas, just blurted them out (laptop for Kids, sit in back of the Air Force 1). I thought that Newt would be disciplined in the race but he immediately made the RYAN social engineering gaff. I thought, same ol Newt. Since then, he has been very disciplined. He is controlling his ADD, and not by avoiding interviews and contacts. I think he has learned to balance Newt the Think Tank vs. Newt the revolutionary politician.
BTW, I am still a CAIN guy, Newt is two. I just hope they both do well because one of them is getting the nomination.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.