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 ...
His level of experience and intellect, is not only without equal, it is extremely rare.
Ideology can be a beautiful thing. I say “can be” because Obama has an ideology.
But an ideology alone is not self-fulfilling. Countless other factors must be brought into play to take an ideology from concept to reality. Cain no experience here. Gingrich does.
That inability in Cain scares me more than a guy with a history, but whose abilities and insights are so monumental that he has remained in demand at the highest levels of government for over a decade. People don’t pay Gingrich $1M to acquire an ideology. They pay him for his advice on how to ADVANCE an already existing (their own) ideology.
That is Gingrich’s “art.” That’s why he was a successful Speaker. That’s why he remains in demand. He knows how to get big things done.
Just my opinion...
So Newt gets a complete pass from you but not Sarah Palin, right?
Heh. The early cult of Donald Trump at the start of this election cycle has sprung true successor movements on FR. During the Trump hype, ANYTHING he said or did in his ENTIRE career prior to 2011 was irrelevant because he says he's a patriotic tea party reformer now and we should take him at his word that he woke up one day out of the blue and became a devoutly conservative believer. Trashing the Reagan years in 1987 as a failure, strongly supporting abortion and Canadian style socialized medicine, calling for the government to "tax the rich" more, giving millions to leftist Democrats over the years, calling Bush the worst President ever, hailing Obama's election as President and calling Pelosi "the greatest", announcing he was leaving the GOP in 1999 because it was 'too conservative', saying he self-identifies as "more of a Democrat" in 2004, all irrelevant. Only pay attention to what he says now, not what he's done over the last 30 years.
Now we have Newtsters saying the same thing about their con man.
And of course with the Trump people, if you quoted The Donald's OWN words, verbatim, it was an "anti-Trump smear". Perry supporters said the same thing when Perry's own words were quoted and showed him in a less-than-conservative light.
I wonder if we'll start hearing that Newt Gingrich is "the ONLY man in America with the guts to take on Obama, so I'm giving him a serious look". That was the classic pro-Trump line, about time someone recycles it.
It's already happening. I saw several posts saying this exact thing yesterday!
Cool! I didn't know it was Opposite Day today. I'll try a few variations on this word game:
---------------------------------------------
Jesse Jackson avoids discussing race-related issues.
Obama is probably the most experienced President we've ever elected.
Billy Graham is America's most prominent atheist.
Ronald Reagan is universally loathed by conservative Republicans and only carried a single state in his 1984 bid for President.
--------------------------------------------
Opposite Day is fun!
Ok. Two more questions, even though I am still waiting for your answer to my first one ; }
To what do you account the success of the companies Cain managed, if he has “no experience” in taking his ideology from concept to reality?
What do you believe Gingrich’s ideology is? As I said upthread, Newt has shown himself to be, at his core, a political animal, who says and does whatever is politically expedient,(and jus’ sayin’ - the fact that he remains “in demand” amongst his fellow political animals does not give me a moments comfort. Spinning being paid to sell Republicans on Fannie and Freddie truly is an ART ; ).
I also imagine that it wouldn’t be much of a stretch to offer that his ideology just might be irreparably tied to the idea that the solutions to our problems are found within government, as opposed to the radical concept that government IS the problem ; }.
FRegards and may God guide our course.
Tatt
Close, but no cigar.
Just a second account.
Can't imagine why a member in good standing would want to skulk around under a newly created false identity to try to fool us ...
So Newt gets a complete pass from you but not Sarah Palin, right?
VIRGINIA RIDGERUNNER, YOU COULDN'T HELP YOURSELF!
Newt plays the part he picks for himself very well. It’s just that the part he plays changing with the weather. He never quite gets out of left of center however.
It would be easier to go to thedougobanskishow.com and scroll down to Newt. He used to have a plethora of videos on him there, but it may have been reduced to writing by now. There is just too much to list here.
