Mar 08 2009
Look Out America! The Newt Might Get Loose!
Raise your hand if you would like to see former House Speaker Newt Gingrich become our next president?
I don’t see any hands going up! Doesn’t anyone want to see this man become our next commander-in-chief?
Sorry, I couldn’t resist opening with that little Gingrich in-joke.
According to Jim Nolan of the Richmond Times-Dispatch, the former speaker told reporters during an interview in Ashland, Va., Wednesday night that he might consider running for the top job in 2012.
“Callista and I will look seriously and we’ll probably get our family totally engaged, including our two grandchildren, probably in January, 2011,” he said. “We’ll look seriously at whether or not we think its necessary to do it. And if we think it’s necessary we’ll probably do it. And if it isn’t necessary we probably won’t do it.”
Gingrich briefly considered running in last year’s presidential election, but decided not to because, according to spokesman Rick Taylor, doing so would not allow him to continue serving as chairman of American Solutions for Winning the Future, a nonprofit 527 organization Gingrich founded after he left Congress.
Of course, Gingrich’s decision not to run had absolutely NOTHING to do with the revelation in 2007 that he had been engaging in a zipper-opening contest with a woman he was not married to while trying to impeach President Bill Clinton for doing the exact same thing.
Sorry, but I just cannot see this guy ever becoming president – nor would I want to. Gingrich has many problems, starting with his first name. There is also his messed-up ideology, which says we should shrink the federal government but not so much so that it can’t intrude in the private lives of citizens, sign “free” trade agreements that screw American workers, and cut taxes while increasing military spending so that our national debt can get even bigger.
That being said, I wish The Newt would make a run for the White House just so I could watch members of the holier-than-thou Right defend a philanderer.
Unfortunately for Gingrich, he does not appear to be all that popular with those of us who don’t belong to the GOP. According to Ben Smith of Politico, the latest poll taken on the former speaker, a Quinnipiac Survey from 2007, shows that 47 percent of Americans had an unfavorable opinion of him, while only 22 percent had a favorable one. The rest were undecided.
Still, Gingrich has three and a half years to turn things around. In the meantime, it might behoove him to keep a close watch on that zipper of his.
-shudders-
Loved the article. Unfortunately, this shows how much trouble the GOP is actually in. We need them to unite in order for them to contribute to the recovery of our economy. It is sad when Limbaugh and Gingrich are at the forefront as far as being the face of the party. I think sk describes it best and definitely most succinctly. I truly want them to get their shit together but looking to these blowhards is not the path I would take.
Unfortunately, nobody in the Republican Party has the faintest idea how to go about forming a new party that can be both true to its members AND have a prayer of getting elected.
The political landscape in American is littered, during the 19th century, with the ghosts of political parties who adhered to philosophies that the electorate never bought, or finally decided they no longer believed in.
The Republicans now adhere to a philosophy that is believed by, at best, a solid 25 - 35% of the country. At times, they can buy the votes of middle-of-the-road Centrists that lean to the right by using the right fighting words or political bribes, but NONE of the true Conservatives in the GOP can get elected solely on the votes of their base.
At this point in history, enough of those middle-of-the-roaders are scared enough by the past eight years that Newt couldn’t get elected if a 75 foot tall Jesus appeared over his head at a rally and anointed him with holy water and a gold crown.
The ONLY way the Republicans can make their party relevant enough to win an election is to LISTEN to the voters, then form their party around the things the American people REALLY want in their leaders.
I don’t mean the far right wing voters, but folks that include the right of center middle-of-the-roaders. Folks who are NOT socially conservative, people who do NOT have abortion, gay marriage or any of the other right wing hot button topics on their minds.
These topics are only sops to the right wingers to get them steamed enough to go to the polls, but the Republicans have NEVER meant to truly do anything about them, as that would lose them their rallying points.
Well, I’ve got news for the GOP - you don’t NEED those rallying points to get elected - you just need to excite the voters in the middle - those numbers dwarf the right wing, and would guarantee your participation in American politics for the next hundred years.
But don’t look for that to happen. Folks like Newt and Rush get too much media attention, and the center isn’t exciting enough for the media to pay any attention to at all.