The Los Angeles Times gets fooled into thinking that the business enterprise built to promote Newt Gingrich means he's "serious" about running for president in 2012.Newt Gingrich as a presidential candidate? Hey, I suppose it's possible that he'll go ahead and run. All sorts of people run for president.
Newt Gingrich as someone with a chance to win the nomination? As a presidential candidate, he's basically Sarah Palin without the enthusiastic supporters -- he's never had a lot of trouble getting people to dislike him (although I suppose it's worth mentioning that his negatives have abated a bit over the last couple of years). Well, a Sarah Palin without enthusiastic supporters but with a marital record worse than John Edwards. I mean, Newt and the Sage of Wasilla both have histories of making wild claims, of proving themselves utterly overwhelmed by the challenges of actually governing, and of getting into trouble with the ethics cops.
He's probably, as Dinauer says, just scamming as usual. It's also possible he's deluded himself into believing he's a serious candidate for the nomination. Either way, there's no reason the rest of us should share the pretense. Nice catch!
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I get it, the polls don't place him high on the list and he's been divorced. However he's a former House Speaker with an clear record of accomplishments, a consistent political world view and the only candidate I wouldn't cringe to watch in a debate (especially against the current President).
ReplyDeleteGiven Gingrich's penchant for casually dealing in wild falsehoods and using intentionally inflammatory rhetoric, I'd say he is as cringeworthy as Palin, but for totally different reasons.
ReplyDeleteI would never vote for someone as hypocritical as Gingrich -- who tried to run Clinton out of office for doing things Gingrich was doing himself. A man who would dump his wife when she had cancer. He's not worthy of high office.
ReplyDeleteGingrich never denies that he is running because that would diminish the caché he likes to maintain as an IMPORTANT PERSON on FOX/cable tv and the rubber-chicken circuit, plus where the real money is — fundraising, lobbying with corporate dollars, and selling books/educational materials, etc. He needs to maintain a heightened relevance to keep the big bucks coming. By letting others (journalists, FOX, various media enablers) maintain the pretense that he's some sort of permanent presidential candidate or threat, he avoids having to discount his brand and so his income.
ReplyDeleteGingrinch will never have a chance to be president. He was so unpopular as Speaker that Democrats used him as a model for what's wrong with the GOP. They were so successful that they defied the odds and won seats in 1998, prompting Republicans to dump him. Gingrinch was never very popular with his own party, as he survived several coup attempts in his 4 years as Speaker until finally ousted. He provided a great foil for Clinton.
ReplyDeleteSince then, his only appearances in the news are about his multiple affairs and his habit of divorcing wives to marry mistresses. As a "family values" candidate, this hypocrisy is deadly.
Gingrinch's strategy is to hope people forget why they hated him. The problem is that there are two types of voters from both parties: those that hate Gingrinch and those who have forgotten about him. Neither are likely to vote for him.