the word on Newt Gingrich
I heard that Newt Gingrich is showing up well in the New Hampshire primary polls. Looking this up, I see that this is basically not the case, but then again why would any of his supporters declare for him — He’s not officially running. Still, he is just about tied with wunderkid non-candidate Fred Thompson, and Thompson is supposed to save the GOP.
Newt Gingrich was and is hyped up in the Weekly Standard, who praised a bunch of words he spoke at a meeting of political minds as compared them favorably with Abraham Lincoln and Winston Churchill in terms of vision, vision, vision. This is the same bunch, and with the same spirit, that promoted a sort of “Dick Cheney for President” boomlet. I have to admire their spirit in advancing unpopular politicians for president whom they agree with to an nth degree.
And I would have to dig up the poll numbers of Gingrich. Trust me when I say — Hillary Clinton’s negatives, famously high, are not nearly as bleak. I have seen the Weekly Standard columnists refer to Nancy Pelosi as the most unpopular politician — which jarred me as both wishful thinking and forgetting the president and vice – president … and … Newt. But maybe Newt didn’t count, because he hasn’t actually been elected to anything since 1998 — and that he walked away from. His current controversy is a strange case of me being able to defend him until he makes awkward and baffling explanations on what he said.
Nonetheless, I think a Newt Gingrich candidacy would be a fascinating exercise for the Republic. Particularly if he was matched up against Barack Obama. The reason I like this is because I look at the election result of the only political race for a seat in the federal government Barack Obama has and see that he beat Alan Keyes 70 to 27. I think it would be interesting to see if that result can be duplicated, and it would be amusing to muse about a strangely green politician having never sweated in nationally followed elections.