"Newt would be a disastrously bad president. (Look at the mess he made while Speaker of the House....)"
Hmm, that is odd.
I seem to remember him giving the Republicans their first majority in Congress after more than 40 years as a minority party.
He wasn't Speaker of the House then, and Bill Clinton had made Democrats look really bad.
Newt's record as Speaker was ghastly: perhaps you recall Newt's "Government Shutdown" fiasco that essentially got Bill Clinton re-elected? Or perhaps you recall the many times where Gingrich got rolled by Clinton on various "deals?"
Newt was and is a great rabble-rouser. But he was a horrible Speaker.
there's a big difference between developing a campaign strategy to elect republican members of congress (which i would give more credit to bubba than Newt for) and being an effective President.