Posted on 11/16/2011 7:33:03 PM PST by presidio9
For months, Newt Gingrich has had a front-row seat from which to observe what happens when a Republican presidential candidate emerges from the pack to be touted as the next great insurgent hope and the conservative alternative to Mitt Romney.
“This is actually the point where other people have faltered,” Gingrich said in an interview Wednesday.
The former House speaker is rising in the polls. But whether he will become an actual threat to Romney, or just another fleeting phenom, will depend largely on two things: Gingrich’s ability to keep in check the impulses that have been his undoing in the past, and how well he deals with the criticism and scrutiny that go with being a real contender.
“Newt has to remain uncommonly disciplined — totally focused, no hissy fits — and continue to be the adult that he has been during the election season so far,” said Ken Duberstein, a former chief of staff in the Reagan White House and a friend of Gingrich’s for more than three decades.
Many of those who know Gingrich are doubtful he will be able to do that. “The worst in Newt comes out when he is doing well,” said a Republican former House colleague, who spoke on the condition of anonymity so he could be frank.
Gingrich allowed that self-control has not exactly been his strong suit in the past.
“That’s true,” said the man who once accused President Obama of having a “Kenyan, anti-colonial” worldview. “Hopefully, I’m going to be more disciplined.”
But he insisted: “I’m much more relaxed and more mature than I was 12 years ago. I have had 12 years to rest and to think and to run small businesses.”
One thing he will not do, Gingrich said, is go on the attack against Romney.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
And your guy can’t open his mouth without blowing himself up. Too bad too. A lot of people thought he’d be a pretty serious player.
C’mon.... this is NOT a time for incompetence. Perry, and now Cain, are really failing to answer questions adequately. Love him or hate him.... at least Newt Gingrich can give thoughtful, in-depth answers to every possible question. Hope you at least have him as an alterante choice to Cain.
Hopefully?
Heard Cain on The Laura Ingraham radio show and he was excellent. No delay in his answers...no brain freezes. He just was right on target and truthful. I believe the more the American voters hear him...the more they will select him as the best man for the job. He was very disciplined today and I think when he does go off...it will be at the media and the play backs by the msm will only hurt them and not Newt. The next debate on tuesday evening should prove to be very interesting
CORRECTION....LOL...CAIN FREEZES ARE CONTAGIOUS..MAKE THAT I HEARD NEWT ON THE LAURA INGRAHAM SHOW
presidio9, I believe Newt will be very much alive in SC. I think Romney will take NH...so many from Mass moved into the Granite State and it is Romney country. If Cain keeps making blunders on foreign policy and associating with shady people like Brazil..and people get wind of his many zone issues...he will be going way down in the polls.
However, anything can and will happen...this has been one hell of a campaign and time will tell
Newt had his chance as a leader and he blew it big time. President ? You’ve got to be joking. An almost 70-year old White guy on his third marriage who has a nasty habit of pissing off Conservatives ain’t gonna motivate the base to toss out Zero. Herman Cain can.
Indeed. Same old, same old. These freepers pushing false conservative saviors are no different than the RATs memerized by Obama's "hope n' change" message when the only thing he brought to Illinois during his years in the state Senate and U.S. Senate were more corruption and higher taxes.
Perry spends a decade as Texas governor growing state government and rewarding illegals, but somehow as President he'll "take a sledgehammer to Washington" and seal the border. The Al Gore & Rudy Giuliani endorsing former Democrat was ALWAYS a good Reagan conservative, dontsa know. And the fact he wins by plurality against laughable opponents in a safe Republican state makes him "electable" in the other 49 states, of course.
Newt gets his @$$ handed to him on a silver platter by Clinton when we put him in charge of the legislative branch and embarrasses us on a regular basis with his scandals and sucking up to liberals, but if we put him in charge of the executive branch he'll crush the Dems, restore America and govern with honor and integrity. The philandering Georgia Bapist is REALLY a good Catholic boy from "Virginia" now. And the fact the number of Americans that have a unfavorable view of Gingrich is sky high means he will somehow "destroy Obama" in a general election.
Ah, but freepers can ignore their careeer record and engage in blissful fantasies. Well, sorry guys, these GOP establishment types ain't gonna turn this nation around. Or, as Al Gore once put it, " a zebra cannot change its spots"
Indeed. Same old, same old. These freepers pushing false conservative saviors are no different than the RATs memerized by Obama's "hope n' change" message when the only thing he brought to Illinois during his years in the state Senate and U.S. Senate were more corruption and higher taxes.
Perry spends a decade as Texas governor growing state government and rewarding illegals, but somehow as President he'll "take a sledgehammer to Washington" and seal the border. The Al Gore & Rudy Giuliani endorsing former Democrat was ALWAYS a good Reagan conservative, dontsa know. And the fact he wins by plurality against laughable opponents in a safe Republican state makes him "electable" in the other 49 states, of course.
Newt gets his @$$ handed to him on a silver platter by Clinton when we put him in charge of the legislative branch and embarrasses us on a regular basis with his scandals and sucking up to liberals, but if we put him in charge of the executive branch he'll crush the Dems, restore America and govern with honor and integrity. The philandering Georgia Bapist is REALLY a good Catholic boy from "Virginia" now. And the fact the number of Americans that have a unfavorable view of Gingrich is sky high means he will somehow "destroy Obama" in a general election.
