Posted on 12/09/2011 1:31:59 PM PST by Jim Robinson
I posted the below in response to a FReeper who asked me what we should do in regards to progressives Newt and Romney. And he asked me what would George Washington do? So I got to thinking about why I've been gravitating towards Newt. In fact it kept me up for half the night.
Here is my reply:
Well, I’ll tell you, after Palin declined to run I really didn’t have a dog in this race. I liked Bachmann and Cain a lot, even Perry, but not as much as I liked Palin. Bachmann and Cain are both conservative enough, but neither have really been tested in higher office, nor do they have much experience in world affairs.
I also had high hopes for Perry because it looks like he’s done a great job in Texas, but his positions on the border issues turned off a lot of people. And his “heartless” statement didn’t win him much opportunity to turn that around.
I guess Santorum is conservative enough and possibly Huntsman, but neither engender much enthusiasm or excitement. Seems they’re just going through the motions. Don’t know if they have the real world experience to be CINC anyway.
Bachmann seems to be trying really hard but don’t know if she’s really qualified for the top spot either. Even so, had Bachmann really lit a fuse on the trail, I probably would have stood by and supported her, but she flopped and is unlikely to recover.
I thought early on that if Perry got into the race (without Palin) that he’d suck all the air out of it and would dominate. But he flopped. And then Cain took off like a rocket and he flopped.
Now Cain didn’t have elective experience, but he looked like a great conservative so we were all hoping and pulling for him. Well, that didn’t turn out well.
Mind you, that abortionist, lib progressive bastard Mitt Romney is just sitting there smiling through all this and he, Rove and the GOP elite think they’ve got it in the bag. Just gotta hang in there, not say anything rash, not rock the boat, no mistakes, just play defense as one by one the upstart tea party conservative candidates burn themselves out.
In my mind, we must defeat Romney AND Obama. I don’t think George Washington is going to be smiling down on us if we had this great tea party opportunity to knock off the progressives and we let Rove, Romney and the corrupt good old boys club bushwhack us. We’re supposed to be the bushwhackers.
So like a whole lot of conservative Republicans and tea party folks, we’re bouncing candidate to candidate looking for the one to knock off Romney so we can take the tea party battle directly to Obama. Romney is no tea party person. He and Rove, et al, sneer at us. No way in hell are they going to do anything we’re interested in doing even if they do get elected. It’ll be government as usual. Big. They hate us worse than they hate the democrats because we’re a direct threat to their power base.
So in comes Gingrich. Didn’t much care for him at first, mainly because of his well known baggage, and his perceived RINO plumage, but he began making a lot of sense and scoring a lot of points in the debates. Turns out his depth of knowledge and experience in government affairs both domestic and foreign and his experience with Ronald Reagan, the Reagan Revolution and the Republican Revolution of the 90’s are quite extensive and quite impressive if you look.
He’s been through the mill and that’s what a lot of our younger less experienced, less traveled candidates are missing. In the debates he comes off as a wiser, more experienced, more knowledgeable, level-headed senior statesman. And it appeared to me that the other candidates acknowledged and respected that.
So I start thinking back about his history as a congressman and speaker, and lo and behold, it appears to me he’s not such a RINO after all. He was a genuine Reagan protege. And he learned well from the master communicator. He eventually set a goal for himself to build a Republican majority and to take the speakership, and he determinately accomplished that goal.
And he had some great conservative accomplishments as congressman and speaker. He passed the contract with America. He cut taxes. Cut the deficit. Reformed welfare. Blocked HillaryCare. Became a thorn in President Clinton’s side, blocked much of his liberal agenda and ultimately allowed impeachment to proceed. Then of course, he resigned due to his own infidelity scandal. But, unlike Clinton, he didn’t deny it, didn’t lie about it, and he did the right thing by resigning.
Bottom line though, through his years with the Reagan Revolution and the Republican majority much conservative good was accomplished. The Wall came down, the Soviet Union collapsed and our great Reagan economy flourished for two decades.
Now, if a progressive RINO had been in charge of the congress during this period, who knows what would have happened. I’m sure the history would have been a lot different. Remember, before Gingrich and his Republican Majority, we conservatives had wandered in the wilderness for 40 years!! And our country was on life support after Jimmy Carter nearly killed it. And the democrats were saying at the time that there was nothing we could do about it. We were going to be stuck with the cold war. Stuck with the Soviet Union, stuck with Iran. Stuck with high oil prices, gas lines and rationing. Stuck with recession, high interest rates, high inflation and high unemployment from that point forward. They could not be fixed. Jimmy Carter and the democrats had given up on America and surrendered the USA to our fate as a failed nation.
In walk Ronald Reagan and Newt Gingrich and reestablish that great shining city on the hill! Thank God! It’s not the end of the world after all. Iran returns the hostages immediately. Reagan takes the Soviet Union head on! Reagan takes the democrats head on and doesn’t take no for an answer. Takes his ideas to the people. It was a struggle but eventually the economy began turning. Reagan’s central theme domestically was that the government was too big, too intrusive, taxes too high, too much spending, too many regulations, too many restrictions on business and industry and they all must be cut. And he took that battle over the heads of the democrat congress to the tax payers and they loved it. Sound familiar?
And in 1994, Newt Gingrich leads the charge against the democrats who had been in power for 40 years and the Republicans take the majority and Gingrich becomes Speaker. He dreams up the contract with America which was designed as an extension of the Reagan Revolution and and included items attempting to balance the budget, reform welfare, tort reform, term limits, line item veto, etc. Some of it was successfully implemented, some not. But under Gingrich they did cut the deficit and balance the budget four years running. Sound desirable? Sound progressive?
