Here’s Newt’s full victory speech, and as usual he has no peer in his ability to lay down lies, red herrings, culture warfare and good old-fashioned bullshit. He’s going to challenge Obama to seven three-hour debates, “and to be fair, I’ll let him use a teleprompter”. He thinks Ron Paul is spot-on about the Federal Reserve and fiat currency. He thinks the media are traitors:
“In the two debates we had here, in Myrtle Beach and in Charleston, where people reacted so strongly to the news media, I think it was something very fundamental that I wish the powers that be in the news media would take seriously. The American people feel that they have elites who have been trying for a half century to force us to quit being American and become some other kind of other system.”
As Jay Rosen notes, “The people in the news media are in effect a fifth column— traitors who are trying to ‘force’ upon Americans a society that is fundamentally (a key word in the Gingrich lexicon…) un-American”. Any politician with a personal life like Newt’s has to take on the media, but as with so many other issues, Newt goes one step further and calls them them traitors.
Listening to this, I’m struck by one thing: if Newt is the candidate, he’s going to drive the discussion into all the nooks and crannies of noise and diversion that have occupied Fox News viewers since Obama’s victory. In other words, Newt is the candidate of the 2009 media cycle, where the Tea Party dominated media coverage. If Romney is the candidate, a big part of the discussion will be how he managed to pay 15% tax on the millions he made. He’s the candidate of the 2011 media cycle, dominated by Occupy Wall Street and issues of jobs and equity.
Even though it would appear that Newt’s candidacy is better for the establishment, establishment Republicans are going to try to snuff out his campaign. Two points about that: First, how the hell is this amorphous “establishment” going to do it? Are they going to put Walnuts on the campaign trail gritting his teeth and explaining how he loves Mitt Romney? Are Reince Preibus and Jon Huntsman going to use the combined force of their charisma to convince the 27 percenters to annoint an East Cost RINO Mormon? Second, what’s so bad for the establishment about having a shit-slinger like Newt take attention away from the unfairness of eternal tax cuts? He guarantees that the issues of the election will all be sideshow trivia: Obama will be explaining why he isn’t like Saul Alinsky, the media will be explaining why they aren’t traitors, and Paul Krugman will be explaining what “fiat currency” means.
Newt is like a kid with ADHD who’s off his Ritalin when it comes to distraction, and Republicans win when they make the election about distractions rather than the issues. The question isn’t whether Gingrich is the best imaginable candidate, just whether he’s the best of this bunch, and after watching that speech, I can’t say that Romney is any better.
cathyx
As long as it gives the stations high ratings, they’ll keep this fight going for as long as possible.
Killjoy
The difference is, just about everybody who isn’t a 27 percenter hates Newt already.
General Stuck
Shorter Newt to the faithful
I’ll bring the bullshit, you bring the rope.
Villago Delenda Est
All Obama has to do is get Newt to say the magic word.
Given Newt’s tendency to not just shoot himself in the foot, but to unload a full clip into it, then stop and reload, this won’t be too difficult.
The Dangerman
I agree with TPM; Newt’s getting kneecapped, probably before Florida. If he still wins Florida, it’ll be the other knee.
I’m beginning to smell a brokered convention. Couldn’t happen to a nicer Party.
MazeDancer
Newt is the perfect candidate for people who prefer denial of reality. Which is all of the GOP. Foreign policy doesn’t matter, except bombing the infidels. Government does no good except taking away womb sovereignty.
Unfortunately, too many voters prefer gotcha to thinking about real issues. Newt does good gotcha. It plays well on TV. Ratings for the debates will improve by people tuning in hoping to see Newt toss grenades.
The Ancient Randonneur
Not exactly on topic but every time I think of a Republican president with a majority in both houses I fear for the future of young women in this country. As I noted in the previous thread, today marks the 38th anniversary of Roe v. Wade.
I have daughters so this is a big deal. I want them to have access to the healthcare they need and can make the CHOICES they may, some day, need to make.
BrklynLibrul
Agree with everything you say here, mister mix . . .
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
I believe 2008 was about Birth Certificates, a POW, Jeremiah Wright, race, ACORN, the New Black Panthers (all two of them), whether whites could vote for a black man, whether Hispanics could vote for a black man, whether Jews could vote for a black man, whether blacks could vote for a half-black man, PUMAs, and a POW. At least according to the media.
Yet somehow the voters were worried about the economy, and voted for the person who they think could take care of it. I showed this graph yesterday, from real clear politics, on Obama vs Gingrich. Newt isn’t even starting close.
The answer to this worrying is to make sure we get as many Democrats elected as possible.
gene108
I want Newt Gingrich to be the Republican nominee.
I want to see those Congressional Republicans, who voted against him, to eat their words on ethics and say what a swell guy Newt is.
I want to see Congressional Republicans scurry around in fear about what sorts of revenge President Gingrich would bring down upon them for voting against him 15 years ago.
arguingwithsignposts
I wish this fucker would quit speaking for the 53 percent of us who voted against his party in the last presidential election.
dmsilev
Newt’s favorability gap is something like 32 points, and only about 15 or 20 percent of the country is “no opinion”. While the 27-percenters may love him, the rest of the nation loathes him, and the more they see of him the worse they hate him.
Beyond funneling vast amounts of money to RomneyCo, I’m not sure what the funders of the GOP can do about it though.
Nohandle
Exactly, I am wondering how they stop Nootie. This reminds me of 1968 and “Nixonland”. I seem to remember the so-called establishment didn’t want Nixon then either. They didn’t stop him.
Villago Delenda Est
Josh’s point over at the link is a good one. Noot will inflict irreparable damage to the brand, and the brand, with all the baggage it has, still needs to be protected.
