Tag: newt gingrich

Bring out the Newt?

You have to understand: this does not make me heartsick. Although I can understand how it could make people heartsick.  Other people who are not me.

[Former Speaker Newt Gingrich] told the assembled Republicans that Trump was an idol for lawmakers to emulate. In essence, he was working to normalize the idea of a President Trump before a Washington, D.C. establishment that is views him as utterly unacceptable.

“It was clear that Gingrich’s objective there was to persuade us to embrace Trump as the likely Republican nominee. For many of us, it was surprising to see the former speaker align himself with a figure like Trump who reflects few, if any, of our values,” said one of the [politician’s] chiefs [of staff] that was in the room. “He seemed to suggest that because Trump had the support of what is still a minority portion of those voting in the Republican primaries and was a business success that we should fall in line.”

Continue reading Bring out the Newt?

@barackobama ripping off Newt Gingrich’s new book Breakout.

You know, doing that sort of thing isn’t actually a bad plan: Newt Gingrich is a pretty good idea man. But you think that the President could have attributed his sources:

President Obama lifted the theme of former House Speaker Newt Gingrich’s new book “Breakout” during a video interview with the Wall Street Journal.

In the session, he said that the nation is “poised for a breakout” because the U.S. economy has improved at a faster pace than other nations. It was one of the most tweeted lines from the interview.

Regnery Publishing released Gingrich’s uniquely titled book “Breakout” two weeks ago. It is unknown if the president has read it.

Or, you know, plugged the book. I’m in the middle of Breakout myself; it’s a good read so far.  It wouldn’t have hurt the President to generate a little free goodwill, there.  After all, in a little over three years Barack Obama’s going to want people to flog the book that he’s undoubtedly planning to write, once he gets out of office… Continue reading @barackobama ripping off Newt Gingrich’s new book Breakout.

In the Mail: Newt Gingrich’s Breakout.

Specifically: Breakout: Pioneers of the Future, Prison Guards of the Past, and the Epic Battle That Will Decide America’s Fate.  I don’t particularly care for contemporary political books, as probably everybody here knows: but I will admit to having a certain admiration for Newt Gingrich*, if for no other reason than that Newt represents just how far a science fiction nerd can get in this country.

And Speaker of the House is pretty dang far.  There are people who argue that it’s a sweeter deal than President of the United States.

Continue reading In the Mail: Newt Gingrich’s Breakout.

#rsrh And so it ends? Newt reportedly about to suspend campaign.

That’s the word on the Tweet.  Word is that he’s probably going to line up behind Mitt Romney at that time, too.  Well, at least I won’t have to take a stiff drink or two this time to endorse Mitt Romney (which I had to do with John Freaking McCain); which is probably best from a thematic point of view, at that.  And, obviously, we absolutely must get Barack Obama out of office before he does even more damage to the Republic. Continue reading #rsrh And so it ends? Newt reportedly about to suspend campaign.

#rsrh The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly on this Byron York piece.

Executive Summary: Newt Gingrich doesn’t have an oppo research team that can and will find out basic details about the surrogates being used to attack Newt Gingrich*, let alone get those details out there for the edification of the voting public.

  • The Bad.  Well, obviously this is bad for Team Newt.  But it’s also potentially bad for the GOP, because if he does get the nomination then Gingrich will see no particular reason to change strategies for the general; and, speaking as an unaffiliated opposition researcher myself, there is going to be the Mother Of All Target-Rich Environments this go-round.
  • The Good.  On the other hand, if Romney gets the nomination then maybe we’re going to see a thorough airing of the Other Side’s dirty laundry in public for a change.  If: I am not entirely confident that Team Romney plans to get down there in the mud and go hammer and tongs at Team Obama.  I was sure that Team McCain would – especially after they ported in a Wasilla kinfe artist to take the traditional attack dog position in the campaign – and look what happened there.
  • The Ugly.  What the media will call the 2012 general campaign, if Romney decides to get down there in the mud.  And never mind that both party’s bases are kind of itching for a gutter war right now.

Via Hot Air Headlines.

Moe Lane

Secret Florida primary training video leaked!

Never you mind how said training video was acquired, and/or which campaigns are going to use it to inform their operating methodology: that part’s not important.  What’s important is that this is how the next week is going to look, in the run-up to the Florida primary:

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

Continue reading Secret Florida primary training video leaked!

