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Newt had his chance, but he blew it: Why Gingrich won’t earn the 2012 GOP presidential nomination
NY Daily News ^ | 11-23-11 | SE Cupp

Posted on 11/23/2011 5:22:45 AM PST by MNJohnnie

I was only 15 in 1994, when Newt Gingrich experienced his last great moment. (Well, before this one, where he’s surging in the polls, with his campaign having figured out how to run for President.) So I don’t really remember Newt’s glory days.

I have interviewed him on many occasions, however, as far back as 2006 and as recently as last month, and every time we talk, I’m struck by how smart he is. Despite that, I can’t get past the nagging voice in my head telling me that no matter how good he would be at running the country, he doesn’t deserve to.

Call me a square, but Newt’s past mistakes occupy both columns: character and politics. From his ugly romantic entanglements to his flirtation with environmentalism to his questionable relationship with Freddie Mac, bad decisions and lapses in judgment have been too frequent for a man of such obvious intelligence.

And yet, for all his mistakes, Newt remains startlingly unembarrassed, which makes those mistakes even less palatable. Though arrogance and a lack of shame characterize Capitol Hill, I’m suspicious of a guy who’s had so many public errors, and is so untroubled by them.

(Excerpt) Read more at nydailynews.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Extended News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: 2012; campaign; freddie; gingrich; hitpiece; newt; newtgingrich
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To: normy
They trash every candidate so Cain, who has got to be one of the worst candidates ever invented, can look better.

Anyone who saw last night's debate performance and still backs Cain is being willfully and obstinately blind to the man's very, very obvious shortcomings! He's a dope. He knows next to nothing. He was stalling for time all over the stage last night waiting for the spoon fed line that his advisers fed him before the debate to come to him!

Cain was attractive in the beginning because he was fresh, optimistic, witty and a NON POLITICICAN. Those attributes pale in comparision to his short comings.

61 posted on 11/23/2011 6:04:44 AM PST by pgkdan ("Make what Americans buy, Buy what Americans make, and sell it to the world" Perry 2012)
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To: hellbender

>> Then I suggest you quit all advocacy for conservative causes and resign yourself to living in a Chavez-style Soviet America, because Third World immigration (legal and otherwise) will produce an ironclad pro-socialist majority in this country, as it has already done in California. >>

With due respect, you are giving a false choice. There will never be mass deportation, but there certainly CAN BE OTHER conservative solutions.

There CAN BE a secure border.
There COULD BE a move to deport all arrested subsequently for other crimes.
There MAY BE a move to stop government hand outs for them.

Just think for a minute: if nothing else happened but item 1 above and parts of items 2 and 3 in some states, how close we would be to solving the worst of this problem. We’d be damned close. And over time, even closer.


62 posted on 11/23/2011 6:04:46 AM PST by C. Edmund Wright (Moderator of Florida Tea Party Convention Presidential Debate)
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To: ngat

I posted before finishing: I meant to say that the best we’ll get with any candidate is a secure border. Nothing more. And while Perry and Newt may not be your cup of tea on what to do with those already here, they both do want a secure border to stop any future bleeding.

And that’s the best we’ll get in the short run, but that’s a damned good start.


63 posted on 11/23/2011 6:07:02 AM PST by C. Edmund Wright (Moderator of Florida Tea Party Convention Presidential Debate)
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To: MNJohnnie

I’m glad Neut was clear on his views on immigration last night.

At least those who will continue to support him will know what they’ll be getting: Bush/McCain.

No one can talk a better game than Neut; but looking at his actions rather than his words indicates that he’s an establishment, “big government conservative” who will continue the flood-America-with-immigrants policy of our last several presidents.


64 posted on 11/23/2011 6:07:42 AM PST by SharpRightTurn ( White, black, and red all over--America's affirmative action, metrosexual president.)
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To: pgkdan

So apparently the Newt camp has no problem with those sorts of scumbag political tactics.

Thank you from proving my point about how Newt has become a Cult of Personality to his followers here.

Cult of Personality tactic 3. Anything is permissible as long as it advances the cause of the cult leader.


65 posted on 11/23/2011 6:07:59 AM PST by MNJohnnie (Giving more money to DC to fix the Debt is like giving free drugs to addicts think it will cure them)
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To: rintense

“Yep. Though Newt may be the only adult in the GOP room at times, he’s still a RINO. I’m glad Bachmann went after him. Too bad the Texas. Governor didn’t do the same.”