There’s also a lot to the Teatard base demonstrating to the GOP eastern establishment how much power they have. They’ve been marginalized since the 2010 midterms that they take credit for making happen, and their newly installed elected wackaloons have been marginalized, too, but still have the ability to fuck things up, which they do with glee.
The GOP is in serious trouble. The monster is loose, and threatens to attack the creator. Noot represents the monster in this primary cycle.
Their serious problem is that Romney is a terrible candidate. He doesn’t inspire anything but derision. He can’t make a connection to voters, he just doesn’t have the personality for it, and some of the old “ugh, proles!” vibe that George H.W. Bush gives off Romney carries as well.
General Stuck
I don’t know if this cycle it will hold as true that distraction is a plus for the wingers. It certainly is much of the time, and totally is when the economy is decent and all the trains are running on schedule, like in 2000.
When the economy isn’t in good shape, it seems the voters are more tuned in to fixing that, like in 1992 and 2008, and dems do better. Though the fact that we’ve had a dem president the past four years complicates that trend. But all in all, our elections of recent history in a divided electorate, have fallen to the swing voters to decide the outcome, and they are going to have limits on the amount of BS coming from either candidate in a bad economy, plus Newt has a track record on that score, and it is hardly a plus.
dmsilev
Add to that this graph. To know Gingrich is to loathe him, and the country is rapidly coming to know Gingrich.
Mr Furious
I agree mistermix. 2010 demonstrated what can happen when the far right is given a microphone, and I don’t want to hear any shit about the better natures of GOP voters, Newt’s controversial background, and the mythical middle rejecting him. As far as I’m concerned the sensible Republicans turned away by Newt’s ugliness are made up for by the GOP voters who would have stayed home if Romney was the nominee.
If Newt bloodies the nose of the “elite media” on a weekly basis, they will be treating him with total deference in no time to avoid appearing like his charges have merit. With that kind of clearance to lie, Newt can say whatever bullshit he wants to set the talking points, and the more respectable Sunday Morning talk show Republicans can come on and repeat the same lies with total immunity.
As it is already, outlets play clips of these candidates spouting their bullshit to show us what they are saying when they “take on Obama” without any context before or after or pointing out what the truth is.
I’m all for Newt and Mitt going fifteen rounds and staggering out of the ring half dead, but inf Newt is the nominee, this country is well and truly fucked.
If you think that makes Obama’s reelection easier, I think you don’t have to look back very far to see how much fire that’s playing with. Obama will probably beat either of them, but Newt will drag the country to the brink in the process, and the 27%ers will be out in force effecting the downticket races.
JGabriel
WaPo via DKos:
Kind of says it all, don’t it? If they can’t beat Obama, they want to go down ugly.
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Davis X. Machina
@Belafon (formerly anonevent):
I too don’t see how the crazy helps — helps anything but ratings.
Independents — the handful of actual independents, as Bartels et al. have shown most ‘independents’ are embarrassed partisans — leaners, and people who decide in the last 30 days, are what you need to get from a base of 60 million to 70 million popular votes. There’s a cap on crazy numbers, even if there’s none on crazy intensity.
Running up margins in the former Confederacy doesn’t deliver extra EC’s — only putting states in play does that.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
Also, the NY Times has this little paragraph:
What’s the percentage of whites he’ll need to win?
WereBear
I was thinking along the same lines: Why not let Newt run? Without Romney in the picture, the election won’t be about the 99%. It’ll be about The Crazeee.
Door number one is Romney and Income Inequality Discussions goes up to 11. OR door number two (and I mean that literally) which would be a Not Romney bring them some piping hot Crazy Cakes.
Tough choice they got.
Hewer of Wood, Drawer of Water
@Belafon (formerly anonevent): the amazing part of that is that even Rasmussen has Obama up by 9 over gnoot
Donut
http://m.dailykos.com/#currentView=story&type=main&pageNumber=1&id=1057064
For those who have not seen it already, DemFromCT at Great Orange Satan has a pretty good round up of the GOP landscape coming out of SC – with lots of charts!
General Stuck
Plus, I am comforted by the fact we have a president/candidate that is cool under fire and hard to bait by a flame thrower like Newt.
Donut
Oops, that link is from the mobile site. You can still find it front page, though.
scav
There’s winning the election and then there’s the aftermath. Would the shadowy overlords look at that and say “Yup, safe pair of hands to do our bidding.” Works for any number of sets of shadowy so-called overlords. Actually, one could almost leave off the bidding part and it would still work. Granted, long-term forward past-the-next-quarter thinking isn’t much regarded anymore in certain circles, but I think there’d be a few residual neurons flashing red.
JGabriel
@Villago Delenda Est:
Not gonna happen. Newt didn’t grow up in the south, and didn’t grow up with that word in his daily vocabulary.
Newt was born in Pennsylvania grew up as an Army brat. Assuming you mean the n-slur, it’s not a word that’s going to fall out of Gingrich’s mouth accidentally.
I’m not defending Gingrich here. Newt loves his race-baiting bomb-throwing rhetoric, so it’s likely he will say something that crosses the line, via some sort of racist generalization or crazy extreme proposition — I’m just saying that it won’t be via “the magic word.”
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arguingwithsignposts
NPR is doing a long piece on Mitt’s Mexico relatives as I type.
toujoursdan
@The Dangerman:
Hasn’t Newt been kneecapped several times already? His ex-wife went on ABC News and said that he wanted an open marriage, which should have bothered “family values” fundamentalists the most. It didn’t work. In fact, it helped him.
It’s hard to imagine what could kneecap a candidate that says all the right things.
That said, I don’t think Newt is going to do well amongst New York, Northeast or California Republicans. But I might be wrong: I didn’t think the party could become more wingnutty than it was during the Bush Administration, but he’d be too liberal for them now.
Trakker
Newt flat out scares me. I once laughed at him but now I see a very dangerous man.
