Newt Gingrich was all but dead in June. No one took his presidential candidacy seriously, and how could they? As one pundit said, he has more baggage than JFK -- not the person, but the airport.
Nonetheless, here we are a month away from the Iowa caucuses and he's leading in the polls, because evangelical conservatives are absolutely desperate to find an alternative to Mitt Romney.
You'd have to be desparate to go with Newt. There is no other explanation!
I agree with the women who said of Bill Clinton, another known scoundrel, "If his wife can't trust him, then neither can I."
I must have been dreaming about politics again, because I woke up with the realization that an Obama vs. Gingrich contest would be an extremely risky proposition for Republicans. Both are ideological with very little real-world, practical experience outside of politics. Neither one could make heads or tails of a complicated Excel spreadsheet, for example. They are both theoretical, relying on well-delivered rhetoric to dazzle and impress instead of actual accomplishments. Obama in this match up would actually have the edge in the ethics department, because he has given us no reason to believe that he is unfaithful to his wife. He has also never been forced to resign from a Congressional speakership for ethical violations, like Gingrich has. Next to Gingrich, Obama is as pure as the wind-driven snow.
We also have to consider candidates from the American Idol perspective. Having Obama and Gingrich side-by-side in a debate would be like having Kennedy and Nixon side-by-side -- no contest.
People who have thrown their support behind Newt Gingrich have appraently forgotten that the main issue is not who will put Obama is his place in a debate scenario, but who has the economic background to right the sinking ship of the U.S. economy? Who has turned around failing economic entities in the past and helped them thrive again? Mitt, Mitt, Mitt. Obama's economic experience cannot compare with Mitt Romney's, even after 3 1/2 years in the White House, and the biggest problems facing the United States at this time are economic. Right now, America does not need a historian or an orator or a theoretician. We need a do-er. We need a CEO.
Here are some quick facts about Newt Gingrich, which ought to be unsettling to the voting electorate in my book:
***Gingrich has been running for office since the early '70s! He was finally elected in 1978, then served 20 years in Congress before resigning soon after re-election under an ethical cloud. Since that time, he has amassed a personal fortune not by working in the private sector, but by selling his influence among government entities. He says he was never a lobbyist -- he was a strategic advisor. Whatever you want to call it.
***Gingrich violated federal tax law by misusing charitable donations, then, when confronted by members of his own party, lied about it. He faced 84 ethics charges in the House where he served as Speaker, and had to step down. He then resigned in disgrace. Now, 20 years later, he's back and half of the electorate has never heard of him. The other half have forgotten.
***Gingrich proposed to wives #2 and #3 while married to wives #1 and #2. Wives #1 and #2 were suffering from cancer and MS, respectively, when he left them. When asked recently to explain his serial infidelity, he said he had been working too hard for the country. You can fool some of the people some of the time, but I don't know who that explanation is going to fool - apparently only himself, because no one bought it.
***Gingrich is sometimes applauded for having a good relationship with his two daughters despite divorcing their mother. The daughters themselves should be given more than half the credit for this since they were able to forgive him for breaking up their family with his selfishness. Some of the credit for their good relationship also has to be given to the fact that they both work for him. The fact that Gingrich did not write his two daughters off as well as their mother is not a credit to him, in my opinion, though I suppose he could have completely abandoned them, and that would have been even worse.
***Gingrich "advised" Fanny and Freddie, making millions of dollars, until 2007, just before the bubble burst. What did he advise them? And did his advice do any good? For whom?
***Gingrich was denied tenure at the only college where he ever worked as a full-time professor, back before he was elected to Congress. Why was he denied tenure? (My working theories: affairs with students, disorganization, egomaniacal lectures.)
I know almost no one reads this blog, but it's cathartic to get these thoughts off my chest and into the atmosphere. I invite differing points of view. Please defend Newt, if you can.
