Open Thread: Newt's Exit
It happened yesterday but still big news today is the exit of presidential candidate Newt Gingrich who announced that he is ending his campaign for the Republican nomination.
Now that he's out, what are your thoughts on his campaign? Do you think he ran it as well as he could have? What major flaws or mistakes did he make in your mind that prevented him from winning the GOP nomination? Do you feel like his candidacy will have an impact on the general election? Sound off on this and any other topic you'd like right here.
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Comments
Juan, Juan, Juan... when I
Submitted by bretzysdude on Thu, 05/03/2012 - 10:21am.
Juan, Juan, Juan... when I was in debate tournaments, if someone asked me if I had evidence to back up my point, if I just said, "No.", I would have only lost the point. But if I had said, "Look it up yourself", I would have been laughed off the stage and given a talking-to by my coach after he read the judges' ballot.
The race card... those that play it don't have a full deck.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKO6GrbdXfU
➚ Was that a hoot, or what?
Submitted by Cool Arrow on Thu, 05/03/2012 - 10:31am.
Juan Williams was really doing his best Jim Clyburn last night, wasn't he?
He did not easily slip himself into that role, it was contrived (if you've followed Juan at all).
I couldn't believe Juan decided to use lies against Michelle. It's almost like he took an Alan Colmes pill.
➚ Early wowed was I
Submitted by Cool Arrow on Thu, 05/03/2012 - 10:26am.
Gingrich hit the ground running on a shoestring and a bunch of ideas and sound logic. For me, he was up there with Cain as favorites go.
Something happened. He lost sight of the mission, which was not ultimately about him, and focused too heavily on his compatriot, Romney.
Gingrich put the shark under his skis when his PAC accused Romney of trying to feed pork (OK, non- kosher meals) to Holocaust victims.
Terrible campaign. Still a good man.
At some point Newt realized
Submitted by balboa on Thu, 05/03/2012 - 10:46am.
At some point Newt realized he wasn't going to get the nomination and decided he was going to go out in a blaze of glory.
And I think he came to that point months ago
Submitted by Galvanic on Thu, 05/03/2012 - 11:22am.
His campaign ran out of steam then, but like the other candidates who've fallen by the wayside, he's stayed in the hunt at least nominally in order to qualify for Federal matching funds.
Gingrich never had a real chance at securing the nomination. He provided some great intellectual insights and his counterpunches to the MSM debate "hosts" were both savvy and appropriate.
But he carries too much baggage. Despite his Beltway-outsider posture, he's a Beltway-insider through and through. It will be interesting now to see how much of the $4 million debt he can pay off, and how much gets left with the creditors.
He was always an outsider, in
Submitted by redfish on Thu, 05/03/2012 - 12:49pm.
He was always an outsider, in a way, even when he was on the inside. He fought the party establishment, who didn't like him, and then when Speaker ruffled a lot of feathers, ignoring seniority rules, taking power away from the heads of committees, etc. He resisted the efforts of people like Tom DeLay to put big lobbyist money behind the party. That's why a lot of his old colleagues don't like him. "Erratic" is a code word for "doesn't play the game." He was never go-along-to-get-along.
The sad thing is that all of the commentators on Fox who were saying he was an "insider", Krauthammer, etc., were in politics long enough to know all of this. They just wanted to create counter-messaging to Newt's campaign because they were afraid of his "baggage".
Newt the inside-outer
Submitted by deadeyedan on Thu, 05/03/2012 - 9:48pm.
Right, redfish; Newt was an insider who thought like us. That was obvious in most of the debates. It was easy for me to support him, having first noticed him on the front cover of Aviation Week & Space Technology back in April of 1983 as "Point Man in Congress for NASA".
It would be no surprise that, given his understanding of the real America that he would be able to engineer the takeover of Congress a decade later and turn things around.
As for that "baggage", what about all those "angels" who followed him and could not maintain the groundwork he laid?
What a shame we lost him.
LIBERALISM - government of the peopkle by the theories and for the ideologists
I was "for" Newt's personality.
Submitted by almostacowboy on Thu, 05/03/2012 - 10:54am.
But he lost my vote with the way he criticized Paul Ryan's plan (right wing social engineering) and then when he identified himself as a progressive on Glenn Beck's radio show.
I give him props for being "Newt" to the end.
Has always been Newt's forte
Submitted by KornKing on Thu, 05/03/2012 - 4:28pm.
Get things going good, and then do or say something stupid
Rep Issa is on Fox explaining
Submitted by ricklail on Thu, 05/03/2012 - 10:55am.
Rep Issa is on Fox explaining why he sent out a draft letter to his committee on holding Holder in conttempt of Congress. I get the feeling that Bonehead and Can't do it are not on board with this. We all know that Cummings and Waters are going to be all over TV later today with their responce. I am curious to see if any of the networks, especially MESSNBC, will give Issa more than a 15 second soundbite.