The Presidency represents redemption for Newt after his earlier humiliations. He is dangerous because there is no line he won’t cross to become President, the job he always thought was his destiny. He has a massive ego and even greater sense of entitlement, and he will do whatever it takes to win. He could be the South’s answer to Sherman’s March to the Sea.
nevsky42
Since Gingrich knows better than anyone else he can’t beat Obama, it allows him to do nothing except spread horseshit everywhere, while his supporters get what they want, complain about the grown-up in charge for the next four years instead of actually having to deal with the problems left by Bush. It’s win-win!
doofus
If 2010 was peak wingnut looked like, is 2012 the first glimpse of post-peak wingnut?
JGabriel
@The Dangerman:
Me too. I’ve been saying all along that none of these guys can win the nomination, yet one of them must eventually. A brokered convention would be the most likely way of realizing that seemingly counter-intuitive prediction.
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arguingwithsignposts
@Trakker:
I think the word you are looking for is “Fuhrer.”
MattF
It occurred to me this morning that if Noot wins the nomination he’ll name his wife as the VP– constitutional problems aside (as undoubtedly they would be), it’s obvious that the only thing better for Noot than a Gingrich ticket is a Gingrich/Gingrich ticket
WereBear
They took McCain. Looks like the host body is rejecting the Romney, though.
arguingwithsignposts
OT, but now NPR has been allowed into the CIA’s “Open Source Center.” Right up your alley, MisterMix
Donut
@Davis X. Machina:
Yes, indeed. Let’s just hope that GOP primary voters take a looooong-ass time catching on.
I agree with the above sentiments about staying clear of over-optimistic thinking, though.
SiubhanDuinne
O/T but Joe Paterno just died.
John O
Newt knows how to work a crowd (or an electorate) because he’s a grifter extraordinaire.
Sure hope the folks out here who want him nominated are right. Me, I’m not so sure. Romney is a terrible candidate.
Davis X. Machina
@doofus: I have a new theory in which W is more or less a constant, and W=IN, where “W” is wingnuttery, “I” is intensity, and “N” is the actual number of wingnuts.
To maintain a constant W, N must increase where I decreases, and vice versa. The Delaware primary represents an example of a low N, high I scenario.
Villago Delenda Est
OK, so how many actual delegates have been selected in the three contests so far. 36 of the 1400+ needed to win?
Keep in mind that all the early contests are penalized by the convention rules as to the number of delegates they select.
This doesn’t get serious until Super Tuesday. Then there are the winner take all states. Romney, as unappetizing as he is, still has an organization that Noot does not, is still on the ballot everywhere, which Noot is not.
Media momentum is all well and good, but you have to get delegates to go into the convention with.
I’m not sure Noot can pull that off, particularly with his negatives outside the “solid South”.
JGabriel
@Belafon (formerly anonevent):
Non-Hispanic whites made up about 63.7% of the population in 2010.
So, to win with only non-Hispanic whites, Newt would need roughly 80% of their votes.
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Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@MattF: That probably wouldn’t last very long. She would be required to sleep in the VP house in case something like a bomb killed the President. I do laugh thinking at the idea of Gingrich asking for an open marriage while he’s president.
Trakker
@arguingwithsignposts:
I hope not, but now that I think about it…yikes.
Wilson Heath
Flashbacks to late summer 2008. It seemed that the Palin debacle was designed to turn the race into a referendum on the media, and the McCain campaign made some moves that way. Total economic collapse killed that narative for most folks, except of course the crazified.
Just like the GOP primary voters to be hung up on fights of yesteryear: the 2008 race, civil rights, the New Deal, the Civil War, . . .
The Dangerman
@toujoursdan:
Perhaps, but when the water “hose” (pun intended) doesn’t work, the fire hose might, and if that doesn’t work, someone will drop Hoover dam on his fat ass. Best guess is Romney knows the next attack and it will be Freddie Mac related.
There is something bad in Mitt’s taxes, but he can survive it. Even if it’s really bad, he can survive it. He might even be able to survive a “you’re fucking shitting me” tax moment…
…but if it’s worse than YFSM, we get to brokered.
Villago Delenda Est
@SiubhanDuinne:
ESPN’s web page is saying so. There was a CBS report last night that said it, but turned out to be mistaken.
He was fighting cancer, but I can’t help but feel that the scandal that got him fired din’t help. Not to mention that he was 85 after all.
Shawn in ShowMe
Newt has appointed himself spokesman for all those people who believe the real evil of the 60s were those hippies and ni*CLANG* demanding change, not the real Murican bigots who slandered and murdered them. So this war has been brewing for a long time. I actually prefer that Noot get the nom so the contrast between our vision of America and theirs gets maximum exposure.
If the battle doesn’t end with the GOP a smoking ruin, there’s really no hope for this country anyway.
RevDave
Living here is Iowa, it has been one long Republican primal scream for the last year – I do not underestimate Newt’s ability to give voice to white poor resentments.
beltane
@General Stuck: Yeah, Newt may thrive on creating distraction but our President is someone who doesn’t get distracted very easily.
I am not afraid of Gingrich. The thought of crushing him and the neo-Confederate scum who support him has filled me with more enthusiasm than I’ve felt since 2008.
Marc
There are a lot of people who don’t pay much attention to politics. They’re open to an Obama alternative as long as they appear “reasonable”. Gingrich, like Palin, is well-known and extremely polarizing. They also come across as, well, mean and nasty. Partisans love politicians like that, whether on the left or the right. But it’s not just that they enrage the committed opposition; it’s that they alienate the persuadable disengaged voters.
Newt also just can’t help but say outrageous things – he lacks the discipline to avoid giving his enemies ammunition. Put these things together and you have the ingredients for an epic blowout – one that drags the entire party down. They’re better off with a bland rich guy who seems “plausible”. And this is well-supported by polling indicating an even race (obama-romney) and a massive obama lead over gingrich.
