Now that Newt is a frontrunner...
The original Gingrich thread I made has 315+ replies, which may be too large to navigate through by now, and this one will focus on him being a "frontrunner" by now.
Of all the candidates, Newt was one of the few who had years of preparation and policy research. Though you may not agree with his views, he has more intellectual depth, than Republicans such as Cain who only had talking points and Perry who entered without a clear agenda.
Newt is probably Romney's only real challenge. While he has more substance than Cain, Bachmann, Perry, I do think he will end up in that same path of rise and decline.
He made a website page entirely devoted to pre-emptively arguing against many common criticisms people have of his campaign. And of course, he still has to shake off that Scrooge/Grinch image he has. He has written 23 books, given probably hundreds of speeches. It will be easy to find excerpts of his that are controversial.
With several divorces and an extramarital affair, I really don't think Americans will elect him.
Your thoughts?
But he is a competent historian.
What act of treason did he commit. Did he make war on the United States or give aid and comfort to enemies of the United States. That is the definition of Treason here in the U.S.
ruveyn
But he is a competent historian.
What act of treason did he commit. Did he make war on the United States or give aid and comfort to enemies of the United States. That is the definition of Treason here in the U.S.
ruveyn
He was a traitor to his wives.
Jacoby
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It is funny that the Newt is pretending to be a Catholic, when the Catholic Church would not recognize his present marriage as valid.
And he answered and said unto them, "What did Moses command you?"
And they said, "Moses suffered to write a bill of divorcement, and to put her away."
And Jesus answered and said unto them, "For the hardness of your heart he wrote you this precept. But from the beginning of the creation God made them male and female. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and cleave to his wife; And they twain shall be one flesh: so then they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder. "
And in the house his disciples asked him again of the same matter. And he saith unto them, "Whosoever shall put away his wife, and marry another, committeth adultery against her. And if a woman shall put away her husband, and be married to another, she committeth adultery."
If he is a Christian, then the Newt needs to reunite with his first wife, and send away the woman with whom he is now having coitus.
Oh, give me strength, pandabear. Is that truly the best that you can come up with?
I'm may be a dyed-in-the-wool Liberal, and I may be somewhat uncritical in my dismissiveness of conservative and libertarian politics, but I like to think that I have never been this shallow.
_________________
--James
Ignoring Hunstman? He has by far the strongest record of actual accomplishment of any Republican in the field.
_________________
WAR IS PEACE
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH
I'm may be a dyed-in-the-wool Liberal, and I may be somewhat uncritical in my dismissiveness of conservative and libertarian politics, but I like to think that I have never been this shallow.
In Canada and elsewhere, this line of reasoning would certainly be regarded as shallow and irrelevant.
However, we are talking about United States politics here. A candidate has to prove himself to be morally pure and religiously upright to be acceptable, particularly to Republican voters.
He can be as dumb as most of the Republican candidates are, but if he can't demonstrate himself to be morally superior, then he is dead in the water.
I'm may be a dyed-in-the-wool Liberal, and I may be somewhat uncritical in my dismissiveness of conservative and libertarian politics, but I like to think that I have never been this shallow.
Would you like an honest answer... jking
No visagrunt, while you have been rather shallow in the past, you've not been anywhere near as shallow as what quite a few people here have been and I will throw both Jacoby and pandabear on the same list.
I actually think Newt Gingrich could throw a monkey wrench into Obama's campaign strategy because he can't be perceived as Wall Street like Romney.
Being Obama's lapdog is hardly an accomplishment. As you may recall Huntsman was Obama's ambassador to China and endorsed by Michael Moore.
Ron Paul is more of an idiot when it comes to foreign policy than Obama, and that's scary. The fact he doesn't understand why the lunatic of a President in Iran having a Nuclear Weapon would be a bad thing for our national security alone demonstrates why he's not qualified to be President.
I'm not sure about Rick Perry one way or the other except he is a lousy debater and looks like a total fool most of the time. The only way I could see him not looking like an idiot is if he were debating Joe Gaffe-a-minute Biden. So he's a VP possibility.
Rick Santorum doesn't have the charisma and quite frankly I don't feel he has the leadership skills. VP Possibility.
Bachmann has kinda ticked me off in her attacking Gingrich while strangely not slamming Romney. She's making mistakes left and right and I think she's actually hurt herself in this campaign.
Mitt Romney reminds me of a used car salesman, and there probably is a bunch of stuff that can be used against him. Like why did he need to replace all those computers when he left office, what was on those hard drives?
Newt Gingrich is a lot older and comes across as more mature than when he was speaker of the house. He's managing to piss off all the right people, just won a showdown against Nancy Pelosi. Furthermore, if you look at the "ethics violation" it looks like the truth would be more damaging to the people that did the investigating that it would to Newt Gingrich, considering the IRS announced that there was nothing there.