Don't have many details but Holder is saying basically get screwed. He is saying that this kind of dcumentation is always held back when their is an ivestigation. He also said tha Issa was going ot use it to policize the Depart. of Injsustice. In ohter words all Holder has said is the same old BS he has been saying since last Feb.
Newt is in the wrong party.
Submitted by c5then on Thu, 05/03/2012 - 11:34am.
Unfortunatelyfor him, the Republican party still cares about morals and ethics and how a person behaves in their personal life. It is not the most important aspect of the decision, but it is still an aspect. He could not get over that part of his past with way too many in the party.
Madison and Jefferson and Franklin built a Republic - Roberts killed it!
Yeah...
Submitted by Rukus on Thu, 05/03/2012 - 6:51pm.
Real life has nothing to do with it. Shit happens, that's life. Newt has problems with his personnel history but, his conservatism has been mostly, not all, but mostly on track. Funny, personnel shit meant nothing to Billy, nope, just personnel, has nothing to do with politics, nope. /sarc So we are stuck once again with a moderate, so be it, anything to get Barry out of office. We need to teabag the RNC, (don't freak out.) We need more conservatives in the RNC, and soon! Sigh...
"Hype and Blame"
Submitted by Blonde on Thu, 05/03/2012 - 11:35am.
Now they've gone and done it! The RNC has launched a national campaign sending up The Won's 2008 campaign theme of Hope & Change.
Hype & Blame 2012. In Obama's signature colors, with the "O" symbol in 2012!!!
This ought to drive the leftists insane. It is perfect! I now have a glimmer of hope that the RNC may have purchased a clue.
Handy Reference Guide to Obama's Gaffes and Goofs ~ Currently Numbering 200 (and Counting)
I just heard a Fox analyst
Submitted by ricklail on Thu, 05/03/2012 - 1:04pm.
I just heard a Fox analyst say it appears the Romeny is headed toward the center in order now since he has the nomination wrappped to get the independent vote. How many true conservatives will he alienate? I don't see it yet as bad as having to hold my nose and vote for him like I did McCain but it is surely going that way.
If you haven't seen this, please watch.
Submitted by Newsbubba on Thu, 05/03/2012 - 12:08pm.
http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=70Ikj1hZDnw&feature=related
The next time that cork socker we call Commander in Chief decides to give a speech full of "I," "my," "me," telling the nation what the hell he thinks HE has done in service to this country, maybe one of his moron aides will show him this first. (Yeah, right!)
How any commanding officer can announce "We surrender" two years in advance, and then tell his troops that they can still expect that some of them will get wounded or die while He Flukes around with the terms of His surrender is way beyond my ability to reason.
If that clip doesn't make you tear up, check your pulse.
Newt~
Submitted by GG_NB on Thu, 05/03/2012 - 12:27pm.
Newt started his campaign making some major blunders, but he regrouped and pressed on...I do have respect for that, even though at the time I declared (quite emphatically) that he should get out.^_^
I think Newt added depth, humor and interest to the debates. The only thing that disappointed me is that he did not stay above the fray when Romney ran those ads against him. But I get how much that frustrated Newt because he had very little money to counter it. I just wish Newt would have stayed disciplined and above it.
I think Newt should have gotten out of the race a tad sooner, but he had to come to terms with it, and apparently he did.
"If not us, who? If not now, when?"
~Ronald Reagan
Can "Possum" replace our primary system?
Submitted by Galvanic on Thu, 05/03/2012 - 12:35pm.
As born out once more, our system for selecting Presidential candidates is too long and too expensive.
But some folks in New Zealand have invented a game called "Possum" that might very well substitute for the primaries, saving time and money while delivering no less satisfactory results.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/may/03/possum-tree-drinking-game-du...
And it would be more entertaining than the debates. :-)
give em hell
Submitted by MidAmerica on Thu, 05/03/2012 - 1:07pm.
In my opinion Newt had an important and lasting impact on the election race. Without Newt who would have stood up and thrown the bias right back in the media's astonished faces. Because of Newt the Republicans will have a fighting chance at winning. I believe had Romney not been forced to fight for the nomination and had he been allowed to be the 'perfect gentleman' coasting to victory he would not be as tough of a candidate as he will be now.
Newt for Press Sec!
Submitted by Dave the mailman on Thu, 05/03/2012 - 1:19pm.
Wonder if he'd take that job? I'd love to see him blast the media on a regular basis.....
Dave~
Submitted by GG_NB on Thu, 05/03/2012 - 1:44pm.
THAT I would love to see!
"If not us, who? If not now, when?"
~Ronald Reagan
Serious unanswered questions
Submitted by needle on Thu, 05/03/2012 - 3:35pm.
