My take is that we really don't have any good candidates. There is no Ronald Reagan II, no Marco Rubio, no Sarah Palin running this time around.Probably won't be either.
We have a bunch of wannbes who all have potential of varying degrees.
Of the bunch Newt may be the smartest.
Does he always do the right thing? Hardly.
Can we beat him up? Light a fire under his ass and get him to do the right thing?
That is the 64k question.I say yes,maybe.
Newt is smart enough to at least know that when we tell him not to compromise with the left just to be getting along he dam sure better do it,will he? I don't know.
Will the rest do the right thing? Do the rest have the political expertise that Newt has?
It's a crap shoot.
Choose your candidate.
When he becomes President, you have no power. How, exactly, do you “light a fire under his tail?” And if you can do that, why didn’t you “light a fire under Bush’s tail?”
Your post is right on. You are asking EXACTLY the right questions.
Will conservatives have any leverage over a President Gingrich? I don't know and that's not a good thing.
Look. His "reaching out to Democrats" goes back a long way. But his two most colorful examples happened recently, after the Tea Party movement was already the conservative zeitgeist, and likely after Gingrich had already decided to run for President: the global warming thing with Pelosi in 2008 and the "Education Tour" with Sharpton in 2009.
What conservative in his right mind, or even an "intellectual conservative" who is smart enough to know he "must" pander to the conservative movement, tries to gain street-cred with Dems by doing those things?
Sure, Newt has said the couch thing with Pelosi was "dumb."
Many conservatives just accept that at face value.
My question is, since Newt is so smart and politically savvy, how come he didn't realize that was "dumb" until conservatives punished him for it? Same with calling Ryan's plan "right-wing social engineering," etc.
Just last Monday, Gingrich told voters in Iowa that his first act as President would be to reach out to Democrats.
Is this a politically benign phrase when Newt says it?
And for everyone who is supporting Newt because they are ga-ga over his debate performances, the fact is that Attack Newt won't be able to live at the White House. He'll have to have his Press Secretary try to do that.
Moreover, When Newt says “reach out to the Dems,” we all know that he knows what we know, that is, that the Dems INCLUDE THE MSM. Um, so where does that leave those who voted for Newt because he whupped up on Maria Bartiromo?