Posted on 12/09/2011 1:31:59 PM PST by Jim Robinson
I posted the below in response to a FReeper who asked me what we should do in regards to progressives Newt and Romney. And he asked me what would George Washington do? So I got to thinking about why I've been gravitating towards Newt. In fact it kept me up for half the night.
Here is my reply:
Well, I’ll tell you, after Palin declined to run I really didn’t have a dog in this race. I liked Bachmann and Cain a lot, even Perry, but not as much as I liked Palin. Bachmann and Cain are both conservative enough, but neither have really been tested in higher office, nor do they have much experience in world affairs.
I also had high hopes for Perry because it looks like he’s done a great job in Texas, but his positions on the border issues turned off a lot of people. And his “heartless” statement didn’t win him much opportunity to turn that around.
I guess Santorum is conservative enough and possibly Huntsman, but neither engender much enthusiasm or excitement. Seems they’re just going through the motions. Don’t know if they have the real world experience to be CINC anyway.
Bachmann seems to be trying really hard but don’t know if she’s really qualified for the top spot either. Even so, had Bachmann really lit a fuse on the trail, I probably would have stood by and supported her, but she flopped and is unlikely to recover.
I thought early on that if Perry got into the race (without Palin) that he’d suck all the air out of it and would dominate. But he flopped. And then Cain took off like a rocket and he flopped.
Now Cain didn’t have elective experience, but he looked like a great conservative so we were all hoping and pulling for him. Well, that didn’t turn out well.
Mind you, that abortionist, lib progressive bastard Mitt Romney is just sitting there smiling through all this and he, Rove and the GOP elite think they’ve got it in the bag. Just gotta hang in there, not say anything rash, not rock the boat, no mistakes, just play defense as one by one the upstart tea party conservative candidates burn themselves out.
In my mind, we must defeat Romney AND Obama. I don’t think George Washington is going to be smiling down on us if we had this great tea party opportunity to knock off the progressives and we let Rove, Romney and the corrupt good old boys club bushwhack us. We’re supposed to be the bushwhackers.
So like a whole lot of conservative Republicans and tea party folks, we’re bouncing candidate to candidate looking for the one to knock off Romney so we can take the tea party battle directly to Obama. Romney is no tea party person. He and Rove, et al, sneer at us. No way in hell are they going to do anything we’re interested in doing even if they do get elected. It’ll be government as usual. Big. They hate us worse than they hate the democrats because we’re a direct threat to their power base.
So in comes Gingrich. Didn’t much care for him at first, mainly because of his well known baggage, and his perceived RINO plumage, but he began making a lot of sense and scoring a lot of points in the debates. Turns out his depth of knowledge and experience in government affairs both domestic and foreign and his experience with Ronald Reagan, the Reagan Revolution and the Republican Revolution of the 90’s are quite extensive and quite impressive if you look.
He’s been through the mill and that’s what a lot of our younger less experienced, less traveled candidates are missing. In the debates he comes off as a wiser, more experienced, more knowledgeable, level-headed senior statesman. And it appeared to me that the other candidates acknowledged and respected that.
So I start thinking back about his history as a congressman and speaker, and lo and behold, it appears to me he’s not such a RINO after all. He was a genuine Reagan protege. And he learned well from the master communicator. He eventually set a goal for himself to build a Republican majority and to take the speakership, and he determinately accomplished that goal.
And he had some great conservative accomplishments as congressman and speaker. He passed the contract with America. He cut taxes. Cut the deficit. Reformed welfare. Blocked HillaryCare. Became a thorn in President Clinton’s side, blocked much of his liberal agenda and ultimately allowed impeachment to proceed. Then of course, he resigned due to his own infidelity scandal. But, unlike Clinton, he didn’t deny it, didn’t lie about it, and he did the right thing by resigning.
Bottom line though, through his years with the Reagan Revolution and the Republican majority much conservative good was accomplished. The Wall came down, the Soviet Union collapsed and our great Reagan economy flourished for two decades.
