Archive for Newt Gingrich

“Newt Is Not Running”

Posted by: Jason | September 29th, 2007 · 9:57 PM

(image: truthdig)

Apparently it’s difficult to raise $30,000,000 in 3 weeks. Yeah… if you’re a lightweight!

In case you haven’t heard (or don’t read Drudge on Saturday nights), Newt Gingrich will not seek the White House. Of course, as I’ve mentioned, this was reported hours ago. However, lets all take a minute to laugh at WHY this is. Ehmm:

Today, the spokesman, Rich Tyler, said Gingrich had just discovered that he could not legally explore a political opportunity like running for president while remaining head of American Solutions, his tax-exempt political organization. So he was giving up the presidential bid. “Newt is not running,” Tyler said.

So it appears this was either all one big hoax to get viewers to Newt’s site this weekend to watch his American Solutions nonsense, or Gingrich couldn’t acquire the necessary funds for a run. No matter. This now relieves Fred Thompson from any potential headaches, where a Gingrich candidacy could have ensured a Giuliani victory in the primary due to splits among conservatives.

We’s happy either way to have officially escaped this potential nightmare within the party : ).

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Gingrich’s Paleolithic Marketing Scheme

Posted by: Ion | September 25th, 2007 · 9:07 AM

So Newt Gingrich has agreed to run for the presidency if someone gives him thirty million dollars in three weeks? Whew, for a moment there I was worried he might be taking a presidential run seriously.

It should be said that on Newt we’re a bit of a house divided here at postpolitical. I intensely dislike the guy, while Jason on the other hand is an ardent admirer. We are both agreed however, that a Gingrich candidacy would be a suicidal disaster resulting in an automatic Democratic victory.

But run or not, his advice will unfortunately be keenly followed in our party. In this area, one of the many annoying aspects of Gingrich is that no matter how cheap, tired, derivative and uninteresting his ideas are, for some peculiar reason a substantial slice of the conservative movement always acclaims them as groundbreaking, innovative and fresh. Here’s a splendidly awful example:

Gingrich wants to be a postmodern Goldwater, a man who uses technology to bring on the next great debate. He imagines a presidential campaign where instead of spending money on TV advertising, a candidate mails DVDs laying out his ideas to every voter in Iowa and New Hampshire with a simple request: “Do you think your country’s future, your children’s future and your grandchildren’s future is worth one hour of your time?”
(Newsweek via The Carpetbagger Report)

Oooo, ahhh. Physically distributed, un-targeted direct mail video media is high tech? Ancient. This might have been an inventive idea in 1985 with VHS tapes, but today it’s an expensive anachronism. That marketing copy is pure Gingrich too.

“Do you think your country’s future, your children’s future and your grandchildren’s future is worth one hour of your time?”
(Newsweek via The Carpetbagger Report)

Sounds like the tagline for a cut-rate Florida life insurance policy. Ugh, with stuff this bad in play, you know Gingrich is back.

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“Teflon Thompson” and the Evangelicals

Posted by: Ion | · 8:29 AM

Dr. Richard Land, President of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission in the Southern Baptist Convention and an influential evangelical supporter of Fred Thompson, had an interesting comment about the candidate in speaking with CBN correspondent David Brody:

He’s a successful one of us but he’s one of us and they trust a guy like that. They give a guy like that a larger margin of error. Nobody gets everything right but its core values. My assessment is that this guy is a whole much like Reagan including his Teflon quality. The press has been beating up with him for these types of gaffes and he continues to climb in the polls.”
(CBN via Publius Forum)

For context, Land was responding to a private email against Thompson recently distributed by James Dobson, which was picked up by the Associated Press. This email is merely the latest example of Dobson’s strangely obsessive and adversarial attitude to FDT as a candidate.

Dobson has repeatedly attacked Thompson, suggesting in March that he was not a Christian. When told by Thompson that he was and was in fact baptized in the Church of Christ, the Dobson camp essentially called him a liar. Dr. Land points out to Brody that Dobson does not speak for evangelicals in this, which is of course painfully obvious.

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The Odd Couple

Posted by: Jason | June 7th, 2007 · 12:07 AM

If you’ve never seen a clip of the Ali G interview of Newt Gingrich, it’s quite entertaining. I’m particularly fond of Newt’s fist to fist “peace out” to G.

