Posted on 11/16/2011 2:16:46 PM PST by TitansAFC
He's baaack! Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich is back in the saddle after falling off his horse at the starting line.
At least according to one poll (Public Policy Polling), Gingrich is actually the GOP front-runner.
Many say it's simply Gingrich's turn to be the not-Mitt contender, now that Michele Bachmann, Rick Perry and Herman Cain have had their chances.
But that's not entirely fair. Gingrich has been relentlessly seducing GOP voters in the debates.
Romney may have been winning on points and technicalities, but Gingrich has been consistently winning the crowds.
Moreover, he's been deftly using the debates to develop a sales pitch to GOP voters.
The core of his strategy has been to plant a question in the minds of Republican voters: "Whom would you most like to see debate Barack Obama?"
In each debate, he keeps mentioning how he wants to challenge the president to as many Lincoln-Douglas-style debates as possible.
And if the presidential baloney won't march into the Gingrichian grinder? Well then, the grinder will come to the baloney.
Gingrich vows to follow Obama on the stump, offering rapid response after every presidential utterance.
It's a brilliant tactic because the unifying conviction among hard-core Republican voters is that Obama is both overrated and full of it, a man pretending to be presidential and intellectual rather than the real thing. (Ironically, Gingrich has long been the subject of similar criticisms, mostly from the left.)
Gingrich's promise to goad Obama into a fair fight is beyond tantalizing.
Talk to rank-and-file conservatives about such a matchup and they grow giddy, like nerds asked if they'd like to see a battle between Darth Vader and Gandalf the wizard.
Ask them if they'd like to see an Obama versus Romney debate and they shrug.
Meanwhile, if you nominate Gingrich, you'll get a ticket to the fight of the century.
The risk for Gingrich is that primary voters may eventually recognize what he's up to. After all, as a purely practical matter, the point of picking a Republican nominee isn't to find the candidate who can beat Obama in a debate but to pick the nominee who can beat Obama in an election (oh, and be a good president too, a worthy subject for another day).
Winning debates is great and important - as Perry has painfully learned - but they are a means to an end, not an end unto themselves.
It's an open question whether Gingrich can defeat Obama in 2012. It's taken as a truism that he has "too much baggage." Well, some of the baggage is lighter than it appears. He was cleared by the Clinton-era Internal Revenue Service of wrongdoing in alleged ethics violations stemming from a college course he taught in the 1990s. The charge that he surprised his cancer-stricken first wife with divorce papers has been, at the least, exaggerated.
But, as with Kim Kardashian's attic, you can throw away a lot of old baggage and still be left with too much for one person to carry.
His marital infidelities, his verbal indiscipline, the strange mix of God and Mammon that is Newt Inc., and his grandiose way of talking about himself as one of the lions of the 20th - and now 21st - century: It may just be too much muchness for voters once they're reminded of it all.
And, oh boy, would they be reminded of it if Gingrich got the nomination.
On the other hand, this could be Gingrich's moment.
Perry was undone by the debates because voters understand that the only way to beat Obama is to take the argument to him, particularly because - from a Republican perspective at least - the mainstream media has little interest in holding Obama accountable.
Maybe it is his time.
Clinton and Gingrich shared cigars over sexual affair war stories ........
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2616681/posts
LOVE IT!!!!
LOL ^5
BULLETIN:
That's the whole strategy - have you not heard Newt explan it? Did you not read the article?
Newt KNOWS he'd never agree to ONE 3-hour debate, let alone several. But obama will look weak - as he is - when he refuses. And THEN, Newt has warned Obama that he will follow him around the country, everywhere he speaks, and give a rebuttal. (This is what Lincoln did until Douglas figured out he was getting skunked so agreed, to late, to debate - to no avail ;o)..) Can't you just imagine the traction that will get. It will become a game - with the country watching. It will INFURIATE obama and gang...
It's brilliant
Great - now put your money where your mouth is.
Who would better go up against "The WON" - and just HOW...
waiting. The floor is yours.
into the sauce a little early tonight?
you demean yourself
There’s only so much you can do when your Republican caucus is wilting like a wet fig leaf.
Remember as well, Clinton had America mesmerized. The polls were HEAVILY against Gingrich & the shut down. Newt couldn’t put it to a vote cause his own side would have voted against it. Not quite melting like a sack of butter.
It is brilliant! Imagine, Fox could make millions by making this into a reality show following the two around & watching Newt do his thing.
Obama will freak out, be watching over his shoulder for Newt at every stop. This is super.
and here’s the REAL kicker.
As we all know, ‘bumbles is using tax payer money to campaign, thinly pretending he’s on official business.
But once there is a Republican candidate - the ‘equal time’ should either kick in or it will be blatantly aware to all that it isn’t being observed and I beleive New could make the American people upset about it - and ‘bumbles would have to reign it in.
Newt, with h is ‘rebuttal’ strategy - following on the heels of every one of ‘bumbles speeches, will get more air time than any republican in our memory...and he knows how to eviscerate the enemy This is shaping up to be fun.
speaking of eviscerating - did you ever see these clips from 3 years ago?
on Pelosi
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACek8xwMpJs&feature=related
on Gore
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7VUg7nG3lw&feature=related
Great strategy on Newt’s part - plus, he’s light in the fundraising, so this is one way to get air time without having to use up funds! It’s like we get Obama’s fundraising funds for OUR guy! I love it!
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