Now, if a progressive RINO had been in charge of the congress during this period, who knows what would have happened. I’m sure the history would have been a lot different. Remember, before Gingrich and his Republican Majority, we conservatives had wandered in the wilderness for 40 years!! And our country was on life support after Jimmy Carter nearly killed it. And the democrats were saying at the time that there was nothing we could do about it. We were going to be stuck with the cold war. Stuck with the Soviet Union, stuck with Iran. Stuck with high oil prices, gas lines and rationing. Stuck with recession, high interest rates, high inflation and high unemployment from that point forward. They could not be fixed. Jimmy Carter and the democrats had given up on America and surrendered the USA to our fate as a failed nation.
In walk Ronald Reagan and Newt Gingrich and reestablish that great shining city on the hill! Thank God! It’s not the end of the world after all. Iran returns the hostages immediately. Reagan takes the Soviet Union head on! Reagan takes the democrats head on and doesn’t take no for an answer. Takes his ideas to the people. It was a struggle but eventually the economy began turning. Reagan’s central theme domestically was that the government was too big, too intrusive, taxes too high, too much spending, too many regulations, too many restrictions on business and industry and they all must be cut. And he took that battle over the heads of the democrat congress to the tax payers and they loved it. Sound familiar?
And in 1994, Newt Gingrich leads the charge against the democrats who had been in power for 40 years and the Republicans take the majority and Gingrich becomes Speaker. He dreams up the contract with America which was designed as an extension of the Reagan Revolution and and included items attempting to balance the budget, reform welfare, tort reform, term limits, line item veto, etc. Some of it was successfully implemented, some not. But under Gingrich they did cut the deficit and balance the budget four years running. Sound desirable? Sound progressive?
How many times in our history have you seen a liberal progressive, cut taxes, cut regulations, cut spending, cut welfare, balance the budget, block big government programs like HillaryCare, impeach a sitting president, etc?
Never! In other words, all this to say Newt is NO RINO!! He’s a pro-life, pro-small government, pro-national security, Reagan conservative!! In short, we’re desperate, and he’s exactly what we’re looking for, and he’s running head and shoulders over the rest of the field, so what the hell are we squabbling about?
Yes, Romney and Rove hate him, the Republican establishment elite ruling class hates him, the liberals hate him, the democrats hate him and they hate him for the same reasons the taxpayers will support him, the lovers of liberty will support him, the defenders of life will support him, the defenders of national security will support him, the lovers of the Reagan Revolution will support him, and we the tea party should support him!! He’s a tax cutting, budget balancing, strong defense, small government, pro-life Reagan CONSERVATIVE!!
After reviewing Newt vs Romney, George Washington would say, go, NEWT!!
I’ll take a chance with Newt. Over Romney? You betcha!!
What say you?
Assumptions again.
Just sayin’.
But I do hope you’re right.
I completely agree. Gingrich is the best candidate that we have to defeat the Plastic Headed Mittens in the primaries and Dumplin’ Ears in the general.
My Better Half and I were discussing tonight how Reagan, H.W. and Newt finished the job of imploding the Soviet Union.
“Women won’t vote for Newt when they learn about his betrayal of his wives and taking up with mistresses.”
Stop putting us all in your little stereotypical box as if we can’t see the issues we’re facing as a country and aren’t able to make rational political decisions.
Thanks in advance.
Thank you!
I've met two men in my life whom I'd rank in the status of the Founders.
Newt Gingrich and Peter Schiff.
“but women voted for Clinton, as they always do for the “swoon” candidate, because of the orgasm factor.”
I’m getting a tich tired of the characterizations of women being unthinking idiots.
The guy who called the Ryan plan to reform Medicare “right wing social engineering” will not get my vote.
Good grief.
I said from the beginning that there was going to be huge impact on Dem voter intensity if Newt gets the nomination.
Many of them were angry at Obama and might have stayed home.
But nominating Newt will have the same effect on them as the effect on GOP voters if the Dems nominated Nancy Pelosi: crawl over broken glass to vote against the guy.
Can it be helped at this point?
Nope.
But it’s a fact.
Dem voter intensity WILL play a significant role in the outcome. On the other side of the aisle, there may be a building voter intensity in the other direction among values voters who feel the party’s starting to sound too much like Clinton voters — not just supporting Newt, but going further by declaring loudly and often “I don’t care what he does!”
If Newt is the nominee, will you sit it out and let the Marxist have 4 more years to complete the destruction of our Country?
Newt’s a brainiac, and he’s well into his sixties. It’s to be expected that his full record will contain something for everyone to lament.
