Newt Sensation
“Something thick-headed this way comes…”
.
I guess it’s possible to be more of a pompous ass than Newt Gingrich but, for the life of me, I can’t figure out how.
In recent interview with Fortune, Newt had this to say:
“I’m going to tell you something, and whether or not it’s plausible given the world you come out of is your problem .. I am not ‘running’ for president. I am seeking to create a movement to win the future by offering a series of solutions so compelling that if the American people say I have to be president, it will happen.”
Gingrich would have left his business card after the interview but the cards that said “God’s gift to politics” weren’t back from the printer yet.
Damn. Gingrich makes Al Gore look demure.
Gingrich is maintaining he won’t run unless he thinks “it is possible to run a campaign based on ideas rather than 30-second sound bites.” Which is good, because Newt’s sound bites suck. The motto for his American Solutions organization? Real change requires real change.
Imagine what a charismatic rallying cry it would be for Republicans everywhere to hear Gingrich thunder at the nominating convention, “A vote for me requires a vote for me.”
Just in case you thought it wasn’t plausible to run a political campaign on ideas instead of sound bites, Newt is also on record as saying he won’t run (or get swept up by a really compelling groundswell) unless he can raise $30 million in campaign contributions.
Running a guy who was sanctioned by the House Ethics Committee for “intentional and reckless” disregard for Congressional rules and who presided over “the worst performance in 64 years for a party that didn’t hold the presidency” in the 1998 mid-term elections would be like … oh, I don’t know, putting a former commissioner of the International Arabian Horse Association in charge of FEMA.
Wait, … what?
Only in politics could a windbag like Gingrich, who got overthrown by members of his own party while he was in Congress, then get people to fork over $50,000 a speech to give them advice after he got out of Congress.
And you thought tapping Britney Spears for the opening number of the VMAs was a fiasco…
This is the kind of political nonsense that makes me want to take a nail gun and impale my hand to the coffee table so I can’t turn on the TV for the next 14 months
Instead of moving all these primaries up into January, why not just move the whole election up to Groundhog Day?
It’s time to end the national nightmare that is the 2008 Presidential election. The election is like a root canal. I know we have to do it … let’s just get it over with.
Newt Gingrich, Shakespeare, FEMA, Michael Brown, Britney Spears, career-ending performances, Al Gore, pomposity,
September 14th, 2007 at 12:25 pm
I actually think NG is a really smart guy. I like a lot of his ideas. Too bad he’s such an ass. I remember when a bunch of people were worried that he was going to become president (I think we’re past the point where anybody seriously thinks that). I liked the guy, and I knew that was never going to happen.
September 14th, 2007 at 12:54 pm
Though it’s not particularly obvious from the post, I actually agree with you. I think Newt is a smart guy and I, too, like some of his ideas.
It’s just that I can say that about a lot of guys. There are a lot of smart guys running around politics. I would include guys like Carter, the Clintons, Gore, Nixon, the Bushes and others.
What’s weird to me is the level of arrogance on the part of these folks and the fact that they can command amazing sums of money to give “advice.”
As you note, it’s all moot since there’s no chance Newt gets elected anyway.
I should prolly should start picking on Hillary…..