For years Newt worked his American Solutions project collecting ideas, AND support, AND money. For what? Was it not obvious that he was laying the ground work for a Presidential bid? How much money? For all the phone calls I alone received I would say he must have canvased the country very thoroughly over all that time; the money he collected must have been way into the millions, even if I personally contributed nothing.
When he formally launched his campaign last summer, even before he went on his zany one week cruise, it seems his campaign started out financially with practically no money.
What happened to all that money he was generating with his American Solutions project? Why wasn’t that part of his campaign coffers from the get go? Did that money go to buy expensive jewelry for his wife? This calls into question not only his seriousness as a campaigner, but also his integrity.
Why didn’t any reporter ever raise these questions? Have they forgotten how to do their job?
- Looking forward to the self-annihilation of the Manipulated Stories Machine.
What are my thoughts?
Submitted by stage9 on Thu, 05/03/2012 - 2:50pm.
My thoughts are that we started with a FANTASTIC field of CONSERVATIVE candidates but the establishment GOP decided to go with the most liberal and least contrasting candidate they could find in Obamney! The single greatest issue facing this election is ObamaCare. Who do these idiots nominate? Obamney! The only guy in the country who can be pegged for INSPIRING OBAMACARE! I mean is the GOP just stupid or just galatically incompetent?
So now Conservatives with conviction are left to vote for a marxist radical or a New England liberal. Ingenuous! But since the GOP saw fit to utterly IGNORE the Conservative block of the Republican Party, I will now ignore them moving forward. I will NOT vote for Obamney nor the radical in chief currently occupying the WH.
And for those who whine about the demise of the nation, you should've thought about that long before November. Elections have consequences. When you nominate a dullard (in McCain) you deserve to lose. When you nominate a liberal in Obamney, you deserve to lose. If you want a contrast -- if you want a Conservative -- you don't nominate a liberal from MA. You elect a CONSERVATIVE!
Obamney is a typical two-faced politician. He'll say ANYTHING to get elected. And Obama is going to eat him alive!
Exhibit A
http://massresistance.org/romney/
"If God is dead, somebody is going to have to take his place. It will be megalomania or erotomania, the drive for power or the drive for pleasure, the clenched fist or the phallus, Hitler or Hugh Hefner." — Malcolm Muggeridge
Obama threatens Supremes Again
Submitted by Radical1979 on Thu, 05/03/2012 - 3:43pm.
I heard on the radio that the administration quietly went to the Supreme Court and told them if the health care law is overturned, Medicare will be unfunded.
I assume BO intends to hold the court to blame for that. Hopefully the Court realizes that is none of it's concern, only to declare the law unConstitutional.
I cannot express my hate and fear of Obama.
Rad~
Submitted by GG_NB on Thu, 05/03/2012 - 4:15pm.
Are you kidding me?! But no, sadly, I'm sure you are not.
If interfering with a Supreme Court decision like they are is NOT against the law, it should be. Unbelievable! It's like harrassment -- people using their position of power to influence or intimidate.
"If not us, who? If not now, when?"
~Ronald Reagan
It IS harrassment
Submitted by jon_torlin on Thu, 05/03/2012 - 5:19pm.
And it is illegal in this case. SCOTUS needs to slap a contempt charge or worse on this bogus potus and his ilk.
They've been treating the Legislative Branch and the Judicial Branch like they were underlings as opposed to equals. What do you expect from a manchild who envisions himself as a messiah, can I get an Amen? Ugh, barfarama on those who refuse to stand up to these piles of refuse. Don't wait for garbage day, though!
-Jon
Jon
Submitted by Radical1979 on Thu, 05/03/2012 - 5:23pm.
Amen! His disdain for our Constitution is well known and now well documented. Sadly, many refuse to acknowledge it.
The Rise of the SOVIET UNION....Reset that button, click,click
Submitted by upcountrywater on Thu, 05/03/2012 - 8:13pm.
Russia threatens to strike NATO missile defense sites...
Why am I not surprised..... Neither the State Department nor the Pentagon had any immediate comment on the Russian threat Thursday.
Hay I'll be watching while the Russian fleet sails, between the Asian Islands of Maui and Hawaii.
What is this 15 bucks for a website... Hay man got a gift shop too.. Freight charges is a LOT...
You Didn't Build That.
In a cell 4 FIVE DAZES and there was no PLUMBING!!!
Submitted by upcountrywater on Thu, 05/03/2012 - 8:50pm.
The DEA apologized Wednesday to Chong, who was accidentally left unattended in a holding cell for five days and reportedly drank his own urine to survive.
What no bottled Vichy?
No Plumbing, gawd..
You Didn't Build That.
I assume we've all seen...
Submitted by bkeyser on Thu, 05/03/2012 - 9:32pm.
Julia?