Posted on 11/17/2011 2:25:24 PM PST by TitansAFC
As the debates accumulate, it becomes more and more evident that Newt Gingrich’s intellect, experience, articulateness and depth of knowledge elevate him to the top of the GOP field. Anyone should be happy to pay admission to watch him duel with President Obama in debate! He’s not as charismatic as Herman Cain or as smooth as Mitt Romney, but boy, does he have a brain!
Ever since the campaign started, Newt has always gotten in his own way. Now he has graciously stepped aside and let his creativity and intellect shine through.
Earlier in the debates, he bit the questioners’ heads off in a pique of surly crankiness. No longer. Now he just answers the questions as they come, often hitting them out of the ballpark. His perspective and insights are penetrating and his condescension has vanished (or at least is sublimated).
Unfortunately, he does owe some of his current surge to the unsubstantiated and vague charges against Cain. While Republicans generally dismiss these charges, they worry that they will hurt him in November should he win the nomination. Herman will recover. His positive solutions for our economy will lift him back into the top tier of contention. Michele Bachmann might also come back, lifted by a tide of opposition to any tax increases embedded in the deficit-reduction supercommittee’s recommendations.
But any recovery by Cain or Bachmann will not bump Newt from the top tier. The likely result of the debate process is to bequeath to Iowa three or four contending candidates and leave it to them to sort out.
If Newt is the candidate, will his personal baggage drag him down? It will hurt, no doubt about that. His marriages will be dissected by the media, and his family will be deluged with questions and well-laid traps.
His ratings will decline as the inevitable baptism of fire begins. As with Cain, he will experience a few bad weeks. But, as with Cain, his positive strengths will carry him through the fire and he will come out the other end.
But once Newt survives the process, he will be inoculated against the charges. He will have immunity against the issue.
And here is the core of Obama’s problem. All of the Republican candidates will be so thoroughly vetted — and purified — by the brutal process they are going through that they will be immune to his charges against them in the fall.
John Kerry never went through that process. His quick knockout of Howard Dean and the tepid challenge mounted by John Edwards did nothing to vet his claims of hero status in Vietnam.
Obama, on the other hand, survived the Rev. Jeremiah Wright and Bill Ayers charges in the primary. When the general election came, they were old hat and had no electoral punch. Similarly, Bill Clinton got the nomination only after he had survived Gennifer Flowers and the accusations of draft-dodging. In November, those charges were spent bullets.
That’s the good news for Republicans. The nominating process has been so combative and the media scrutiny so searing that the candidates have been pre-screened. The FBI screening process is nowhere near as intense as the negative-research capacities of the media and political opponents.
If nominated, Romney will have survived the accusations of flip-flopping, Cain will have overcome the sexual harassment charges and Newt’s marital history will be yesterday’s news. And then we can get on with the business of winning the election.
And win it we will. Obama cannot survive his 60 percent disapproval rating on his handling of the economy (the highest ever recorded by CBS during his administration). Under his leadership, Gallup reports an almost 10-point edge for the Republican Party on handling the economy. Against a generic opponent, Obama draws only 43 percent of the vote. With the personal negatives on the Republican candidates aired and used up during the primaries, there will be nothing for Obama to hide behind.
LOL. At 68 I think you can put your worries at ease.
Actually that started as far back as the 60s, with Marianne Ginther.
Gaack! LOL
Oops! I meant 80s.
I agree, it is pretty grotesque.
I would vote for Newt. I’m definately not voting for Obama. Not Voting is a vote for Obama.
I would vote for Newt. I’m definately not voting for Obama. Not Voting is a vote for Obama.
We don't need a "smarter" President. We need one that's principled enough to stay on message even in his own home. Newt's already proved that he can stick to his political principles about as well as he sticks to his moral ones.
Newt NEVER lied and his children support him completely. You know, the children by the woman he supposedly dumped while she was "dying" of cancer. Oh, she also supports him.
Newt's not Lincoln, but he masterminded the first Republican control of Congress in 40 years and he stopped the Clinton Socialist agenda in its tracks. He deserves people's respect if not their votes.
We The People are hungering for a Patton-style politician who has the gonads to tell us the truth about the corruption in this Regime, the corruption in this Congress, the corruption on Wall Street, the corruption in the thug unions, the corruption at every level of government in this country including all the DC agencies filled with sewer RATs. We The People are waiting for a candidate who has the spine and guts to call for investigations into every aspect of the DC corruption. Let the investigations, trials, and prison time begin.
The candidate who has the guts to take on the amoral, sleaze in office today will win our votes.
Thank you, Titans AFC,
for posting and for pinging me.
The road ahead is hard and tough,
but hopefully, we have enough
intelligence among the troops
to hunker through the latest scoops
and not be blinded by bad news
that tries to shape and twist our views.
At least we won’t get quite so p!ssed
if you can ping the Gingrich list!
“;^)
How soon we have forgotten one of our goals was to get the insiders out of Washington and get some new blood in there.
Of course, the one we have is criticized for his lack of insider experience....go figure.
You and others seem to have a fetish for that sort of thing. If you didn't, you wouldn't be reading and commenting on Morris' columns.
I'll take a man who knows how to surround himself with the right people that I CAN TRUST vs a smart guy who has all the answers and will screw me as soon as I turn around.
Re your post 17, I agree. The Newt haters have no substantive argument. All they can do is reference “affairs” and yet they don’t give any details so that we can know what a scumbag the man is.
And I fail to see any connection between the man’s personal life and his ability to serve. Please elucidate on the connection.
Spamming is frownded upon here n00b
Absolutely!!!!!!!!!! Newt is the best candidate we have running! He will make a great president.
Uh, Cobra64, don’t you get tired to talking about Dick Morris’s possible emotional problem? What the hell does it have to do with the man’s ability to analyze politics?
Oops, sorry. I misread your post. My comment applies to all those who just delight in making toe refeences.
How about this, if a man cannot keep a promise to his wife, how can you trust him to keep a promise to his electorate?
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