JGabriel
@toujoursdan:
I wouldn’t count Newt out among NY Republicans. We’re talking about the same people who nominated Carl Paladino to be their gubernatorial candidate in 2010.
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Donut
@doofus:
I’ve been thinking for awhile we have not even seen the edge of Peak Wingnut yet. We are in for a yawping, screeching, howling, frothing, foaming, rabid, terrified, cornered, incoherent primal scream from the GOP base this year. Cue up the BTO, brah. Ain’t seen nothing yet.
JGabriel
nevsky42:
I think you underestimate Gingrich’s vanity and capacity for self-delusion.
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Schlemizel
That clip should come with a bio-hazard warning. Thats some toxic shit right there.
I know I am a broken record but I really wish those of you who think having the slimy amphibian run against Obama would be a joke would consider the challenge he presents. The media actually love him, he generates eyeballs for them like any circus freak would. He knows how to play them like the chumps they are – look at how he turned his personal failure into the presses fault & a net positive for him in SC. The press calls him a genius. If he is the candidate the race will not be about issues it will be about the freak show circus acts this clown can dredge up.
As disastrous as any of these shitbags would be for the country this particular shitbag would be the worst.
JPL
Gingrich wounds Romney but I still think Romney wins. The 27% won’t be rushing to the polls on election day though.
Steeplejack
@Donut:
Link to the “regular” page: “Three Different Primary Winners: So Who Is the Front Runner Now?”
beltane
@John O: He will attract the same people, and in the same exact numbers, who got a woody over Sarah Palin’s Goebbels in hooker boots routine.
However, there is is also a very large contingent of white women of a certain age whose hatred for Newt is deep, personal, and enduring. Just because the Klansmen of SC love Newt doesn’t mean that actual humans love him.
rikyrah
that is a wicked thought
SiubhanDuinne
@Villago Delenda Est: I know there was a flurry of false reports last night, but it now appears to be true and family-confirmed.
beltane
The exit polling showed a very old electorate in South Carolina yesterday, with something like 87% of them over the age of 40. I can’t say I’ll be sorry to watch the slow extinction of this tribe.
EconWatcher
@nevsky42:
I don’t agree that Newt knows he can’t beat Obama. I do think he got into the contest almost as a lark, because he was bored and needed some spotlight to stroke his ego, jack up book sales, and maybe even hook up with a few groupies on the road, if he could just get Callista to stay home. There’s hard evidence of this: He didn’t do the staff-building and other groundwork early on that a serious candidate would do.
But now? Now he’s drunk with his apparent success, and feeling that America has finally recognized his world historical vision and genius. Now is the time when his name will at last be held above all others, and his enemies will cower before him.
We are not dealing with a normal personality.
RalfW
It’s a few days old (and may have been linked in an earlier BJ thread), but Ta-Nehisi Coates tells it about Gingrich and his supporters:
“When a professor of history calls Barack Obama a ‘Food Stamp President,’ it isn’t a mistake to be remedied through clarification; it is a statement of aggression. And when a crowd of his admirers cheer him on, they are neither deluded, nor in need of forgiveness, nor absolution, nor acting against their interest. Racism is their interest. They are not your misguided friends. They are your fully intelligent adversaries, sporting the broad range of virtue and vice we see in humankind.”
scav
Rooting for injuries got a lot easier. Beyond that, I don’t think this level of chaos is predictable. Run the model and watch the results. Keep the powder dry and make sure you have enough, or at least as much as you can accumulate.
WereBear
Yep, that’s why Newt scares them; he’s not a Southern thing, he’s a Republican thing. This might be where the seams disappear.
However, I must have been swigging too much cough syrup last night. It’s not going to be Newt; the Base wants him, but the Party does not. It HAS to be Romney, even if they have to put a chip in every Tea Partier’s head by hand.
However, my brain was enchanted by the horror of the Bigot Apocalypse that would follow a Newt candidacy. But I really don’t think it’s going to happen.
Amir Khalid
The Republican primary season has given us one flash in the pan after another. I wouldn’t dare consider anyone the inevitable candidate on a victory in one state primary or caucus, but the US media has been cheerfully doing so with Mr Frothy, then Mitt, and now Noot.
The Republican party elders don’t want Noot. Presumably they reckon a Noot candidacy, let alone a Noot presidency, is a train wreck waiting to happen, one that will shame and discredit the party the way Noot himself did as speaker.
I think of the party elders as like old-school parents trying to find a young man to marry their spoiled daughter. Mitt is the groom they picked for the base to marry. Unlike the other suitors, he’s presentable; but the bride hates Mitt so much, she’s threatening to run away from home. Right now she’s making eyes at Noot and it’s scaring her parents, but lately she’s been flirting with a lot of guys just to piss off the elders — some dolt from Texas, a pizza guy, a creepy god-botherer, even this barmy old coot.
It’s all about ME ME ME with her, and if she keeps this up it’s all going to end in tears. But the elders brought her up that way, and it’s really their own fault.
RSA
@JGabriel:
Interesting. The NYTimes has a nice dynamic bar chart showing the demographics of voters in Presidential elections going back to 1980. We have to go back to Reagan to find a candidate who got more than 60% of the white vote (they don’t show combinations with sex), and he only hit 64%.
RSA
FYWP: http://elections.nytimes.com/2008/results/president/exit-polls.html
pluege
the question of the moment, and perhaps for the next several months: ‘Who is newt screwing now?’
Among a constituency that places being an arrogant prick above all else, gringrich’s ascension should not be all that surprising, and his imminent demise should be viewed as suspect. gringrich has distinguished himself as the prickiest of the pricks. he could be around for the a while. Also, he knows that being a prick is what is elevating him, so expect his indecent excesses to get even worse (to the excruciating excitement of the republican base.)
