As previously posted, it seems to me that Gingrich was simply too arrogant to recognize the depth of the conservative resistance to him. I heard his phone call to Rush Limbaugh and his vaguely self righteous recital of his conservative bona fides going back to the days even before Ronald Reagan. He doesn't get that intellectual circle-jerks with the policy wonks in the back room aren't what get votes in Peoria.
Particularly in a time of economic crisis.
People either want bread and circuses, or freedom; the conservative's job is to explain how freedom can be used to secure things even better than the bread and circuses.
But to do that, they have to cut off the gravy train of excessive benefits, so that recipients won't have to jump STRAIGHT from government dependence to upper-middle-class status in order to do better than their benefits.
And they have to stop devouring the middle class, which via the Hidden Hand of the Market, really is the goose that lays the Golden Eggs.
The leftist drivers of the Dem party know this, of course; they plan on becoming themselves the Party Faithful who retain the few luxury goods once the Glorious Socialist Revolution comes.
Little do they know they will be the FIRST against the wall.
Gingrich was overrated as an intellect, anyway: I heard some of his speeches in the past, and his interview with Rush, and he subscribed to the adage "never use a two-cent word when a sixty-four cent word will do." Thus violating Strunk and White...and paying the price.
Laugh at Palin, Newt, as they laughed at Reagan. She, like Renaldus Magnus, will gladly trade the approval of the critics for box-office (electoral) success.
Cheers!
As usual I agree with virtually everything you say but I will indulge the all too human tendency to comment on the small fraction with which I disagree:
It is Newt above every politician today, except perhaps Obama, who understands the need to popularize policy, yes, to render it down to a bumper sticker if necessary. Let us not forget That the Contract with America which put the Republicans in power in the house after decades was exactly a concise expression of policy directed toward the people in Peoria and it was Gingrich's conception.
Actually, Gingrich has carefully polled many of the issues and urged the Republican Party to adopt the ones that pull in excess of 80 to 90%, such as making English the official language, but the congressional Republicans simply cannot get out of their Beltway mindsets. It is Gingrich who recognizes the indispensability of articulating the issues properly. No one can accuse John Boehner or Mitch McConnell of that sin. Trump knew how to do it but does Pawlenty?
I second Charles Krauthammer's motion to send a posse after Paul Ryan and drag him into the race.
