Posted on 11/21/2011 12:49:44 PM PST by TBBT
At our sister site Townhall.com, Greg Hengler has curated a series of stand-out responses from newfound frontrunner Newt Gingrich at this weekend’s Thanksgiving Family Forum, a non-debate discussion that elicited refreshingly thoughtful and unexpectedly revealing answers from all the candidates in attendance (i.e. the field minus Mitt Romney and Jon Huntsman).
Of Gingrich’s answers replayed in Hengler’s videos, this is my favorite, an elegant differentiation of the general ideas of the Enlightenment and the specific (and damaging) ideas of the French Revolution:
I knew it was about to be a brilliant answer as soon as Gingrich mentioned Arthur Brooks, whose book The Battle profoundly confirms capitalism and conservatism as the optimal means to human flourishing. But when he addressed Ron Paul by his first name and proceeded to say, “I don’t think liberty means ‘libertine,’” I sat up a little straighter in my seat. This answer is full of the fruit of Gingrich’s meticulous study of history — but also of his personal conversion.
To that topic, Newt also spoke eloquently when moderator Frank Luntz asked the candidates to expound on their greatest failures:
“I had to recognize how limited I was and how much I had to depend on Him,” Gingrich said before he admitted that he would be uncomfortable with a president who didn’t believe in God. “If you said to me we were electing somebody who believed that they by themselves were strong enough to be president of the United States, I would tell you that person terrifies me because they completely misunderstand how weak and how limited any human being is.”
Gingrich clearly and keenly grasps that the presidency is a repository of resplendent power and authority, but not the source of it. At the very least, the source is “the people,” those who give their consent to be governed. At the very most, the source is Thomas Aquinas’ First Cause. That helps Gingrich to understand that anyone who seeks the power of the presidency for himself in some way disqualifies himself from possessing it. So, he seeks to just be a vessel for it.
All of this should be reassuring to anyone who wonders why the GOP field is “so weak.” It’s weak because it’s made up of imperfect and flawed human beings. Our only choices are human: What we seek in a president, then, is not a savior, but a servant. Humility has to be among our criteria — and that, at least, many of our candidates — Gingrich among them — seem to possess.
Yeah, the realization Newt is our Bill Clinton. Don’t look at the substance of Newt, just worship his style.
Newts hog slopping ego leaves no room for humility, or humanity either. A man of humility does not go to the hospital to talk about his divorce with his wife just having an operation..
Cain-hater Tina Korbe now worshiping Newt. “Latest greatest” clips, while of course ignoring his not-so-old worst hits which show his ridiculous lies and hypocrisy.
Sorry, newt admits he went to the hospital to talk to her about the divorce and also that he refused to make support payment to her and the children. The so called lie was her on her death bed, she lived, but newt could have cared less.
http://www.creators.com/conservative/jackie-gingrich-cushman/setting-the-record-straight.html
You might read this if you seek the truth, but I doubt you do. You would rather believe the BS put out.
The real truth is that today Gingrich’s ex wife would probably be in jail.
When they married he was 18, just out of High school and she was 26 his school teacher.
As a high school student — precocious, lonely, overweight — Newt secretly romanced his geometry teacher, a buxom, matronly woman named Jackie Battley. The furtive romance with his 24-year-old teacher included nighttime sessions in the back of a car in remote areas of Fort Benning, Ga.
Once, Newt and Jackie were so worked up, they got their car caught in a tank trap on the military base and had to call his best friend to rescue them before a daylight exposé, according to the friend’s widow, Linda Tilton. Defying his stepfather, a stern Army colonel, Newt pursued Jackie, married her and promptly had two children.
http://www.mediaite.com/online/newt-gingrich-really-married-his-high-school-math-teacher/
Before you attack something you don’t know about maybe you should look it up.
I am a compromiser too...after I have completely subdued and beaten my opponent...I will offer compromise, if you stay out of my way and out of my face, I will stop beating on you. Win Win...I will be happy and you will heal.
You can NOT listen to those two clips and say there is no substance.
LMAO!
News flash................there aint no Jesus candidate so we will have to take it down a notch!
How’s the weather up there on your high horse?
Hahaha...It doesn’t take long does it? Everytime someone posts an excellent one on Newt, that is profound and clearly defines an issue, we have someone like yourself who throws something totally mischaracterized out of left field to dump on the man.
Newt has taken hits. Clinton took hits. So did Nixon and others who in my mind can lead.
I think the more thrown at Newt the more he will respond in a way where we will learn from him.
I learned nothing from the man in office now. Nothing from Bush either for that matter other than he was good and descent man who protected us, but he didn’t know how to deal with the left.
We need someone strong, who has been there and done it. Newt is not perfect, but he is the most perfect for our country now.
Go back and look at your history. He got the entire Contract With America through and didn’t compromise with anybody. The problem was that after that, the Dems had their knives out for him and the GOP head honchos simply didn’t support him. They could hardly wait to get him out the door on trumped up insinuations, not even charges (about a class he taught and a book he wrote). He was then replaced by some truly worthless RINOs.
Gingrich doesn’t bluster, doesn’t alienate unnecessarily - but he does have a plan and he does get his way (until the RINOs attack).
I suppose if you have your mind made up to hate Newt that is one way of putting it. LMAO
No sense in beating a dead horse.
Newt is entertaining. The debates are more interesting with his remarks.
The contract with America was not the be all and end all of Newt.
Go back and look at Newts history, you will find that for Newt the contract with America was the exception not the rule.
Don't be fooled by good words and fair speeches my friend.
However, I still have some major reservations about Gingrich. I watched the L-D style debate between Cain and Gingrich and am severely troubled by one of his responses during that discussion. He was talking about social security, and what troubled me about his response, is that he was taking the party line that there is some kind of account full of cash that is contained in the social security 'trust fund'. He didn't put it in exactly those words, but that's what is response boiled down to. He flatly refused to admit that the social security trust fund contains nothing more or less than the sweat of our children and grandchildren. The absolute lie that this 'trust fund' contains something more than the ability of the government to continue to increase the level of taxation levied on our posterity is reprehensible in my not so humble opinion. It illustrates to me that he isn't up to the challenge that we are faced with, and that is disappointing because there are many things I like about Newt. I'm finding it difficult though, to overcome his obvious fundamental difference in worldview from mine.
Free Republic is essentially a parody in this particular window...i pray it changes back to normalcy
A cadre of a few ...some of whom were very ugly on behalf of Palin are now very angry Cain and Perry have collapsed
And are basically having a temper tantrum in a vacuum of irrelevance
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