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'Super Tuesday' (Thomas Sowell on Obama & Gingrich)
Creators Syndicate ^ | February 29, 2012 | Thomas Sowell

Posted on 02/29/2012 12:55:13 PM PST by jazusamo

Many people are looking to the many primary elections on March 6th — "Super Tuesday" — to clarify where this year's Republican nomination campaign is headed.

It may clarify far more than that, including the future of this nation and of Western civilization. If a clear winner with a commanding lead emerges, the question then becomes whether that candidate is someone who is likely to defeat Barack Obama.

If not, then the fate of America — and of Western nations, including Israel — will be left in the hands of a man with a lifelong hostility to Western values and Western interests.

President Obama is such a genial man that many people, across the ideological space, cannot see him as a danger.

For every hundred people who can see his geniality, probably only a handful see the grave danger his warped policies and ruthless tactics pose to a whole way of life that has given generation after generation of Americans unprecedented freedom and prosperity.

The election next November will not be just another election, and the stakes add up to far more than the sum of the individual issues. Moreover, if reelected and facing no future election, whatever political constraints may have limited how far Obama would push his radical agenda will be gone.

He would have the closest thing to a blank check. Nothing could stop him but impeachment or a military coup, and both are very unlikely. A genial corrupter is all the more dangerous for being genial.

The four remaining Republican candidates have to be judged, not simply by whether they would make good presidents, but by how well they can cut through Obama's personal popularity and glib rhetoric, to alert the voters as to the stakes in this year's election.

Ron Paul? Even those of us who agree with much of his domestic agenda, including getting rid of the Federal Reserve System, cannot believe that his happy-go-lucky attitude toward Iran's getting a nuclear weapon represents anything other than a grave danger to the whole Western World.

Rick Santorum has possibilities, but can he survive the media's constant attempts to paint him as some kind of religious nut who would use the government to impose his views on others? And, if he can, will he also be able to go toe-to-toe with Obama in debates?

I would not bet the rent money on it. And what is at stake is far bigger than the rent money.

Mitt Romney is the kind of candidate that the Republican establishment has always looked for, a moderate who can appeal to independents. It doesn't matter how many such candidates have turned out to be disasters on election night, going all the way back to Thomas E. Dewey in 1948.

Nor does it matter that the Republicans' most successful candidate of the 20th century — Ronald Reagan, with two consecutive landslide victories at the polls — was nobody's idea of a mushy moderate.

He stood for something. And he could explain what he stood for. These may sound like modest achievements, but they are very rare, especially among Republicans.

Newt Gingrich is the only candidate still in the field who can clearly take on Barack Obama in one-on-one debate and cut through the Obama rhetoric and mystique with hard facts and plain logic.

Nor is this just a matter of having a gift of gab. Gingrich has a far deeper grasp of both the policies and the politics than the other Republican candidates.

Does Gingrich have political "baggage"? More than you could carry on a commercial airliner.

Charges of opportunism have been among the most serious raised against the former Speaker of the House. But being President of the United States is the opportunity of a lifetime. If that doesn't sober a man up, it is hard to imagine what would.

Do any of the Republican candidates seem ideal? No. But, the White House cannot be left vacant, while we hope for a better field of candidates in 2016. We have to make our choice among the alternatives actually available, of which Obama is by far the worst.



TOPICS: Editorial; Government; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: 2012; gingrich; newt; obama; romney; sowell; thomassowell
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To: JediJones
... if you want to learn WAY more about MORMONism...

Imagine a world with 4-5 SuperPacs funded by Soros.

Now imagine 4 more years of Obama.

41 posted on 02/29/2012 1:44:30 PM PST by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going)
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To: Gator113

***** Iwant to be here to listen to your cries of horror, when your televangelist completely burns out.... and he most certainly ******

Amen! GO NEWT!!!!!!


42 posted on 02/29/2012 1:44:57 PM PST by mmanager (NEWT - The Chruchill of our time!)
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To: jazusamo
President Obama is such a genial man

**************************

Is he kidding?

43 posted on 02/29/2012 1:45:31 PM PST by trisham (Zen is not easy. It takes effort to attain nothingness. And then what do you have? Bupkis.)
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To: C. Edmund Wright
Levin and Limbaugh have spent the better part of the last month extracting Santorum's foot from his mouth. Frankly I'm growing weary of it. The Republicans cannot go to battle with a candidate whose rhetorical screw-ups have to be cleaned up the following day(s) by conservative talk radio hosts.

Period. End of story.

44 posted on 02/29/2012 1:46:01 PM PST by gov_bean_ counter (Santorum says he isn't a visionary. Sorry Rick, without a vision the people perish.)
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To: gov_bean_ counter

I have been disappointed with that, very disappointed.


45 posted on 02/29/2012 1:47:33 PM PST by C. Edmund Wright
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To: PSYCHO-FREEP

The Democrats are voting in these primaries and they are voting for Romney. Forget that propaganda about voting for Santorum. I am a registered Democrat of 30 years standing. I maintain that registration partly because it gives me access to what local Democrats think. A lot of them have reregistered as Republicans this year to vote for Romney just as they did in 2008 to vote for McCain. In 08 they knew that the kenyan was the nominee long before the MSM or the Republicans figured that out. This year there is no motivation to vote in their own primaries because the kenyan is already the nominee. Romney is the ideal Republican candidate for Democrats. Because he cannot believably distinguish his policies from those of the incumbent he has little chance to win the election and if he does win it there is no loss to the Democrat vision of America, just a hiatus while their policies are still being implemented, probably faster than they could do it, and he will lose the republican House in 2 years and the Democrats, perhaps the kenyan, will easily regain the presidency in 2016.


