December 13, 2011--Why Newt Can Win
There is clearly a new Newt.
The old one, who at his best was just a bomb thrower and at his worst, well, a crook, is no more. In that Newt's place there is a charming, avuncular, non-threatening even pleasant and entertaining elderly man who feels almost presidential.
And he's one heck of a debater.
The reason he can win the Republican nomination is not just because of what the pundits are saying--that the base of the Republican Party wants a bulldog of a candidate who can go toe-to-toe with Barack Obama and demolish him both intellectually and rhetorically.
Yes, this is important to them. They are sick and tired of Obama keeping his cool even when slandered and being by far the smartest man in the room when the room is full of Republicans.
They hate Obama so much that they are willing to overlook the circumstances of Newt's serial adulteries and marriages and the fact that he was virtually kicked out of the House of Representatives because of tax fraud.
Republicans are willing to ignore his crackpot ideas about our being attacked by electromagnetic radiation, abolishing child labor laws so ghetto kids can work as janitors in their schools, and why the Palestinians are not entitled to a state of their own. They are willing to go along with there because, compared to the others, Gingrich feels like an intellectual who will not embarrass them, as John McCain and especially Sarah Palin did the last time around.
This is why he is the odds-on favorite to win the nomination. But he is also a formidable candidate to win the whole thing.
This is because the new Newt has figured out how to turn his disadvantages and vulnerabilities into assets.
A few examples--
When challenged about getting paid almost two million dollars to work as an influence peddler for the hated Freddie Mac, after initially claiming he was hired to consult with them about history, he nimbly switched gears and said, with a disarming smile, that he worked for them after leaving office and in that way gained private sector experience. This blunted Romney's claim that he uniquely had worked in business and tended to legitimatize the influence peddling that Gingrich in reality had been up to.
When challenged to defend his over-the-top plans for the colonization of Mars he blithely said that he is in favor of this in order to put forth bold ideas in an attempt to inspire kids to study math and science.
And when all the candidates were prompted the other day to talk about the importance of being faithful to one's spouse as a test of presidential character, and none of Gingrich's opponents had the chutzpah to go there, Newt himself, looking directly and contritely into the camera, fessed up to having made "some mistakes" and how he as a consequence turned to the Lord to seek reconciliation. The crowd in Iowa clapped and simultaneously teared up. No one seemed to care to remember that he dumped his first wife while having an affair as she lay in the ICU sick and almost dying of cancer.
Then when one of his most preposterous and meddlesome ideas was raised--how the Palestinians were an "invented people" and thus not entitled to a homeland of their own--with Romney puffed up to lecture him that presidents need to be more diplomatic in their public utterances--Gingrich, without his usual excessive self-righteousness when challenged, said that like Ronald Reagan, who famously "told the truth" when he demanded that the Soviets tear down the Berlin Wall, that as the self-anointed Reaganite he claimed to be, as president he would also tell the truth even if it at times it is unpopular and "confusing."
No one said, "Mr. former and disgraced Speaker, I knew Ronald Reagan and you're no Ronald Reagan." And so the crowd in Iowa went wild and I began to envision his debates with Barack Obama.
I also began to worry.
The old one, who at his best was just a bomb thrower and at his worst, well, a crook, is no more. In that Newt's place there is a charming, avuncular, non-threatening even pleasant and entertaining elderly man who feels almost presidential.
And he's one heck of a debater.
The reason he can win the Republican nomination is not just because of what the pundits are saying--that the base of the Republican Party wants a bulldog of a candidate who can go toe-to-toe with Barack Obama and demolish him both intellectually and rhetorically.
Yes, this is important to them. They are sick and tired of Obama keeping his cool even when slandered and being by far the smartest man in the room when the room is full of Republicans.
They hate Obama so much that they are willing to overlook the circumstances of Newt's serial adulteries and marriages and the fact that he was virtually kicked out of the House of Representatives because of tax fraud.
Republicans are willing to ignore his crackpot ideas about our being attacked by electromagnetic radiation, abolishing child labor laws so ghetto kids can work as janitors in their schools, and why the Palestinians are not entitled to a state of their own. They are willing to go along with there because, compared to the others, Gingrich feels like an intellectual who will not embarrass them, as John McCain and especially Sarah Palin did the last time around.
This is why he is the odds-on favorite to win the nomination. But he is also a formidable candidate to win the whole thing.
This is because the new Newt has figured out how to turn his disadvantages and vulnerabilities into assets.
A few examples--
When challenged about getting paid almost two million dollars to work as an influence peddler for the hated Freddie Mac, after initially claiming he was hired to consult with them about history, he nimbly switched gears and said, with a disarming smile, that he worked for them after leaving office and in that way gained private sector experience. This blunted Romney's claim that he uniquely had worked in business and tended to legitimatize the influence peddling that Gingrich in reality had been up to.
When challenged to defend his over-the-top plans for the colonization of Mars he blithely said that he is in favor of this in order to put forth bold ideas in an attempt to inspire kids to study math and science.
And when all the candidates were prompted the other day to talk about the importance of being faithful to one's spouse as a test of presidential character, and none of Gingrich's opponents had the chutzpah to go there, Newt himself, looking directly and contritely into the camera, fessed up to having made "some mistakes" and how he as a consequence turned to the Lord to seek reconciliation. The crowd in Iowa clapped and simultaneously teared up. No one seemed to care to remember that he dumped his first wife while having an affair as she lay in the ICU sick and almost dying of cancer.
Then when one of his most preposterous and meddlesome ideas was raised--how the Palestinians were an "invented people" and thus not entitled to a homeland of their own--with Romney puffed up to lecture him that presidents need to be more diplomatic in their public utterances--Gingrich, without his usual excessive self-righteousness when challenged, said that like Ronald Reagan, who famously "told the truth" when he demanded that the Soviets tear down the Berlin Wall, that as the self-anointed Reaganite he claimed to be, as president he would also tell the truth even if it at times it is unpopular and "confusing."
No one said, "Mr. former and disgraced Speaker, I knew Ronald Reagan and you're no Ronald Reagan." And so the crowd in Iowa went wild and I began to envision his debates with Barack Obama.
I also began to worry.
posted by Steven Zwerling at
5:29 AM
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