He got hit with a violation because his lawyer screwed up some paperwork, that's what he had to pay the $300,000 fine over. I mean seriously, if that's what the Democrats intend to use against him they better be prepared for it to backfire, especially since Pelosi has publicly backed off.
Plus now if anything from that ethics investigation shows up, Newt can immediately demand Pelosi be investigated for violating ethics rules. Plus I think, Gingrich may have a point that he can show how much of a political witchhunt the investigation was, and can use the fact the IRS later cleared him as further evidence that the ethics violation was a farce.
Hard to guess if Newt will remain a front runner. Mitt Romney is still polling well. And Ron Paul is doing good also in Iowa, now in second place and possibly heading toward 1st. Saw this poll today about acceptable candidates in the GOP. Still seems opinions vary greatly on who will be the candidate for the GOP.
"Gallup Poll: Romney and Gingrich, the “Acceptable” Candidates"
http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2011/ ... -gingrich/
From the article:
And speaking of desperate measures, some conservative pundits, who see Gingrich as unelectable and Romney as untrustworthy, have been taking a second look at Jon Huntsman this week. George Will writes that both Romney and Gingrich are unacceptable, while Huntsman’s “program is the most conservative.” Meanwhile, Jim Pethokoukis outlined the case for Huntsman, urging conservatives to look past the poor first impression.
No visagrunt, while you have been rather shallow in the past, you've not been anywhere near as shallow as what quite a few people here have been and I will throw both Jacoby and pandabear on the same list.
I actually think Newt Gingrich could throw a monkey wrench into Obama's campaign strategy because he can't be perceived as Wall Street like Romney.
Well, I will say this for him, expectations are so low that it is almost impossible for him not to exceed them ("Hey! He didn't grow horns and a tail!!"). Trouble is, that throws a great deal of support Obama's way from the starting gate. Obama may well be underwhelming--but if voters just sit on their hands, that will favour Obama. The only way for the Republicans to pick up the states that they need is to nominate a candidate who will be better a mobilizing their supporters to get off the couch on polling day. I'm not convinced that he is that guy.
Can you think of a better way for a Democrat to emasculate a potentially credible Republican?
The kiss of death for any Republican candidate is Obama saying, "This is a person I could work with."
I'm not sure about Rick Perry one way or the other except he is a lousy debater and looks like a total fool most of the time. The only way I could see him not looking like an idiot is if he were debating Joe Gaffe-a-minute Biden. So he's a VP possibility.
Rick Santorum doesn't have the charisma and quite frankly I don't feel he has the leadership skills. VP Possibility.
Bachmann has kinda ticked me off in her attacking Gingrich while strangely not slamming Romney. She's making mistakes left and right and I think she's actually hurt herself in this campaign.
Mitt Romney reminds me of a used car salesman, and there probably is a bunch of stuff that can be used against him. Like why did he need to replace all those computers when he left office, what was on those hard drives?
Since this is about Gingrich, I was going to ignore the others, but I couldn't resist the image of Santorum for VP. Really? Did you write that on purpose?
If Dan Savage has proved anything in the last five years it is the power of a lone man with a pen to thoroughly destroy the credibility of a target. Given the new meaning that has been successfully attached to Santorum, what candidate is his right mind is going to want to have that on his ticket? (Cue disturbing mental image.)
He was dead before he started.
He got hit with a violation because his lawyer screwed up some paperwork, that's what he had to pay the $300,000 fine over. I mean seriously, if that's what the Democrats intend to use against him they better be prepared for it to backfire, especially since Pelosi has publicly backed off.
Plus now if anything from that ethics investigation shows up, Newt can immediately demand Pelosi be investigated for violating ethics rules. Plus I think, Gingrich may have a point that he can show how much of a political witchhunt the investigation was, and can use the fact the IRS later cleared him as further evidence that the ethics violation was a farce.
You don't get past something like this by focussing attention on it. Turning the tables on Pelosi does him no good, because he's not running against her. Everytime the words "Gingrich" and "ethics violation" turn up in the same sentence, it's a few more Republicans sitting on their hands on election day, and a few more undecideds opting for "the devil they know."
At the end of the day, the strongest reason that I can think of that Gingrich is the wrong candidate for the Republicans is this: He's the Republican candidate that I am most impressed with. Since my political views are almost always diametrically opposed to the zeitgeist it seems to me that any candidate that I would prefer is, axiomatically, the candidate that the rank and file membership of the Republican Party are most likely to run screaming from.
_________________
--James
No visagrunt, while you have been rather shallow in the past, you've not been anywhere near as shallow as what quite a few people here have been and I will throw both Jacoby and pandabear on the same list.
Ooohhh... I'm gonna tell a Moderator, and you're gonna be in TROUBLE!! !! !! !