When you’re the CEO of a corporation and you lay down your ideology, it is the ONLY ideology that exists. Your job as boss is to execute. You don’t have BOD members sitting with different ideologies. You don’t have subordinates sitting with ideologies designed to destroy you. You’re made CEO and your ideology is the only one in existence. You’re made CEO in the first place because the BOD believes you have the ability to execute. In Cain’s case at God Fathers, he was successful.
Unfortunately, it’s a bit more complicated in government. You have multiple ideologies all existing at the same time and you have proponents of those ideologies who are more than willing to cheat, steal and plunder to make sure their ideology prevails over yours. Just look at what’s going on in Washington right now. You have to pass Obamacare to see what’s in it. You have a super-committee of 12 whose going to tell this country how it’s going down??? The WH is using the Constitution like a worn out door mat. You’ve got a Supreme Court justice who was heavily involved in writing Obamacare and who designed the legal strategy to protect it once it went to SCOTUS. And Kagan will not recuse herself?
Is there is an impression of a conflict of Interest? Of Course! All of these goings on are designed to ram an ideology down our throats whether we want it or not. They don’t care. They only want more power and so far they’re doing a pretty good job of it.
And into this you’re going to drop a NEWB like Herman Cain whose bringing with him his conservative ideology??? And the world is simply going to lay down and do the salamy-salamy-baloney for Herman cause he’s a nice guy and people like him. And because he’s black and a Christian?
Are you crazy?
This game is for keeps and Cain is ill-prepared to advance his ideology in a snake pit like this.
On the other hand, Gingrich IS prepared for all of this because it’s his business. And very few are around who have more ability than he does, if any. He’s been so successful that people pay him very big money to be told how to advance their own agendas.
Like I said before. The ideology is only the starting point. The real work is making it happen. Cain didn’t have rival CEOs with competing ideologies at God Fathers. As president he’d be operating at a level he is not prepared for. He has the ideology but he doesn’t have the experience to pull it off. He’d be eaten alive.
That’s my feeling. I know you disagree and that’s fine. That’s what forums are for.
Without equal AND extremely rare!? No way...
Newt is a proven idiot and failure. Rick Santorum has experience and common sense. Maybe you were referring to him?
Santorum is my first choice of the eight, but nobody considers him after he was snookered by GWB and Specter.
IL1949 posted - “”That’s my feeling. I know you disagree and that’s fine. That’s what forums are for.””
In full agreement there, but I still would very much like to hear your take on Newt’s conversion to Tea Partyism - the when, where. (I think we can pretty well guess why ; } It was just stunning to watch him defend a candidate who was SO out there as a RINO that when she was defeated, she would encourage her supporters to vote for the Democrat! And this was in 2010 in the full ascendency Tea Party : o
So once more, here is my original question - Can you explain how what Newt says today jives with what he said in 2010, when he was backing Dede Scozzafava over Hoffman, the Tea Party candidate?
Thanks in advance.
Tatt
I can’t answer your question with specifics. I just don’t know. But I do know the founder of Tea Party Nation, Judson Phillips, endorsed Newt some time ago. I don’t know how that sets with other Tea Party members. Maybe the Tea Partiers, as a group, find Cain and Bachman more to their liking, but if it comes down to Mittens vs Newt I’m pretty sure which way they’ll go. What do you think?
One more thing and I’m not defending Gingrich here. He’s been an extremely visible and extremely active guy in Washington for over 3 decades. Sometimes you make mistakes. Sometimes you do things that follow you and haunt you.
Dude, you sound like a press release for the Gingrich Campaign. JimRob summed him up best..., “Newt is smart, quick on his feet, a good debater, but otherwise is a genuine phony.”
9 posted on Wednesday, November 16, 2011 2:56:09 PM by Jim Robinson
everything melted today for Cain in NH.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republican_Party_(United_States)_presidential_primaries,_2012#Calendar
the calendar of primaries is on that page.
COL & MINN are on 2/7, they will be part of the discussion soon. Or sooner. Or whatever.
Newt Gingrich is “the ONLY man in America with the guts to take on Obama, so I’m giving him a serious look”.
LOL.
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