Agreed. I’m glad Bachmann was willing to step up and slap him up against the head.


66 posted on 11/23/2011 6:09:36 AM PST by SharpRightTurn ( White, black, and red all over--America's affirmative action, metrosexual president.)
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To: C. Edmund Wright

The question is, do we really think under any circumstances that there will be any “rounding up” of illegals for the purpose of deportation? Of course not, under any President.

We did it under President Eisenhower. Operation Wetback started in northern California and worked its’ way south rounding up and deporting illegals every step of the way.(Some were actually sent deep into Mexico to prevent their rapid return.) By the time the operation reached Arizona there were no illegals left to send home. They had all self deported from AZ,NM,and TX.

Today any such operation would have to carve out exceptions like Gingrich described, but, if the border were secured, would drastically reduce the number of illegals in this country and document the remainder.

The next step would be to tighten our visa controls. This is a problem that can be solved if we start thinking of illegals as trespasers and stop calling them immigrants.


67 posted on 11/23/2011 6:09:54 AM PST by csmusaret (The only borders Obama has closed is a bookstore.)
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To: C. Edmund Wright
Seal the border. Kick out those arrested for drug, traffic, other crimes. Stop the hand outs. Do that, and the problem is mostly solved.

EXACTLY!! Newt is speaking from what is realistic and so is Perry - START with the border - and so is Ron Paul - the massive deportation what MB/MR are speaking of - WILL NEVER HAPPEN. Those three get stars for HONESTY!! And you for realism and common sense!!
68 posted on 11/23/2011 6:10:18 AM PST by presently no screen name
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To: Jim from C-Town
I agree with all you wrote. The more I hear Newt, the more I think he is the guy for the job. He is far from perfect. He DOES, though, revere what the Founders had in mind when creating this country. Re: the illegal question....there never will be a round up. All boarders should be sealed tight as a drum. If we need “cheap labor” people from Mexico should need a workers permit to come here, be treated respectfully, and understand that they are not going to get the benefits of being a citizen.

I would love it if Newt took on the 14th amendment. That is the problem, though nobody wants to bring it up/deal with it. Newt, just may be the man to do it.

It's still early in the game...but Newt is looking better and better to me.

69 posted on 11/23/2011 6:10:29 AM PST by Pigsley
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To: MNJohnnie; All
Follow my logic here...

* Emanuel and Schumer took the House and Senate by picking off districts from PA west to IL.
* I found a map of districts with percentages of religious denomination's in them.
* I then compared that map to what Chucky and Rambo did...
* Schumer and Emanuel picked off districts that the highest concentration was Catholic. IMHO they got Catholics sick of "Bush's War(s)" to vote "D" in 06'....

Now follow this...

* Newt is a fairly recent Catholic.
* The Catholics I know ( many ) tend to be what we might call "reasonable", i.e. many of the the folks Newt talked about last night, might sit next to them in their Churches on Sunday, even in the Burb's and Ex-burbs.
* By saying what he did last night, IMHO he is appealing to the same folks that Schumer and Emanuel Stole in 06'.

IMHO he needs PA, OH, and MI to win, much of the "Macomb County Democrats" i.e. the "Reagan Democrats" were Catholic if my memory is correct.

I maybe way off base here, but IMHO this is Newt's Target Market.

If my theory is correct, it could be a brilliant way to bring Obama leaning Catholics back into the fold for 12'.

Newt maybe playing 3 dimensional chess more than Sarah was, am I the only one who sees it.......

70 posted on 11/23/2011 6:11:01 AM PST by taildragger (( Palin / Mulally 2012 ))
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To: presently no screen name

“However, I believe Newt will actively start deportation...”

In other words, you totally missed what Newt Gingrich said in last night’s debate.


71 posted on 11/23/2011 6:11:36 AM PST by ngat
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To: csmusaret

trespassers


72 posted on 11/23/2011 6:12:33 AM PST by csmusaret (The only borders Obama has closed is a bookstore.)
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To: MNJohnnie

Once again...I’m not a Newt supporter but your constant attacks on anyone not Cain is embarrassing. I understand why you do it. There’s not much positive you can say about a candidate who is lost if he can’t say 9-9-9 and smile alot.


