Posted on 11/17/2011 6:43:59 PM PST by SeekAndFind
When Richard M. Nixon ran for the Republican presidential nomination in 1968, he faced a daunting problem: A lot of voters just didn't like him. Nixon had made his name in politics as an angry, partisan hatchet man, famous for lashing out against Democrats and the news media. To win the presidency, he needed to find a way to soften that too-harsh image.
In the months before the 1968 primaries, Nixon's campaign staged gauzy television segments that showed the candidate gently answering questions from ordinary citizens, not pesky reporters. In a nation that was divided by domestic crises and the war in Vietnam, Nixon stressed positive themes and "the lift of a driving dream." Reporters wrote about a "New Nixon" and voters who were rallying to his cause.
Now, almost half a century later, another not-always-lovable conservative is trying to stage a similar comeback: Newt Gingrich. This week's polls show Gingrich, whose candidacy was once given up for dead, in a virtual tie with former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.
Part of the reason, as Gingrich himself says, is simple process of elimination: Conservative voters have tried out a succession of other candidates — Tim Pawlenty, Michele Bachmann, Rick Perry, Herman Cain — and found each wanting.
But there's another reason for Gingrich's rise: He doesn't sound as angry as he once did. We appear to be witnessing "New Newt."
Old Newt — Angry Newt, the one who entered the presidential campaign last spring — talked in apocalyptic terms about threats to American culture. Old Newt wrote about "a secular-socialist machine" led by the Democratic Party that "represents as great a threat to America as Nazi Germany or the Soviet Union once did."
"If we do not decisively win the struggle over the nature of America," he warned,
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
They want to rough him up enough to remind conservatives how much he has disgusted them at various times over the years, but not so much that his path to the nomination is destroyed.
Here's my theory:
Did she talk about what happens next?
She goes out with the guy and then marries him. Uh-huh. The day after the wedding she sees new hubby reaching across the aisle to play footsie with her old nemesis. She wakes up screaming: WHAT WAS I THINKING?? NOW I REMEMBER WHY I DROP-KICKED THIS LOSER!!
Gawd, I feel like I’m in the teen section on Facebook when I hear people who disagree with a candidate’s views, positions or record automatically called “haters.”
Sad, but still kinda funny.
How can Newt give a “Checkers” speech when Callista wears $45,000 necklaces from Tiffany’s? LOL
(And, no, I am not making that price up. The New York Times said so.)
I don’t forget that.
But I don’t have a selective memory, either.
And I’d vote for Gingrich. But he would be one pain-in-the-butt heartburn-inducing rollercoaster-ride “bipartisan” POTUS, just like he’s always been.
But if you admit that, then you don't get to call people "haters" (or is it H8Rs), you know, like the cool kids and the alternate lifestyle peeps do!
Gingrich was never as "angry" as the demogogues played him out to be. You have to bear in mind, "angry" is an epithet used by the Lefwingers to disparage normal people who are indignant at what they see being done to the country.
"The New Dick...it's short, it's sweet and everyone wants to see it."
I think when people see that Newt keeps him promises as in say the Contract With America. When they see that he reduced government spending, balanced the Federal Budget and reformed welfare they just might conclude that Newt is the kind of insider they would like to see back in the inside.
thinly disguised to link a person with a thoroughly disgraced one -
too many of you are falling for it. The media still rules the day...
Not if the people with brains and deep regard for their country vote for someone else. Newt is a liberal. A tiger does not change it’s stripes. If they try it washes off in the next rainfall!
And I’d vote for Gingrich. But he would be one pain-in-the-butt heartburn-inducing rollercoaster-ride “bipartisan” POTUS, just like he’s always been.”
Yep. But he wouldn’t be a jugeared Marxist Kenyan.
LOL! It’s not over until it’sover!
I’m thinking maybe you meant Newt is the quintessential, archetypal or consummate insider [with which I would agree]. ‘Penultimate’ means ‘second to last in a series’, such as, ‘Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince’ is the penultimate book in the series.
Yesterday I read a comparison of Newt to Churchill.
Now a comparison to Nixon.
I think the Churchill comparison is more apt.
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