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The GOP Presidential Candidates: Ranking the Ten Choices

Posted by: Jason | May 20th, 2007 · 11:52 PM

The GOP debates are over for now, and we’ve experienced a first glimpse of the candidates and their style, positions, and ability to perform under pressure (at least from Brit Hume and Chris Matthews).

So what now? Rather than waiting until the next debate in August, a spell dreadfully too long for we political junkies to accept, I’ve decided to rank the current field of choices. After carefully considered the list, I took into account positions, electability, and presidential character. This wasn’t an easy task.

For those looking for names like Fred Thompson or Newt Gingrich, I could not include them, for they have not declared yet. To do so would be unfair to those who have braved the debate stage already.

So without further ado, the May 2007 GOP Presidential Candidate Ranking:

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Next Up… August 5th?

Posted by: Jason | · 8:12 PM

(image: nytimes)

You won’t see an image like this for another two months. Oval Office 2008, a non-partisan blog on all things presidential campaigning, has a schedule for the upcoming debates of both parties. Putting the Democrats aside, who aren’t scheduled for their next debate until June 28th when they’ll be hosted by PBS, I didn’t realize that the next GOP sparing match wasn’t until mid-summer.

According to the site, August 5th marks the next time the GOP hopefuls will appear on stage together. Hosted by George Stephanopoulos of ABC’s This Week, the lengthy wait may shed some light on the strategies of potential late comers such as Fred Thompson and Newt Gingrich in waiting to join the scene.

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What Support?

Posted by: Jason | · 7:45 PM

(image: wkrn)

James Dobson had some pretty harsh words for Rudy Giuliani’s campaign the other day. In an LA Times story the Christian leader said he would not vote for Republican presidential candidate Rudolph W. Giuliani under any circumstances because Giuliani supported abortion rights and had been married three times.

“I will either cast my ballot for an also-ran — or if worse comes to worst — not vote in a presidential election for the first time in my adult life,” he said.

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The Amnesty God

Posted by: Jason | May 18th, 2007 · 2:48 PM

(image: uncorrelated)

Lets be frank. This amnesty bill is yet another example of McCain not getting it. From the American Spectator:

The reaction to the immigration announcement was swift. Newt Gingrich, the former House speaker and perhaps future presidential candidate, denounced it on Sean Hannity’s radio show as “a sellout of every conservative principle.” The Heritage Foundation agreed. Congressman Mike Pence issued a statement calling the bill an amnesty.

While the deal was being picked apart by talk radio and the blogs, John McCain was appearing on television with Ted Kennedy to promote it. Arlen Specter’s presence — and insistence that the Senate isn’t talking about amnesty — doesn’t give McCain much cover with conservatives. Neither does the news that the bill was drafted with the help of liberal groups like the National Council of La Raza.

I’d be interested in knowing when Senator McCain might feel more comfortable in league with men of his own party like Newt Gingrich and Mike Pence, rather than the senator from Massachusetts.

Here’s one conservative that is entirely sick of hearing about the need for bipartisan relationships. There’s a reason why I vote Republican, and it isn’t because I seek to agree with men like Senator Ted Kennedy. They are Americans indeed, entitled to their own opinions, but people in which I choose to avoid the company of.

Reaching across the isle to work with such men is absurd, as is McCain’s belief that he will earn our nomination next year.

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2nd Republican Debate = Sigh of Relief

Posted by: Jason | May 16th, 2007 · 8:19 AM

(image: fox)

Thank God for Fox News Channel. And I mean that sincerely. By leaps and bounds, whether you are a liberal or a conservative, hell… if you have a damn pulse… you can now understand why Chris Matthews and company rank somewhere near the doghouse as compared to a real network such as the one that hosted last night’s 2nd Republican debate.

The candidates were sharp, they were engaging, and I think for the first time, myself speaking for many other Republicans I’m sure, that we can all breath a sigh of relief. This party is full of life, and we have ourselves a real race now. Assuming the entrance of Fred Thompson, and possibly Newt Gingrich, this should serve as one of the more entertaining years in presidential politics. I’m excited for the future debates.

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