Posted on 11/27/2007 8:40:17 AM PST by John Cena
ABC News' Ed O'Keefe Reports: Newt Gingrich predicts Barack Obama will win the hotly contested vote in Iowa, saying the junior Senator from Illinois will motivate more energized supported than the former First Lady.
"My guess is Senator Obama's going to win Iowa and that he's going to win it by a surprising margin," the former Speaker of the House told ABC News' Diane Sawyer on "Good Morning America".
WATCH THE FULL INTERVIEW HERE. And catch up on all the latest in politics in The Note.
Obama, D-Ill., and Senator Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., will soon roll out the "charisma brigade", dispatching mega-surrogates Bill Clinton, campaigning for his wife, and Oprah Winfrey, making a first and rare foray into the political arena on behalf of Obama, whom the talk superstar has endorsed.
"I think Oprah Winfrey is a remarkable figure," Gingrich told Sawyer, "I think she brings a, not just a celebrity status, but there are millions of people who trust her judgment."
Pressed on whether the Oprah-factor would "tip" the nomination toward Obama, Gingrich replied, "I think it's a significant asset to (Obama) and he's not married to her."
"I think there's a double-edged sword when President Clinton shows up because he also reminds you, do you really want two presidents in the White House? And do you really want Mrs. Clinton to have to rely on President Clinton to have to win?"
In the latest ABC News/Washington Post poll, shows a tight race in the Hawkeye State with Obama at 30 percent over Clinton at 26 percent, and both former Senator John Edwards, D-N.C., and Governor Bill Richardson, D-N.M., trailing with 22 and 11 percent respectively.
Perhaps more significantly, ABC News' Polling Director Gary Langer points out that the poll also showed "most Democratic likely voters in Iowa, 55 percent, say they're more interested in a "new direction and new ideas" than in strength and experience...a help to Obama, who holds a substantial lead among "new direction" voters."
"I have a hunch," Gingrich told Sawyer on "GMA", "that the emotional energy that Senator Obama's building is more powerful than the emotional energy Senator Clinton's building."
The former House Speaker said he has "great respect" for Senator Clinton and the Clinton "machine" but went on to add, "It just seems to me right now, in Iowa at least, Senator Obama's building a really heavy steam."
Much like his hero Alvin Toffler, Gingrich loves making predictions.
Sometimes I think that Newt and Dick Morris drink from the same slipper..............
I predict that in approximately 37 more years, Newt will realize that it is no longer 1994, and that he is an irrelevant has-been.
Then SHE can be the come-back-kid. After that the puppet master will line up a third party “real conservative” candidate and we’ll have another President elected with less than 50% of the vote. Where have I seen this bad movie before?
IN the New York Times,October 17, 2007, they reported “Mr. Gringrich, who shut down the federal government in 1995 in a fit of pique with President Bill Clinton, made a prediction about the 2008 election: Hillary Clinton will likely win.”
I guess if you predict every candidate will win, you can’t be wrong :-)
Obama may win Iowa. But I think Newt is giving Obama Sugar Mama Oprah way too much credit and really dismeaning voters albeit Democrat ones by saying they will be swayed by an Oprah celebrity blitz. Obama could have sealed the deal in Iowa if he had given any kind of solid debate performance in Las Vegas. CNN may have stacked the deck against him, but still his debate performance was very second rate and not ready for prime time.
Gingrich = Johnny Raincloud
I guess we can only pray that Obama will get the nod. He is a true lightweight.
Plus, he seems like someone who would be uncomfortable adopting Clintonian tactics in the general election.
1. Who is Obama?
2. What on earth are people thinking if they believe a 2-bit congressman has the experience to run the last remaining “superpower”?
Why do you have to say it like that Newt? Can't you say Hil-Rod is "formidable", or a "serious threat" or something? "Great respect" is for people who deserve it and you give a measure of creidibility just saying those words. Words have meaning you know.
That's the kind of quote people tend to not only remember, but to repeat.
>> Sometimes I think that Newt and Dick Morris drink from the same slipper..............
LOL! ewwww... gross.
But at least you didn’t say “suck the same toes”.
(chuckle)
Hey, I do have some standards.......
Dems don’t think, they emote. And they support symbolism over substance. All their front-runners are 2-bit pols with no experience. They get to pick which symbol they want: the black man, the woman, or the pretty boy with the sick wife.
Pathetic, isn’t it?
Who doesn't have "great respect" for the Clinton machine?
I'd just rather not take a ride on it, if you know what I mean...
My ex-Congressman certainly is hedging his other predictions:
Gingrich Says Hillary Clinton Is Beatable
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1632228/posts
Newt Gingrich predicts Democrats will choose Clinton-Obama ticket
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1873993/posts
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