Posted on 12/01/2011 3:37:44 PM PST by Hojczyk
Which is a long way of saying that the best thing that can happen to Newt right now is that the conservative media vet him and do so with great vigor, anticipating every charge and debating every past apostasy and failing. Newt's personal story, marriage to Callista and his conversion are powerful walls against his past poor judgments in his life, but they serve not as all to answer Steyn's charge that Newt "hops and skips like a giddy frog across lily pads across the pond, from one, little, itsy-bitsy novelty idea to another, not awfully well thought out."
"And when I look at some of the things he’s managed to sign onto over the last fifteen years, I find that very worrying," Steyn offered, before doubling down: "The idea of Newt as the Republican presidential candidate is, I have to say, extremely dismaying to me."
I got email last night denouncing Mark Steyn, just as Geraghty got such mail yesterday and I get such email every day --most of it from the anti-Romney fringe who have been serially outraged at journalists covering the serial collapses of the previous anti-Romneys, correspondents who vastly overestimate the influence of the center-right chattering class. Romney's base network of support --his rock-solid 25%-- has been built over years and is holding together and Romney will thus either put the nomination away early or answer the bell for the next thirteen rounds after Iowa and New Hampshire. A extended, vitriolic Newt v. Mitt debate between the two camps will be great for talk radio and cable television, but exhausting, expensive and exhilarating for the Chicago gang.
(Excerpt) Read more at hughhewitt.com ...
Mark is human too.
;-)
You and me both, FRiend.
Worse than Newt as nominee (other than Hussein 2.0) is hearing Hugh Hewitt pimp Romney on Hannity’s show. Hewitt wants Romney? Romney is a lot worse the Newt and in fact, the GOP candidate I’ll NOT vote for! (And Hut-man).
Cain's little head problems have taken him out, and now it's Newt or the super rino Romney.
Meanwhile, here come the rats posing as Freepers to get us all screwed up.
I don’t give a crap about the personal stuff. We have “moved on” since Clinton debased the Presidency and got away with it. Trying to hold our candidates to some higher standard of perfection in conducts is just another step closer to 4 more years of Obama. Look - he got away with hiding his background and failing to even prove he’s a natural born citizen - does anyone think a candidate on the Republican side will be seriously hurt because he fooled around on his wife?
First off, I don’t have a dog in this fight. None of the candidates really impresses or excites me and I’m not committed to anyone yet. Gingrich is a worry on several fronts—his marital history, for example, is the sort that disqualified Rudy Guiliani last time around. His current wife apparently was involved in an affair with him while he was still married. Great role model for a first lady. I don’t think she is an asset. She’s been cold, plastic, rehearsed, and programmed in every appearance she’s made with Gingrich on Greta’s show.
Another concern for me—his age. Gingrich is 68 years old. How old was Reagan when he was running for president? Remember the issue that was made of his age? It was put aside when Reagan was shown clearing brush without his shirt on and riding a horse. I don’t imagine we’ll see Gingrich doing anything comparable.
He looks every year of his age, in my opinion. He is overweight and not fit looking. In one of those interviews with newspaper editors, he brushed off questions about his health and blood pressure with a curt, dismissive, “it’s fine.” Not good enough for me. Every inch of his record—marital, financial, political, health, and otherwise will be scrutinized and criticized by the MSM. Can he stand up to the scrutiny? I doubt it.
I grieve for this once great land—for many reasons. Newt is one of the reasons for my grief......
Let's nominate a fat, short, white cocky guy with no record since the 90's and plenty of recent liberal positions and more than his share of shady deals and marital issues to take on Obama.
Yeah, sitting on the couch with Pelosi and lecturing about the horrors of global warming really convinced me...
Newt or Romney = MAJOR disaster. I will vote for neither.
Well, Mark, love you and all, but the prospect of Newt winning the nomination isn’t as troubling as four more septic Obama years, which ought to be just enough time for him to keep flushing America’s future away. That really stinks.
I do.
Such an emotion results in poor decision making.
When you are in the most danger is when you need to have the most presence of mind and clarity of thought,
You have proof, or are you just playing along with Obama and the MSM?
I don’t support Newt, and I don’t excuse his past actions. All I’m saying that is compared to Romney, who no one can remember doing anything conservative, Newt fares better.
Nobody in their right mind wants to have the house of cards that is the US economy come crashing down on their heads. Nobody can fix what is coming at us so perhaps the best of the best is sitting this one out. When the economy collapses on the next President, do you think the media will place the blame on Obama?
Did you forget his fights with Clinton? I’m not a Newt fan, but at one time he was the face of political conservatism.
This is the real man for this job. The guy with the record to beat Obama, no marital issues and a solid gun rights advocate and pro-life candidate. I can't believe we are seriously thinking about Newt, he is no more conservative than Romney just fatter, shorter, uglier and with worse hair. If all we want to do is win and principle means nothing, which apparently it doesn't, why not put a guy who is taller than Obama with better hair because apparently the GOP has lost it's f-ing mind.
If anyone thinks outsiders and independents are not going to be swayed by a billion dollar ad campaign against Newt and his marital and shady Congressional record your delusional. Newt will have his ass handed to him and Obama doesn't even need to agree to a debate or just agree to 1 or 2 early debates and then pound Gingrich in ads on his history.
This is insanity.
Newt will keep hopping and bopping about but Romney has already set his present persona. What you see is what you get for Romney until after November 2012.
I get angry at the idea it is desperation.
It is not. All it is is that conservatives always reject their own.
We have good conservatives in this race. Bachmann, Santorum and Cain.
People always go for the smooth talking establishment RINO and trash the conservatives that actually entered this race.
Conservatives are their own worst enemy.
Of course the Romneybot tool, otherwise known as Hugh Hewitt, would be all over Mark Steyn’s statement.....
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.