73 posted on 11/23/2011 6:13:54 AM PST by pgkdan ("Make what Americans buy, Buy what Americans make, and sell it to the world" Perry 2012)
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To: SharpRightTurn; rintense
Agreed. I’m glad Bachmann was willing to step up and slap him up against the head.

___________________________________________

Yep...I especially liked her answer to how she was going to split up families that have been here two or more generations by deporting grandma...she hit that one out of the park.

74 posted on 11/23/2011 6:14:14 AM PST by moose-matson (I keep it in my head)
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To: MNJohnnie

Think carefully about what Newt said. He said,

“Is it inhumane to deport an illegal immigrant who came to the United States 25 years ago,”

Why did he choose 25 years ago and not 20 or 30.

People assume that 25 years was just a number that Newt pulled out of his ass.

It is not.

Think back about about what happened 25 years ago.

That would be 1986.

That was the year Ronald Reagan’s bill gave amnesty to the then current residents in exchange for sealing the border.

The border wasn’t sealed and millions more Mexicans and other poured over the border.

The people who came after 1986 were illegal. But the people who came before 1986 were legalized if they bothered to come forward.

So Newt is talking about a law that is already on the books.


75 posted on 11/23/2011 6:14:53 AM PST by ckilmer (Phi)
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To: MNJohnnie
Newt kept talking about how these people were tax paying and law abiding...except that that they're illegally in this country. They can't be law abiding and here illegally. One is the antithesis of the other.
76 posted on 11/23/2011 6:15:35 AM PST by FourPeas ("Maladjusted and wigging out is no way to go through life, son." -hg)
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To: Pigsley
I would love it if Newt took on the 14th amendment.

Oh you are well read, and even National Review only has talked about it once or Twice and Coulter and the fact the 14th doesn't mean "anchor babies".

This debate when it happens will make the Charles Murray books that hinted about the gene pool look like a cake walk....

77 posted on 11/23/2011 6:15:35 AM PST by taildragger (( Palin / Mulally 2012 ))
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To: moose-matson

“Yep...I especially liked her answer to how she was going to split up families that have been here two or more generations by deporting grandma...she hit that one out of the park.”

I missed that one, Moose, and if that’s what she said I’d have to disagree with her. I don’t want the families split up—the whole clan needs to be deported.


78 posted on 11/23/2011 6:18:24 AM PST by SharpRightTurn ( White, black, and red all over--America's affirmative action, metrosexual president.)
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To: Jim from C-Town

I would rather plunge head first into tyranny than “skirt the edge” for eternity.

F—K that sh—. If its gotta get worse before people people feel the heat, gain some fight and cast off their inhibitions to cracking skulls. Fine! At least there is HOPE that we gain our freedom. But to be stuck in an endless purgatory of back and forth on the edge of tyranny is UNACCEPTABLE and IMMORAL! People will remain clueless sheep until everything simply decays.

If we want to be free from tyranny and or the infinite threat of tyranny, We have to meet it and defeat it in a way that humans have defeated tyranny since the beginning of time. Working with it, and accepting aspects of it as a position of “moderation” to slowly turn the tide is nothing more than a lullaby. Ask any smoker who tried to quit smoking by just cutting down on the number of smokes they had a day or switching to light’s... Doesn’t F’ing work, Just like doing less cocaine from time to time wont help you break the addiction. We have to STOP COLD F’ing TURKEY. Its up to us to have the will to do so.

Newt, Romney, and all other rino’s are just “cocaine light” or light cigarettes. They are a false choice... They are NO CHOICE.... Ultimately, they are invested “heart and mind” into securing the safety of this socialist nation.

We need people in the fedgov who are going to subvert it, cripple it, STOP IT... While we gain strength in the states and prepare to wield those states as weapons against the socialist Leviathan in the fight for our freedom from the tyranny of the socialist bastards and their ignorant horde of zombies.


79 posted on 11/23/2011 6:20:28 AM PST by myself6
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To: Jim from C-Town

If Newt were to get his Master Amnesty Plan we, the Taxpayer, will be taxed more paying for the entitlements these folks will want as US Citizens, plus teaching them English and putting them on 2 years of unemployment.


80 posted on 11/23/2011 6:20:41 AM PST by not2worry
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