Shawn in ShowMe
@JGabriel:
The only guy the GOP have on their roster that wouldn’t do damage to the brand is Huckabee. And he wants to head the calvary charge in 2016 when Obama is mercifully out the way, not be this year’s sacrificial lamb.
SiubhanDuinne
@Villago Delenda Est: (muttermuttermutteraboutnoeditfunction)
What I would have ETA’d is agree with you that I am sure the Sandusky scandal, being fired, all the media pressure, etc. certainly contributed to his health problems and probably shortened his life by months if not a couple of years. Impossible to know, and as I said one post over, the only appropriate sentiment this morning is “R.I.P. JoePa.”
Kane
Despite his resigning from office in shame and not holding elected political office for more than a decade, Gingrich had more appearances on Meet the Press in 2009 than any other individual. He was a valuable asset of the status quo corporate media and political establishment in creating and maintaining dissension.
It was this very media that Gingrich now derides as traitors that were the supply for his lifeblood, provided him with a good living, promoted his books, and kept his name and face in the news as if what he had to offer was meaningful and relevant. Frankenstein’s monster has turned on his creator.
Raven
@RSA: sex or gender?
Villago Delenda Est
@SiubhanDuinne:
New thread up devoted to Joe Paterno.
JGabriel
I honestly don’t know whether to root for Gingrich or Romney. I think WereBear has the right of it:
I’d like to see the election be about the 99% and the 1%, and Romney looks like the better candidate to use that strategy against. On the other hand, Newt embodies most of everything else in the GOP’s degeneration for the last 20 years.
Decisions, decisions … I guess I’ll just root for injuries.
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Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@Schlemizel: I think Newt’s biggest issue is that he doesn’t know how big his ego is. It’s almost sentient, more like a smart, rabid hyena, and will take Newt down with it to feed its appetite.
Yes, the press loves train wrecks, and on the day after the election, they will wonder why they couldn’t get the narrative right, kind of like they did with the 2008 election.
Now, our side needs to be ready for a few things no matter who wins the Republican nomination. They are going to lie, from the nominee down to the pundits. We have to be ready to deal with those lies with our coworkers and acquaintances. It’s going to take money, again. And if you’ve got relatives or friends that didn’t vote in 2010, you need to go after them to make sure they vote this time, and in 2014 for that matter.
shortstop
Dangerman: I’m not convinced there needs to be “something bad” in Mitt’s tax return. I think the tax
return itself is sufficient “bad.” Someone, I think Alter,
was going on last night about how it’s not that Romney’s rich; it’s that he’s in a lower bracket than most voters. Well, no; it’s both. Imagine how families struggling with grocery and healthcare bills, mortgages
or rent, car payments, etc., are going to
react to the big black number of Mitt “I’m unemployed,
too!” Romney raking in $10 million last year on investments. It’s going to be
devastating to him.
doofus
@Donut: The thing that makes me think we are post-peak is because while the volume of the yelling has increased, the targets appear to be much more intramural on the R side of things than ever before.
WereBear
@Amir Khalid: I am enchanted by your story. I eagerly await the spoiled brat’s comeuppance by its end!
beltane
@Shawn in ShowMe: Huckabee is the only one who scares me. He excels at appearing warm and affable, which is a necessary trait for bamboozling Independents and low-information voters. Bush and Reagan were able to do this quite well; Newt, on the other hand, is physically incapable of it.
Kane
@JGabriel: If Romney should win the nomination and lose to Obama, we will hear the same excuses from some on the right that we heard following the 2008 election of how their nominee wasn’t conservative enough. And we will surely see more republican purity tests in the next mid-term election and more right-wing extremists seeking to gain access to local and national office.
But if republicans can manage to nominate Gingrich and he should lose to Obama, there can be no excuses that their nominee wasn’t conservative enough. Then maybe, just maybe, the few remaining moderates of the GOP can make the argument that moving the party further to the right is not in the best interest of their party.
Villago Delenda Est
@Kane:
I think by now that the slime that constitutes the Village understands that in order to accomplish their primary mission (making money via ratings/sales/page hits) for their corporate masters, they’re going to have to endure attacks by the loathsome likes of Noot. It’s part of the game they’re in. They’ll still be at their Georgetown parties, grazing their way through chafing dishes of cocktail weenies and tiger shrimp. Being called “traitors” by the likes of Noot is expected and, unlike Stephen Colbert going after them, doesn’t inflict pain on their thin skins.
Because Noot takes them seriously. Colbert laughs at them. They absolutely hate that. They are, after all, very serious people, you know. Not being taken seriously wounds them.
Ben Cisco
Newt knows how to appeal to his fellow NeoConfederates: None of that shit off the new album, just the classics.
RSA
@Raven:
Yeah, I know. I generally follow a rule that I find on the World Health Organization site, of all places:
Donut
Doofus, you could well be correct but I guess I’m thinking more towards summer time when the Wingers turn their attention back to the fact that the black guy is still president and likely to win reelection. I just think that not-so-latent racism will find full flower when they realize that not everyone hates Obama. They are delusional right now that the country is fed up with Obama and only Obama, IMO.
beltane
@Kane: @Kane: They will need the Republican equivalent of the DLC, I think.
This also is a reminder of why the Democrats included superdelegates in the nominating process-to prevent the crazee from taking over. Since there’s not so much crazee in the Democratic party it seems like the right solution for the wrong party but that’s beside the point.
JGabriel
@Amir Khalid: Heh. Good metaphor.
.
Bondirotta
I am going to reread “The Dead Zone” – Newt is a pretty good match with the candidate in it. I can totally see him using a baby as a shield.
It is kind of awesome Mitt is now forced to release his taxes on Tuesday. So next week is going to be consumed by Debate-Taxes-Debate triumvirate. It could well neutralize Romney’s ad blitz.