Thoughts on the SC primary.

As mentioned earlier, I was kind of taking last night off, so this will be a little scatter-shot.  Anyway:

  • Heh.  Called it.  Not that getting the order was all that hard, or even unsurprising; also note that I didn’t predict the percentages.  By the way:  the end results (Gingrich 40%, Romney 28%, Santorum 17%, Paul 13%) were pretty close to what PPP predicted (Gingrich 37%, Romney 28%, Santorum 16%, Paul 14%).
  • Sean Trende over at RCP has done a pretty good job explaining just how bad this night was for Mitt Romney.
  • I predict that we’ve heard the last of any suggestion, by the way, that Romney will skipping most or all of the remaining debates.
  • Most importantly: none of this suggests that Newt Gingrich is now the inevitable nominee.  Just that Romney isn’t actually inevitable.  But it’s going to be one of those two.
  • Florida is going to be epic next week.  Nine days of (metaphorical) knife fights in alleys, because there’s some people out there who are scared for the first time in this campaign cycle.  Hope everyone else is prepared for that, because it’s going to happen anyway.
  • Looking further at the schedule… Nevada, Arizona, and Michigan’s caucuses/primaries look like the results will be binding; Maine, Colorado, and Minnesota’s technically will not. Don’t expect that to be reported in the media.
  • If Romney doesn’t start winning primaries, the Super Tuesday narrative will have a disproportionate amount of space dedicated to the minor detail that the frontrunner is not on the ballot in Virginia. Fallout from that: if Romney wins the nomination then Bob McDonnell will not be his Vice Presidential pick.
  • Last but not least: if the Gingrich campaign is wondering what to send RedState in the way of a gift basket, I personally like those chocolate praline stick things.  Although, honestly, I didn’t do the heavy lifting on this one.

Moe Lane (crosspost)

#rsrh This… should have been about half as long, and 1/10 as bitter.

(H/T: Hot Air Headlines) It’s an extremely sarcastic exercise in spleen against Newt Gingrich by John Ziegler, and it needs some rather drastic editing for length.  And then even more editing to avoid gratuitously insulting the conservative base.  And the entire population of South Carolina.  Probably should have avoided suggesting that Gingrich is some sort of ritual magician, come to think of it.  All in all, two things to take away from this article: the first is, this is not how you convince people that you’re right and they, specifically, are wrong.  This is instead how you convince people that you’re being a petulant jackass. Continue reading #rsrh This… should have been about half as long, and 1/10 as bitter.

#rsrh The Newt Gingrich Eats Juan Williams’ Liver Footage.

Somebody emailed me this link to the video where Newt Gingrich decided to see how Juan Williams’ liver tasted:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ka0LMt5ciRc

Transcript and discussion after the fold. Continue reading #rsrh The Newt Gingrich Eats Juan Williams’ Liver Footage.

VA AG Ken Cuccinelli calls for primary ballot reform, write-in option.

This just keeps getting better and better for the Virginia GOP, doesn’t it? Via Ballot Access News, first we get the Attorney General for Virginia pointing out that the requirements for ballot access are far too restrictive:

I would throw out for consideration that we should lower our requirements to 100 legitimate signatures per congressional district.

Let’s face it, absent a serious write-in challenge from some other candidate, Virginia won’t be nearly as ‘fought over’ as it should be in the midst of such a wide open nomination contest. Our own laws have reduced our relevance. Sad.

…and suggesting that a write-in ballot is possible. Which, as a lot of people with perhaps vested interests in there not being any more candidates on the ballot would tell you, is: a, impossible; and b, so mind-bogglingly obviously impossible that anybody who suggests that such a thing would be possible would be as dumb as Newt Gingrich.  Of course, some of the people who are most pushing the ‘dumb as Newt Gingrich’ bit are perhaps not entirely clear about Gingrich’s actual position:

“And we hope to launch a write-in campaign. We’re getting an amazing number of people who … believe Virginians ought to have the right to choose and shouldn’t be restricted to two people.”

When a reporter noted that state law prohibits write-in votes in Virginia primaries, Gingrich said: “There’s time for them to change it. If something’s wrong, they ought to fix it.”

Continue reading VA AG Ken Cuccinelli calls for primary ballot reform, write-in option.