I saw Newt Gingrich almost single-handedly orchestrate the end of 40 years of Democrat rule of the House. Didn’t see much sail-trimming then.
Hank
“I saw Newt Gingrich almost single-handedly orchestrate the end of 40 years of Democrat rule of the House.”
Newt didn’t singlehandedly do a thing. The American people did it and it was a reaction to Hillary care. Newt happened to be in the right place at the tight time.
As for sail trimming, he did that almost immediately when he let Clinton bluff him into caving when the government was shut down over the GOP’s refusal to appropriate the money Clinton wanted. You must have been in Hooterville when that went on.
The bottom line on Newt is that he is a Rockefeller Republican and so identified himself when he was studying at Tulane University in the late 1960s. He was a Bomb Thrower in his early years in the house to get himself noticed. Once he gained power, he became a card carrying member of the Establishment. He was not very effective and his arrogance makes him unelectable nationally.
As far as debating Obama is concerned, did you happen to look at Newt at the SRLC? He will be 70 in 2013 and looks every day of it and he is as big around as Tip O’Neill at his biggest. Leaving aside his arrogance and his political correctness, which Obama will exploit without missing a beat, the man would look awful on stage with the young and athletic Obama. It would be Kennedy and Nixon again but a hundred times worse.