JGabriel
@beltane:
Ding ding ding! That’s exactly what worries me about Huckabee, too.
.
arguingwithsignposts
@Villago Delenda Est:
I wish it would wound them enough to quit.
doofus
@Donut: That I agree with. This cycle, in the general there are enough sources of FUD (superPacs, the rally around their candidate effect, etc) that it will be hard to discern that we are post-peak. I expect it to start to really clarify with the next mid-terms (currents and counter-currents) with 2016 providing the first really good vantage point for a look backwards (if looking backwards was something that people are inclined to do, which I don’t see much evidence of).
Raven
@RSA: okee dokee, I was just thinkin with the warf rat in the conversation it might BE sex!
Mike in NC
@JPL:
As in: “Money talks, bullshit walks”. Newt is a master of BS but Mitt has much deeper pockets.
Besides, the GOP establishment knows that Gingrich has as much chance of getting elected president as a three-legged horse has got of winning the Kentucky Derby.
slippy
@JGabriel:
Well, let’s ease everyone’s mind. Huckabee has a Wayne Dumond problem which he will not be allowed to avoid.
I for one will not fail to mention Wayne Dumond and Mike Huckabee together constantly if that weaselly, putrid fuck ever tries to run for office again.
dmsilev
@Bondirotta:
Note, though, that Tuesday is the State of the Union address. Romney is clearly hoping to hide underneath coverage of that, and that by Wednesday be able to declare the tax returns “old news”.
Brave, brave Sir Mitt ran away.
JGabriel
@Kane:
Of course there can. Conservatism can never fail, it can only be failed. Hell, Conservatives are already making the argument that Newt isn’t conservative enough. Here’s Santorum: Santorum referred to Gingrich’s past support for the individual health insurance mandate, the TARP bailout, his infamous ad in which he sat on a couch with Nancy Pelosi and called for legislation on climate change, and immigration.
__
“These are core issues of the republican base where Newt Gingrich is absolutely wrong …
.
acallidryas
I agree with General Stuck.
I don’t want to be overconfident, but I feel like Newt is the perfect candidate for Obama. Newt does want to be a distraction, likes to have the media follow his crazy of the week, and “wins” debates by saying crazy things and causing the other candidates to fumble. Obama’s style this whole time has been to be cool, focused, and to ride out and above distractions.
Chet
Obama is no more going to talk about how he’s not an Alinskyite than he talked about how he wasn’t a Muslim in 2008. He’s no idiot, or a John Kerry (but I repeat myself); he knows the difference between an attack that you disarm by ignoring it and an attack that you disarm by opposing it.
RSA
@Raven:
Hey, if actual sex were a factor in voting, turnout might be much higher…
beltane
OT, but now I remember who Callista reminds me of. My husband has a friend who used to put on a scary mask of a blonde, helmet-haired 1950’s housewife in order to frighten people who were under the influence of hallucinogenics. I worked every time, I might add.
That woman has a demeanor which is truly nightmare inducing.
Villago Delenda Est
@JGabriel:
The GOP primaries: a constant contest of “more conservative than thou”.
What a contrast to the days of Ronald Magnus’ 11th Commandment.
Irving
@Villago Delenda Est: …and that’s one of the singular joys of our Super-PAC world. The bran’s been outsourced. The PACs can say anything that corssed their joyful empty little minds, and the GOP doesn’t have control of it anymore. The unintended consequences are going to be a riot.
arguingwithsignposts
@beltane:
Shades of “Batman Begins”
DanielX
@Trakker:
All true, but Newt the reptile doesn’t actually have to win the presidency to win redemption, all he has to do is crush his rivals like a grape and win the nomination. His ego may let him acknowledge that he probably can’t win against Obama brring a Rovian-style special event (Operation Northwoods, coming right up), but then the whole thing, as noted, a win-win for him. If by some chance he does win the general, it’s his destiny – and god help us all, because Newt has the attention span of an Irish Setter, not to mention the integrity and morals of a Great White Shark. If he doesn’t win, he can shovel out some more of the liberal/media/whatever conspiracy horseshit he’s been shoveling for going on two decades, and his supporters will eat it with a spoon and ask for more. And, no so incidentally, he can go on making millions for Gingrich Inc. through speaking tours, ghostwritten books, and not lobbying for Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac. If there is a downside for Newt anywhere, I can’t see it.
@JGabriel:
The problem there is that if a brokered convention doesn’t come up with the candidate they want, a lot of the 27% will be so pissed they’ll either stay home on election day or they’ll be out in the streets before election day. Tea Partiers in particular are not going to stand still for having the likes of Mittens rammed down their throats, so to speak. And who could blame them? Why should they vote for a candidate they detest? They’re like Naderites in that regard, they’d rather have ideological (theological?) purity than a candidate who has a greater chance of beating that pretender in the Oval Office, but doesn’t sprinkle gasoline, gunpowder and matches like Newt does.
JGabriel
DanielX:
Maybe. Ultimately, the decision on whether there will be a brokered convention, though, is up to those same voters. If none of the candidates have a full 50%+1, or better, number of delegates, then a brokered convention is what they get.
.
Elizabelle
@beltane:
Callista is 45, looks like she’s 60 trying to look 50, and dresses and coifs like a wanna be Jackie Kennedy circa 1961.
She’d fit right in with Supreme Court Justice John Roberts’ children at his nomination appearance — remember them, dressed in pastel 1950s children’s clothing? (This says nothing about the kids; more about their parents, who dress them at that young age.)
Maybe Callista’s being honest, and signalling that she already lives in a pre-civil rights era, 24/7.
So we’ve got a first lady wannabe out of the pre-Beatles era, and a Supreme Court Chief Justice the railroad barons of 1870 would welcome.
gogol's wife
@RalfW:
Amen.
Cacti
If Gnewt is the nominee, Texas would be in play.
Go Gnewt!