How many times in our history have you seen a liberal progressive, cut taxes, cut regulations, cut spending, cut welfare, balance the budget, block big government programs like HillaryCare, impeach a sitting president, etc?
Never! In other words, all this to say Newt is NO RINO!! He’s a pro-life, pro-small government, pro-national security, Reagan conservative!! In short, we’re desperate, and he’s exactly what we’re looking for, and he’s running head and shoulders over the rest of the field, so what the hell are we squabbling about?
Yes, Romney and Rove hate him, the Republican establishment elite ruling class hates him, the liberals hate him, the democrats hate him and they hate him for the same reasons the taxpayers will support him, the lovers of liberty will support him, the defenders of life will support him, the defenders of national security will support him, the lovers of the Reagan Revolution will support him, and we the tea party should support him!! He’s a tax cutting, budget balancing, strong defense, small government, pro-life Reagan CONSERVATIVE!!
After reviewing Newt vs Romney, George Washington would say, go, NEWT!!
I’ll take a chance with Newt. Over Romney? You betcha!!
What say you?
Don’t forget the 5 seat loss in the 98 election—primarily caused by voter disaffection over the Clinton impeachment (another major Gingrich accomplishment). I don’t care about the repercussions, it was the right thing to do and it was unfortunate that his fellow Republicans lacked the intestinal fortitude to stand with him.
Yup. Not much difference between Romney’s record and Obama’s. Abortion, gay rights, gun-control, liberal judges, gays in the military, gays in the scouts, gay preferences throughout, global warming, big government mandated health care complete with tax payer funded abortion, etc.
Completely agree with you, Jim.
Saw Josh P’s tweet re your defense of Newt. I haven’t been back here since mid Oct because it seemed like a lot had gone off the deep end after Sarah declined. FreeRepublic had turned into one big fight site! Didn’t notice a lot of productive discussion.
I’ll start checking back in with ya.
I refuse to watch BOR, but my darling husband was watching. I keep telling him....”NO BOR.” but I wanted to eat dinner with him on Catholic Fish Friday!
I don’t do the Fish Friday anymore like we did as kids but, I love fish and it’s good for our health. So, I’ll have a crab cake. :)
That is the meat and potatoes of it. Have a very Merry Christmas Jim.
Well, I’m not going to sit her and pine for Palin, Bachmann or Perry when we have an experienced and knowledgeable veteran conservative warhorse like Gingrich running solidly over Romney and the rest of the field. If Palin joins the race or Bachmann surges, it could be a different picture. Meanwhile, I’m here to ensure we first defeat Romney, then take the battle directly to Obama.
Gingrich is one bulldog who can do that. Give me another and I’ll be happy. The more conservative bulldogs we have in the race, the better our chances. Romney’s the one who should be down in the single digits and all of our conservative bulldogs competing for the lead. Bring them on.
Thank you very much. And Merry Christmas to you and yours!
Welcome back! Nice to hear they’re tweeting about us.
Leave the bones in the fish next time. ;)
You are very wise.
Yes. He also said he could see Allen West as his VP. I'm sure he can imagine all kinds of people for a VP. I mean, the guy writes alternate history novels for fun.
I’m inclined to agree with Jim. The lamestream media narrative has always been “well, Obama’s policies have failed, but he’s such a brilliant, brilliant man that you need to have faith in him.” I think against Newt, they won’t be able to hold together that narrative, and by the debates, they’ll have to abandon it altogether or spin like a nuclear-powered loom.
I think the LSM hammered into the brains of most independents that the concept that affairs should have no bearing on Presidential figures during the Lewinsky scandal (and even misled many people that he was being impeached because of the affair, not perjury and subordination to commit perjury), so they’ll have a difficult time reversing that position now to try to save Obama with Newt’s “baggage.” It will just get people thinking about Clinton, and Newt’s record of accomplishment during that same time period.
I think Newt would win, and I think he’d make a pretty good President. No Reagan, but better than the Bushes. Certainly infinitely better than Obozo.
Of course “their view” is that people like Bush I was a better bet than Reagan, Dole was more electable, McCain was electable and now Romney is “more electable” and will win more seats and we know how that worked out.
Thank you Jim, I really missed the camaraderie.
Here are the tweets:
from Josh Painter
More Robinson: “Newt is NO RINO! He’s a pro-life, pro-small government, pro-national security, Reagan conservative!” bit.ly/svf5m1
________________
from Josh Painter
Freeper-in-chief Jim Robinson: Newt “was a genuine Reagan protege. And he learned well from the master communicator.” bit.ly/svf5m1
Gingrich got a republican congressional majority for the first time in 40 years and brought up and passed large portions of the contract with America and passed welfare reform and tax cuts. Bachmann hasn’t persuaded anyone to do anything positive.
How will she persuade the country to accept conservative ideas and concepts. This is an ability that Reagan had in spades and people like Palin and Gingrich have, the ability to communicate a POSITIVE conservative vision, it is something that well intentioned people like Perry, Bachmann and Santorum are incapable of.
Don’t worry. Gingrich won’t be president anyway. Frankly you don’t sound like you have much use for conservatives anyway.
It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.
Newt has his critics, to be sure. They will happily list Newt's errors, and dwell on his many shortcomings. But Newt is a fighter and doer, who dares greatly, with a passionate love of America. As long as he is, he's conservative enough for me.
Romney, in contrast, is the embodiment of the cold and timid soul.
You’ve got that right!
Also, a great leader who accomplishes big things is bound to make enemies and mistakes along the way. That is why Newt says he wants to set up a system for dialog between us and him (if POTUS) so we can let him know if the ideas are good or not, working or not, and make suggestions. I think his critics from the House have mostly complained about how hard he made them work. Not a bad thing in my book.
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