Ah, but freepers can ignore their careeer record and engage in blissful fantasies. Well, sorry guys, these GOP establishment types ain't gonna turn this nation around. Or, as Al Gore once put it, " a zebra cannot change its spots"
(1/3) Newt Gingrich: "Phoney War" - Full Speech
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NrqeNZUTEIE&feature=related
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(2/3) Newt Gingrich: " Phoney War" - Full Speech
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkWFDlNNhh4&feature=related
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(3/3) Newt Gingrich: "Phoney War" - Full Speech
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JT2Z-C5gQnQ&feature=related
You seem to be confusing Herman Cain with Rick Perry. Cain usually does well on the stump, made a couple of mistakes, but he's still polling well. Perry, on the other hand, is a human gaffe machine and even when he's "on message", people think he sounds "drunk".
At this point in time it looks like a choice between Newt and Mitt.
This is disappointing to me, as I was hoping Cain or Palin would pull a rabbit out of a hat.
Reality bites, but not as hard as four more years of Obozo.
Another thing, too, with the Gingrich Groupies hammering Cain on foreign policy “gaffes”, I hate to break it to them, but the public doesn’t much care about foreign policy (partly as a result of the fact that the MSM news media devotes very little time to it... most people don’t KNOW what is going on with respect to it... a Cain “gaffe” would tend to be met with a shrug by the average voter). Nobody can seriously claim that Cain WON’T have the best and most informed people on all the subjects he’ll be required to deal with as President in order to make the right decisions on policy.
Indeed. Same old, same old. These freepers that seem to inhabit every thread spewing angry invective at Newt want a perfect candidate. A perfect candidate does not exist. The contest is now between Newt and Mitt, so there really is no other choice and Newt will do just fine. We know his sins and they are many, but maybe he has learned. He has clawed his way back and I respect that.
There are still many millions of primary and caucus votes to count before the nomination is settled and most of these voters have never heard of FreeRepublic and are influenced by many, many things outside of your control. Deal with it.
Nope. Don't want a perfect candidate, I want a decent conservative. There are many, MANY decent conservative politicians in America, although many of them not running for President. I have said over and over which presidential candidates are decent conservatives but the freepers touting the flavor of the week simply ignore it. Guys like Donald Trump, Rick Perry, and Newt Gingrich are not on my decent conservative list and never will be. Their fan clubs are apparently upset that their guy didn't make the list so they scream "PURIST!!" if I point out why their candidates suck.
>> The contest is now between Newt and Mitt, so there really is no other choice <<
And last month it was a "two-way contest between Cain and Mitt". The month before that it was a "two-way contest between Perry and Mitt". The month before that it was a "two-way contest between Bachmann and Mitt". Are you seeing a pattern here? Unfortuantely for Newt fans, the election isn't being held today.
>> Newt will do just fine. <<
Not if I can help it, he won't. Perrybots learned that the hard way when they were gloating about their man was THE "anti-Romney candidate" and nobody else had a chance so he might as well get used to the chance that the only choices in 2012 will be Slick Mitt or La Raza Rick.
>> We know his sins and they are many, but maybe he has learned. <<
It's up to God to forgive sins, I don't. And speaking as a lifelong Catholic, I don't buy Newt's "Catholic epiphany" for one second. Newt found religion simply because his third wife is a Catholic and it was to his political advantage to become Catholic, not because of any deep spiritual awakening. Thankfully his third wife wasn't Muslim or he might have "found Muhammad".
>> He has clawed his way back and I respect that. <<
No, he hasn't. He's been out of office since 1999 and remains so in 2011 (and I'm one of the freepers who remembers all too clearly what kind of "leadership" he showed from 1995-1998). He's just remained in the spotlight since that time and fooled people with "American solutions" BS (I had to force them to take me off their phone list a while back because they kept calling and begging me for money after I told them I would never give Newt a cent). I have more respect for combiner dopes like Dennis Hastert who take the hint that their time has past and fade away from the public eye (although he too, continues to back RINOs behind the scenes)
Explain to us, o wise one, how a career politician and establishment suck-up, one who is nearly 70 (Dole/McCain age range), and thrice-married is going to somehow motivate Conservatives and Independents ? How will this same man similarly break the stranglehold by the Democrats on the non-White vote and lead them off the plantation ?
He had an unbelievable opportunity in 1995 to set a new standard for Conservative leadership and he summarily failed after barely a year and became a viscerally unpopular laughing stock who had to quit Congress because he couldn’t even get from his own party enough votes to hold on to a third term as Speaker despite having a majority.
Newt may be a “smart guy” and good debater, but he carries all of that baggage from the public to the private, and basically seems to lack a lot of common sense. I might remind you that those who ignore history, as you are doing in angrily committing yourself to his cause, are doomed to repeat it. Some of us can quite realize that. Hopefully for our party and our country, this uptick of the moment portends nothing more than a flavor of the week.
In addition, I am not at all interested in a national sales tax.
At this point, why bother ?
The Mitt Brigade isn't going to lose voters, and it doesn't look like he's gaining voters, basically, he's a liberal rino, who has locked up the liberal rino votes.
Newt has a point, that its the other 75% or so, he needs to go after. Those people don't want to vote for Romney, if he wants to win, he has to get them, if he goes after them and he gets them, he'll win, and he doesn't need to attack Mittens to do it. When you have 75% of voters not wanting to vote for a guy, your work attacking that guy is already done, mission accomplished, now you just need to give them a reason to vote for you, instead of staying home or voting for someone else.
That said, if Romney gets the nomination, that means the tea party is over, the movement is impotent, if a liberal running in a GOP primary can win the nomination, meaning get the votes, then the tea party is a joke.
Stars & Stripes listed Cain’s qualifications, and those are enormously substantial. It’s “painfully obvious” to the rest of us that Newt is a has-been and a failed leader. He had his chance and blew it. Sell a thrice-married career politician to the social Conservative base and see where that gets you. Not interested.
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