46 posted on 02/29/2012 1:47:43 PM PST by arthurus (Read Hazlitt's "Economics In One Lesson.")
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To: VinL

Read it in the mid 90s. Excellent Book. Here’s a link to Thomas Sowell on Charlie Rose explaining the premise:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1OOSKBR9O8


47 posted on 02/29/2012 1:47:43 PM PST by trappedincanuckistan (livefreeordietryin)
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To: jazusamo
He came to the correct conclusion, I'm glad to say. Go Newt!

" We're at the crossroads. Down one road is a European centralized bureaucratic socialist welfare system in which politicians and bureaucrats define the future.
Down the other road is a proud, solid, reaffirmation of American exceptionalism."

~Newt Gingrich


48 posted on 02/29/2012 1:49:55 PM PST by trisham (Zen is not easy. It takes effort to attain nothingness. And then what do you have? Bupkis.)
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To: PSYCHO-FREEP

Electable.
Unelectable.


49 posted on 02/29/2012 1:50:24 PM PST by arthurus (Read Hazlitt's "Economics In One Lesson.")
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To: PSYCHO-FREEP

Wow. Even on pro-Newt thread, you can’t help yourself but to bash Santorum. You have a serious case of SDS. Sad reality but you have it bad. I have NEVER witness you boosting up Newt, it is always tearing down Santorum. I never saw anything like it.


50 posted on 02/29/2012 1:57:43 PM PST by napscoordinator (A moral principled Christian with character is the frontrunner! Congrats Santorum!)
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To: jazusamo

Great article. GO NEWT GO!


51 posted on 02/29/2012 1:58:09 PM PST by Parley Baer
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To: jazusamo
“Newt Gingrich is the only candidate still in the field who can clearly take on Barack Obama in one-on-one debate and cut through the Obama rhetoric and mystique with hard facts and plain logic.”

These “debates” are going to be rigged events with the moderators helping Obama, the crowd cheering Obama and booing the Republican and the commentators saying afterwords what a great job Obama did and what a bad job the the Republicans did.

The candidate must be able to connect with ordinary Americans and speak to their concerns. He must lay out a few strong principles and hit on them over and over like Reagan did. The candidate must also be able to take on the MSM and the constant attacks without becoming frustrated or distracted.

If a candidate can do these things against Obama he will win easily.

52 posted on 02/29/2012 1:58:22 PM PST by detective
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To: PSYCHO-FREEP

“Super Tewsday”

I’d go one step further.

Super Newtsday.


53 posted on 02/29/2012 1:59:47 PM PST by trappedincanuckistan (livefreeordietryin)
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To: Steelfish

The fact that Gingrich is still standing is evidence against your assertion. Gingrich is no more an opportunist than Henry Clay, and looking back, I think that we might have avoided a civil war if Clay had won in 1844.


54 posted on 02/29/2012 2:01:27 PM PST by RobbyS (Christus rex.)
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To: gov_bean_ counter
“Levin and Limbaugh have spent the better part of the last month extracting Santorum’s foot from his mouth”

What Rush, Hannity Levin and others have done is correct the many lies about Santorum that are constantly repeated in the MSM. This is the same thing that they do whenever the MSM spread false narratives about conservatives.

55 posted on 02/29/2012 2:03:01 PM PST by detective
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To: bopdowah

I figure Obamanation will just not debate Newt. He will find something else to do, say rearrange a sock drawer, or watch Israel kick Iran’s butt.

In a debate you have a big advantage if the moderator is on your side, and another big advantage if you lie. Obama will have those advantages, and has substantial ability to infuence word events.


56 posted on 02/29/2012 2:04:26 PM PST by donmeaker (Blunderbuss: A short weapon, ... now superceded in civilized countries by more advanced weaponry.)
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To: napscoordinator

I’d prefer Santorum. but would take Newt. He need to play on his” Mr. Angry”image as he did with this crack about being “cheerful.”


57 posted on 02/29/2012 2:04:59 PM PST by RobbyS (Christus rex.)
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To: arthurus
You are factually wrong about that. Exit polls revealed that there were a documented number of Democrats that voted for Santorum in Michigan. In fact, over 9% of the voters at the polls were Democrats.

There is a concerted effort by the Democrats to disrupt the GOP primary this year and Michigan is where they would be able to make that happen.

And think again who they voted for........Santorum, NOT Romney. It's a simple proven fact. Even more disturbing is, every one of these Democrats are planning on voting for Obama in the General and believe that Santorum would be the easiest of all the candidates for Obama to win against.

58 posted on 02/29/2012 2:06:16 PM PST by PSYCHO-FREEP (If you come to a fork in the road, take it........)
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To: arthurus
What ever, you get the message I didn't use spell check that time....big deal.
59 posted on 02/29/2012 2:09:17 PM PST by PSYCHO-FREEP (If you come to a fork in the road, take it........)
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To: Steelfish

I voted for Newt in Arizona yesterday. I’d do it again because he’s the best man still standing. Given the choice between mean old Newt or the continuation of the depression I think Newt will win.


60 posted on 02/29/2012 2:10:19 PM PST by Nateman (If liberals are not screaming you are doing it wrong!)
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