So Gingrich is the New Anti-Mitt

Instapundit has a pretty good round-up of the South Carolina primary. I’ve always liked Newt Gingrich the professor, but I’ve never much liked Newt Gingrich the politician. I noted before about Newt that the 1990s called, and they want their candidate back. He is a more viable alternative, in my opinion, to Rick Santorum, but I still worry that he can’t beat Obama.

I think it was probably fine for Mitt to lose South Carolina. What was not fine for Mitt is to get creamed in South Carolina, which is what happened. If Mitt doesn’t take Florida, he’s going to be in serious trouble as the front runner. He will have lost momentum, and money and support will start flowing to his opponents. If he experiences a long enough losing streak, he can start counting on a brain drain for his campaign, as the rats start to jump off the sinking ship.

On the Second Amendment, the decisive advantage to Gingrich is that he will likely pick much more reliable judges on that issue than Mitt will, though I certainly don’t think Gingrich would be a guarantee. There are plenty of conservative judges out there who don’t like the Second Amendment any more than many left-wing judges. But I give the edge to Gingrich on that count. Gingrich’s record legislatively is not bad, as he delivered on getting an Assault Weapons Ban repeal through the House in 1996, only to have it killed by Bob Dole in the Senate. My big concern about Gingrich is that if he’s the nominee, Obama gets another term.

18 thoughts on “So Gingrich is the New Anti-Mitt”

  1. Remember, you don’t get to pick judges if you’re not in the white house. I see Newt’s candidacy as McCain 2.0.

  2. As someone who will not vote for Romney, good luck taking the white house if he gets the nod.

    The local media here in Florida LOVE Romney. The headlines are all about how it’s already sewn up for Mittens and that they whole primary thing is just a show.

    When the media is salivating at a Republican, it ain’t because they think he’d make a swell president, it’s because they know he won’t take the White House.

    I’ll hold my nose for Newt and vote. Same for Santorum. I’d have preferred Perry, but he quit so I don’t get that option. But Mittens? Nope.

    I’ll stop shy of campaigning against him, but if the GOP really wanted my vote, they’d give me someone worth voting for. 4 more years of Obama? All that does is give us the same thing Romney would, only faster.

    1. I sort-of feel the same about Newt and Santorum, as you do about Romney. Heck, I feel that way about Romney, too!

      Which, when all is said and done, will probably leave me voting for anyone on the R ticket, or perhaps the one on the L ticket if I feel particularly dismal that day…

  3. If you want a “guarantee”, buy a refrigerator. Romney is STUCK at 30%. Newt has brought life to his campaign by FIGHTING! And NO, I do not believe Newt is “not electable”. With an approval rating stuck at 40%, HOW do you think Obammao gets re-elected?

    1. Elections are won and lost based on how well you do with the independent voters. Currently we’re split in thirds 33%(R), 33%(D), and 33%(I). This fire up your base crap is just that, crap. The real fight is for the independents. I’d love to see how Newt is polling among the (I) voters? Given his polling in a head to head with BHO, I’d stay he’s doing little to appeal to the critical (I) bloc.

    2. “And NO, I do not believe Newt is “not electable”. A lot of negatives there, but I think I agree. I know people who claim to be moderates emailing links to Newt’s YouTube videos and saying they like what they hear.

  4. I watched his NC speeches, and I REALLY want to believe him. My left brain knows he’s a politician, and therefore probably full of crap, but my right brain, like Mulder, wants to believe. Except that, as we’ve all learned from past campaigns and elections and subsequent administrations, the truth is probably not out there.
    I despair, but I want to believe.

  5. I can well remember when the media said Ronald Reagan had no chance against Jimmy Carter. Reagan blew the hapless Carter out of the water with one question. “Are you better off now than you were four years ago.”

    Carter – whose record would have disqualified him from any office had the media not covered up that record, lost in one of the greatest landslides in American history.

    So ask yourself – are you better off than you were four years ago? Is your neighbor? The six guys drinking coffee in the middle of the morning? The answer to that, with millions of jobs “disappeared,” and U6 above 15%, is overwhelmingly no. And the odds are the situation will be even worse by November.

    It would take a complicit campaign to refuse to use our economic distress in this Soros-Obama economy. So unless we actually get that promised economic turnaround with two buck gas, three dollar milk, and 6 percent actual unemployment, before November, and the Republican candidate refuses to campaign on the conditions, Barry is toast. Regardless of who the candidate is.

    Stranger

    1. Exactly.

      You also have to factor in the odds of this string of events not happening before the election:

      The Euro and/or one or more of the PIIGS going Kaboom and not getting rescued (the numbers are too big, the German people refuse to pay for it).

      A financial system collapse starting in Europe because of the above (something like this was the trigger of the 2nd part of the Great Depression, the part not long before FDR was elected).

      Team Obama and Helicopter Ben, having used up far too much politician and financial capital after we were past this sort of danger in 2008-9 not dealing with this well. Obama does not have Jimmy Carter’s talent for making just about any bad situation worse, but….

  6. Newt will be an after thought, and history will judge him as such. The internal repulican power brokers have already agreed on Romney. The election also has been decided behind closed doors by the real forces that control our fate. Obama will serve four more, and this nation as we know it will cease to exist. Freedom is soon to be a thing of the past, All of our rights including the second amendment will be gone in a few short years. I may sound crazy and people didnt take Hitler seriously,and look how that turned out.

    1. I think you’re crazy. Obama is almost sure to lose! The only question left is this: between Romney, Santorum, and Newt, who will be the President that will put the finishing touches on ushering out our freedoms?

      I don’t think Romney is as much of a shoo-in as you make him out to be, but does it really matter?

      (Yes, I’m being overly pessimistic, because I don’t necessarily think any of those three will completely destroy freedom…but I don’t expect any of the three to reverse the trend, either.)

        1. What drives me nuts is that he is but he isn’t. I’m convinced that Obama is completely beatable, but I’m also aware that there is no election so “given” that a Republican can’t mess it up and lose anyway.

          I’m also not all that convinced that Mitt, Rick, or Newt are all that different from Obama, in many crucial ways. At best, I *think* we can hope for pro-rights Justices, if we’re lucky, and *maybe* get a straight repeal of Obamacare.

    1. Sad to say, when people refer to Gingrich as the human hand grenade, they are not referring to how destructive he is to others. Romney does not thrill me, but I suspect that he can do well enough against Obama in debates to win. And besides, he’s not so conservative as to care the sheeple. This will definitely be one of those hold your nose sort of elections. Obama delenda est! Bring on the syphilitic camel.

  7. “Freedom is soon to be a thing of the past, All of our rights including the second amendment will be gone in a few short years.”

    That will be true regardless of who wins the election. We’re being offered the choice between fascist-collectivists and socialist-collectivists. Pick one. All that will be different will be the path to totalitarianism, and then, some of the finer details of that totalitarianism.

    Oh, one important thing: The winner in the race for who will control that totalitarianism is going to call it “freedom” when it finally arrives, and it will be wrapped in red, white, and blue.

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