DanielX
Fixed.
Passing thought: it’s going to be fun to watch David Brooks melt down into meth-fueled psychosis over the next few months as he has to leap back and forth giving tongue baths to whoever has won the last Republican primary. I realize that straining at gnats and swallowing camels (not to mention much else) is a Brooksian specialty, but it’s going to require chemically fueled supercharging even for him.
Samara Morgan
@JGabriel: actually he needs 65% of the white vote, if minorities vote for Obama in the same percentages as 2008.
Non-Hispanic whites made up about 63.7% of the population in 2010.
But NHC whites made up 70% of the ELECTORATE.
beltane
@Elizabelle: It’s hard to believe that Callista is younger than Michelle Obama or Sarah Palin. It just goes to show you that bathing in embalming fluid does nothing good for one’s looks.
SRW1
If Newt is the candidate, the double X chromosomes of America are going to teach the bastard a lesson. Namely that this BS with which he steamrolled hapless John King and set his male fan base on fire causes a distinctly different type of visceral reaction among them womenz folk, for whom the center of visceral reactions isn’t a dick.
DanielX
@JGabriel:
True dat. But truthfully, there IS no candidate who is pure and conservative enough for a lot of those voters, barring the reincarnation of Genghis Khan, Attila the Hun or that man with the funny moustache from Austria. Peak wingnut, the wingularity, whatever – for a lot of them the only candidate who will satisfy is one who hasn’t a chance of winning the general election.
Shalimar
@Amir Khalid:
Nah. They don’t mind train wrecks as long as they benefit from the chaos. They don’t want Newt because he won’t follow orders.
beltane
@SRW1: Hatred of Newt is the flip-side of Hillary love for middle-aged white women in this country. It is a near universal thing among non-wingnut females.
cokane
If Newt’s the candidate (which i still highly doubt will happen) the campaign will be a huge fucking disaster. He will be written off as a serious contender by Labor Day. And the Republicans will end up running a campaign of triage trying desperately to score some key more victories — like winning Missouri or winning in some state with a competitive Senate race.
Also, since the campaign will be over really early, it will allow plenty of time for Repubs and conservatives to build up some narrative about why Newt was never really the guy they wanted in the first place, he wasn’t conservative enough, etc etc
Shalimar
@DanielX:
There is only one candidate a brokered convention really can come up with: Christie. He’s the only one who takes pride in being an even bigger asshole than Gingrich, and that is what the base really wants. Give them Christie and they will be energized.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@Belafon (formerly anonevent): What’s most striking to me about that graph is which poll shows the second biggest lead (+14) for President Obama – it’s FAUX news.
barkleyg
My Favorite description of Newt:
Newt Gingrich is a STUPID Person’s idea of what a Smart Person sounds like
and that is the audience that Newt PANDERS to!
Anya
@John O: I want Romney to be the nominee. I want him blooded and bruised, so Gingrich staying in the race is a good thing.
DanielX
@Shalimar:
I gotta disagree on two counts: 1) there is nobody who is a bigger asshole than Newt Gingrich. Nobody.
2) Christie appointed a Mooslim as a state judge last year, and told the wingnuts who objected to go fuck themselves. That makes him unacceptable to a whole lot of wingnuts.
Cacti
Another possible upside to Gnewt as the nominee…
He will have won it at the expense of the Mormons’ great white hope, Mitt Romney. Turnout could be depressed in a lot of the mountain west, if so.
Mormons have a persecution complex a mile wide, and they don’t forget when someone has wronged one of their own.
cmorenc
@The Dangerman:
It will be extremely difficult for the GOP establishment to bring the Tea-Partiers sufficiently on-board with the results of a brokered convention that attempts to nominate either: a) someone who did not run in the primaries at all; or b) a Mitt Romney unable to secure enough delegates to assure nomination going into the convention. The Tea-Partiers would take any such attempt as the Establishment insiders telling them “ok children, you’ve had your fun, but now it’s time for the mature adults to decide what’s best for you”. How well has that similar dynamic worked so far among GOP tea-party caucus house menbers, for example? The tea-party electorate behind them is even less inclined to obediently fall in lock-step just because the establishment tells them it’s in the best interests of the party and the country to (do X). The only people the establishment could possibly come up with under scenario a) (nominate someone who didn’t run in the primaries) who would satisfy them is someone just as unelectable as Newt…the only remotely plausible choice who possibly could satisfy them might be Christie. Christie might not wear well over an intense three-month national campaign.
Benjamin Franklin
RE; that interviewee at WaPo who thought we need someone ‘mean’.
Sara Palin was mean, but, mean like an iron fist in a velvet glove. She was a candy-coated counterpoint to Newt’s meaniacal persona. He will not generate a ‘sympathy’ vote when the turdle-pie splatters his lack of character across the TeeVee screen. He has only the 27 per cent……however…….
All bets are off if we have a domestic incident scary enough to elect someone meaner than Obama.
Villago Delenda Est
There’s a reason why the GOP presidential field is so weak this year.
Incumbency is a hard thing to overcome, even with an economy as weak as it is right now. And the R brand is still reeling from eight years of deserting coward.
We’ve got the C team this time. 2016 is wide open. Not one of the more electable Rethugs wanted to be the sacrificial lamb in 2012.
Cacti
@cmorenc:
And on a purely superficial level of things that shouldn’t matter, but actually do…
There has never been a fat POTUS in the television era.
xian
@WereBear: Especially if smart republican money already foresees a loss to Obama. Why not avoid all this scrutiny of plutocracy and have some bread and circuses instead?
aimai
@General Stuck:
I’m skipping down to say this is one of the greatest comments of all time. It practically deserves to be a ringtone.
aimai
kindness
There’s no dog whistling with Newt’s speech. He was very straight forward in calling Obama a black menace, the news media and Democrats traitors to American goodness.
