[VinL]

"On the eve of Florida’s increasingly raucous GOP primary, Gingrich is settling once more into the familiar, against-all-odds role he’s always relished, from his storied days as House speaker to his early campaigns to his childhood, when the chubby, awkward Newtie would pretend to get beat up by a friend and lie on the sidewalk until a car pulled up. “Newt would jump up and scream ‘Surprise!’ ” the friend told Time magazine in 1995, adding that it was always Newt who wanted to play dead."

Newt's got them where he wants them! -:)

[JediJones]

That’s funny. I think I’m psychologically similar to Newt in a lot of ways (for starters we’re both geeky, book-smart kids who grew up in Pennsylvania). I think I understand why he sometimes makes a very bold statement that is not predigested for mass consumption and puts himself out on a limb. What he’s trying to do is challenge himself. He wants to put himself on a tightrope in a precarious position so that he’s motivated to use all his skills and abilities to get himself back on secure ground from a very tough position. I have a lot of fun saying something that seems outrageous and crazy, shocking people, and then proceeding to explain to them in a completely logical fashion why what I initially said really made perfect sense and wasn’t ridiculous at all. Of course that applies more to instances when he scares the small, timid minds out there with phrases like “right-wing social engineering” than what happened this week, which was more of an external barrage.