I’d urge everyone to view this montage of Gingrich comments from the Thanksgiving Family Forum:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NeRhTjvAkuQ
The comment that most impressed me there was this:
“I had to recognize how limited I was and how much I had to depend on [God]...if you said to me we were electing somebody who believed that they by themselves were strong enough to be president I would tell you that person terrifies me because they completely misunderstand how weak and how limited any human being is.”
Gingrich deserves a fair hearing and I say that as one who was initially reluctant to give him one. After having done so, I think we have an excellent candidate. He has the courage to fight, the skill to fight, and he knows the nature and weaknesses of the enemy like no other candidate in this race. He knows himself at last. He knows the need of God in our lives.
Also, I think that as a 70-year-old President, Newt will be a far different person than he was as a 50-year-old congressman. They’re two utterly different political roles and he now has an extra twenty years of wisdom. Yet politically he was conservative then, and still is. Maybe he has saved his best for last!
He’ll be, at the very least, a capable commander-in-chief. Wouldn’t surprise me if he became one of the greatest.
RE: “I’m getting a tich tired of the characterizations of women being unthinking idiots.”
By significant majority women have voted for Bill Clinton twice, Al Gore, John Kerry and Barrack Obama. At the same time majorities of men voted for George H. Bush and Bob Dole over Clinton, George W. Bush over Al Gore and John Kerry, and John McCain over Barrack Obama.
When women stop voting like unthinking idiots perhaps they won’t be characterized as unthinking idiots.
Almost every elected official in Washington either despises Newt or will not support him. Many we can dismiss because they are people, let's say, not in favor on the FR. However, there are some good people that feel this way. However, I actually agree with Sen Lindsey Graham today.. he said something like Newt could be a great president if he can stay disciplined.
Newt has asked us not to be for him, but with him. This is true, we need to help him fight the good fight but be ready to set him on the strait path when he strays..
Just wait till he moves to the middle after winning the nomination.
Using that simple-minded criteria, you might even come up with Hillary.
Sean Hannity: What you said about Paul Ryan and criticized his Medicare plan and “right-wing social engineering?”
Newt Gingrich: Well look it was a technical mistake but what I said was true. I was asked a question, “Should Republicans impose a plan that is deeply unpopular. And, I said something that Hayek wrote about in The Road to Serfdom, rightwing social engineering is as dangerous as leftwing social engineering. I made a lot of my conservative friends mad at me. But, in fact, Hayek wrote this and he’s right. We have an obligation to explain to the country that any major reform that affects their lives until they decide they’re going to accept it… I was trying to say something very profound but I frankly backed off because it was too much noise to communicate.
I’ll vote for Newt if he’s the nominee.
But I won’t be among the surprised if Bad Newt shows up in the White House and he completely tells conservatives to take it on the chin at the most inopportune moment.
The answer to that, as with any president, is to do our level best to keep the pressure on him.
One of the things I think takes away from that ability of conservatives to hold him accountable is how “easy” it’s been for Newt to gloss over all his foibles and flipflops (I’m addressing mostly his political acts here). I wish a few more conservatives had been willing to “newt” him when he blithely lets the cow patties fall out of his mouth.
For example, on the Freddie Mac thing. He should have been whupped upside the head for that: a, for doing it, and b, thinking we were stupid enough to buy his “I was just a historian” Barbara Streisand.
Does that mean not support him? No. But don’t let him get away with bullcrap like that now. It will be even worse in the White House.
Sometimes I think Gringrich must be looking at conservatives, and events such as his little interview with Sean Hannity the other day, and saying to himself, “God, these people are easy.”
“Newt is the man to defeat Barrack O’Romney and lead the revolution.”
Hear hear.....
I believe that Newt is just as serious about repudiating and repealing everything Obama as he was about defeating the entrenched Democrat majority and their 40 year hold on power when he was in congress. And his conservative accomplishments after achieving that goal were in no way moving to the middle.
Well, the problem with that thinking is that Newt has been a Reagan conservative all along. It’s not a new thing to him. And he’s not pretending.
With Cain out, my state goes to Romney anyway so I’m going to vote my conscience and vote for Bachmann.
Good point! He could have been running for higher office persistently -- like Mitt Romney. Ambition is not one of Newt's numerous shortcomings.
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