He’s getting attacked for it, because really that’s all you got?
Claiming you never divorced, is admirable.. however its not exactly a winning claim either. John Edwards could make that claim during all his electorial bids... how’d that end up? Bill Clinton’s never been divorced either, but he’s run around for decades.
I am personally glad that any couple can stay happily married for the long haul, but does that mean others whos marriages failed are somehow less capable to do a job? Somehow I doubt the logic of that claim.
You just did the same thing. You claim that by stating a positive fact about yourself (I have been married to the same woman for X years), you are attacking everybody who hasn’t, and are calling them “less” than you.
Well, I guess in one sense that is true — every time anybody says anything positive about themselves, I guess it’s an attack on everybody who doesn’t share that positive trait. But to claim it is out-of-bounds to say something good about yourself because it doesn’t apply to the whole world sounds a lot like the liberal mindset that you can’t have competition and grades and “judgment” because if someone wins, someone else must be a “loser”.
And with Gingrich, we aren’t talking about something that was beyond his control. It’s not like his wife just up and left him. He made a choice to break the solemn vow of marriage he previously decided on his own free will to accept. He betrayed her trust, and broke his covenant, and so she left him. That was his choice.
Does that mean he can’t be President? Of course not. It is just a measure of his character like so many other measures of character. If you found out that some guy had gotten a girl pregnant and hadn’t married her and didn’t try to be a part of that kid’s life, would that mean he couldn’t be president? Again no, it’s not a measure of presidential ability, but it might make you question his character.
Gingrich’s actual problems in this regard are from long long ago, and I wouldn’t personally be taking them into much account in making my decisions — I’m much more worried about what Gingrich has done in the past 5 years, not what happened decades ago. But each voter has his own “statute of limitations” — Certainly we judge Romney on things he said in 1994, and some here judged Perry on what he did in 1988, so why wouldn’t some people judge Gingrich on what he did long ago?
If Gingrich had married in 2008, and divorced his wife in 2010, I think it would be pretty clear that this was a problem — he made a promise, and broke it; how can we trust him to keep promises on the campaign trail which are much less personal?
At some point as you move that into the past, it becomes less of a concern — but where that happens is for each voter to decide.