Newt?!
From Michael Reagan at TownHall.com, speculation about Newt's re-entry into the Republican presidential jamboree...
Fred Thompson's gone. Duncan Hunter's gone. All these people are gone. Huckabee could become Huckabeen -- gone by next Tuesday. So could Rudy after next's Tuesday's Florida primary.
All of a sudden you've got this Republican primary coming down to McCain, Romney and Ron Paul. With all this uncertainty, just where can a conservative go?
If one is not excited about the War in Iraq, the choice is actually quite easy: Ron Paul.
If one is quite convinced that Paul is (very) wrong on the War, then it's a tough choice between three significantly flawed candidates.
All of a sudden radio talk show hosts, who reflect the opinions of grass-roots conservative voters, are all over the lot hammering on Rudy, hammering on Romney, hammering on McCain and hammering on Paul.
Listening to them you get an idea who they want or don't want. They don't like McCain. Most probably they support either Huckabee or Romney. Although they think Rudy is gone, he could come back if he wins in Florida next Tuesday.
If Huckabee is finished, I think they go to Romney, who is somewhat more conservative than the rest. At any rate, conservatives could be faced with backing either McCain, or Romney, or Huckabee or even Rudy.
Or they could end up backing none of them.
Who, then, could conservatives end up backing? Well, who recently has come out with a new book? Who's doing all the shows talking about his new book? Who is advocating common-sense solutions to the most pressing problems America faces?
Newt Gingrich, that's who. He was out of the race for a long time, he toyed with the idea of running until Fred Thompson entered the race, and then he more or less pulled back.
Why Newt? Ask yourself why Ronald Reagan won. He won because he was able to excite a group of people in America that the liberal wing of the Republican party has never excited -- the grass roots.
Newt Gingrich is the last Republican to have done that -- to reach out to the grass roots, to all those conservative Republicans and Reagan Democrats. Remember, it was Newt who engineered the miraculous Republican take-over of Congress in 1994 -- something that was deemed impossible two years after Bill Clinton won the White House.
posted by Eric Schansberg @ 9:38 AM
4 Comments
4 Comments:
This comment has been removed by the author.
Eric,
I've taken three different "candidate matching polls" and came up with Romney twice and Paul once.
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/Vote2008/page?id=3623346
Also, note the Ann Coulter has tossed her blond locks in Romney's direction.
I like Newt. Don't like some of the decisions he's made in his personal life, but he's great on the issues important to conservatives. I am a bit tired of people acting as if what you do on your personal time doesn't affect your public life. Character and principles transcend personal and public life. It's true for CEO's teachers, pastors and politicians. You name it. Our public lives are often a mirror of our personal lives- if not now they will become one.
Romney has been gaining momentum with his outsider talk. He hadn't impressed me at all until he began this rhetoric.
I love Paul's positions on economics and social issues. I know how he would handle the war from this point forward. When asked last night if he'd still abolish social security- he point blank said yes. Of course he qualified it by saying for the younger generation.
I am still sticking by my man Huckabee. I still don't buy the labels by Cato and Club for Growth. I keep investigating his record and it appears he governed well and many things he did were conservative and revolutionary in Arkansas. He closed several schools in Arkansas and consolidated districts. His proposal was to close 150 at one point. How can this be considered a big government education department mindset. He had unbelievable strong opposition from Democrats in his state.
I loved his comment about infrastructure spending last night in contrast to the current stimulous packages. If we're going to use short term government stimulus (not that I agree- but it's inevitable), we should not just cut checks and have individuals spend the money on products from China and oil from the Middle East.
He was very detailed in his explanation of the Fair Tax. The most conservative tax policy on the table. If we keep the mindset that the IRS cannot be abolished it seems to me un-American. We should have that mind set of JFK when he said we will go to the moon in this decade. That is true leadership when a politician gets the American people galvanized about an idea and then executes it.
He governed with a balanced budget, and cut several productivity taxes (check out the club for growth website they will detail them), most of his tax increases were use taxes/ or voter approved taxes. He inherited a large deficit 250 million and left office with a 850 million dollar surplus. This was in Arkansas- home of Bill and Hillary and Jim Guy Tucker.
Last but not least he drastically improved the infrasture in his state. That is one of the biggest responsibilites of government next to defense. That is a position that should make Libertarians happy.
Contrast all this with what has taken place in Washington the last 8 years. Big spending, no restraints, big deficits, with no results in terms of defense build up, infrastrure or additional tax cuts. No improvements in border security and no improvement in energy dependence. No problems solved with Medicaid and Social Security. Not a big McCain fan but it was a "bridge to nowhere"
Social conservatives claimed that character was vital when it was Clinton. If Newt got in the race, sadly I think we would find out that it's the character of Democrats that's more important to many of them.
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