And South Carolina and the Klan types whoop/eat it up.
arguingwithsignposts
@DanielX:
ORLY? Have you met Dick Armey? Pat BuKKKanen? Grover Fucking Norquist? Tom Delay? The Asshole bench of the GOP is a mile long, and filled with #1 starters.
pseudonymous in nc
@Bondirotta:
State of the Union day? How very interesting.
Emma
@Schlemizel: So are you saying that he can turn the necessary number of people into idiots? Other than the 27% who already are? Then maybe America deserves President Gingrich. We’re certainly not going to be able to save it alone.
Cacti
@kindness:
The funniest part is that the teabagger types really do believe that if Gnewt could have a televised opportunity call Obama a “dumb n**ger” to his face, he’d come unraveled, and everyone would rally to Gnewt’s banner.
In the teabagger mind, it’s just unpossible that “one of them” could be talented at something other than ball sports, or intelligent, articulate, erudite, etc.
Obama got where he is by affirmative action and white guilt. No other possibility exists for them.
cmorenc
@Cacti:
William Howard Taft was the Chris Christie of exactly a century ago, such an extremely overweight man that he had difficulty fitting into the bathtub then-installed in the master bedroom at the White House. He also has the distinction of being the only President who went on to become not merely a Supreme Court justice, but the Chief Justice. At the time Taft was President, the idea of the future invention of television had occurred to some inventors, but the realization of even the first impractically crude designs was still about 10-15 years off, and the first actual broadcast networks still 35 years off.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@DanielX: Counsel for Irish Setters on line 2 for you. She said something about how those are hard working dogs who stay on task for what seems like decades in comparison to that slimy sweaty glob of hate to which you so unfairly compared them.
Amir Khalid
@pseudonymous in nc:
Mitt is clearly hoping that his tax returns will escape notice in all the hoopla over the State Of The Union address and Republican rebuttal. He’s pretty much admitting that there’s something to be embarrassed about.
pat
The dream ticket:
Gingrich/Christie !!!!w0000t!111
800 pounds of mean and nasty.
DanielX
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q):
Point taken; Irish Setters are flaky, not malicious.
@arguingwithsignposts:
No argument there, but they’re kinda…one dimensional. Newt is the complete package.
schrodinger's cat
@pat: The Biggest Losers!
JGabriel
@Samara Morgan:
For 2008. I suspect Newt would need at lest 70%-75% in 2012, but I could be wrong.
The earlier figure of ~80% that I mentioned earlier was just a rough calc based on what percentage of 63.7% does one need to get over 50% total.
.
Bruce S
A “populist” attack on Saul Alinsky in tandem with growling against the elites? Huh? This doesn’t even rise to the level of bullshit, as suggested by mistermix. It’s pure horseshit.
CarolDuhart2
beltane: Having to also appeal to experienced elected officials has probably kept really bad candidates out of the nominating process for we Democrats. Even our losers haven’t really imploded that much afterwards, and Clinton and Obama have been gems.
Bruce S
One thing I love about Gingrich is the way he always says, “When Callista and I decided to run…”
Keep it coming. Callista makes Marcus Bachmann appear as an immeasurable assett in the pantheon of candidates’ wives.
Bruce S
oops – sorry. just realized that mm captured the horseshit vs. bullshit factor in his headline.
r€nato
@slippy: Don’t forget to mention Maurice Clemmons, granted clemency by Huckabee who fell for the old born-again convict ruse. Clemmons ambushed and murdered four cops in Washington state in 2009.
Huckabee also granted clemency to GOP party donor who had four DUIs in five years. Two years later, Eugene Fields was arrested for DUI when his car crossed the center line and nearly collided head-on with a police cruiser.
r€nato
@Bruce S: I have the distinct impression that Callista 9000 saw how Newt had treated his two previous wives, made some calculations and told Newt that if he did the same to her, she’d Bobbitt him.
r€nato
@Cacti: Isn’t it interesting that the heart of the Confederacy shows itself again: they’d rather lose in a ‘noble cause’ (nominate someone who will put that uppity nigger in his place) than nominate someone who has a plausible chance of winning the election.
wrb
I’ve been rooting for the Newt because I thought I’d be a much weaker candidate than Willard. However the middle of the night found me contemplating the real possibility of a president Newt. The guy has some serious skills at demagoguery. An American füher was always likely to have some clownish aspects- to be part Barnum and part Henry Hill.
Could Newt be that guy? Is there anything he can’t rationalize? He’s already said he’d ignore the Supreme Court. I can just imagine: “Speaking as a historian, the great leaders of history- the great emperors- never yield power willingly because they realize- courageously- that humanity, civilization itself, depends on their recognizing their unique gifts and shouldering the burdens that no other can bear…”
wrb
edit: I see signposts already went there
Samara Morgan
@JGabriel: No…65% is the projected requirement for 2012.
Cacti
@wrb:
There would be a thimble’s worth of difference between the policies of a President Gnewt and a President Willard.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@r€nato: and that’s really the best way to put it.
@Amir Khalid: Hopefully, Obama will spend the second half of his speech talking about how the wealthy need to do their fair share and pay more taxes.
arguingwithsignposts
@wrb: Any post about Newt is Godwinned before commenting begins.
JGabriel
@Samara Morgan: Okay. Thanks, where’s that from?
.
Applejinx
Obama should agree to debate using a teleprompter, and then have the teleprompter (which only he and Newt can see) switch to scurrilous insults and filthy abuse at Newt.
Distracting!
G: “That… Sir, I hesitate to repeat the filthy things that thing says.”
O: “*chuckle* Looks fine to me…”
Death Panel Truck
I actually think there’s a better chance that Obama’s SOTU address will be overshadowed by Mitt’s tax returns.
Judas Escargot
@Benjamin Franklin:
That’s one thing that worries me about Newt as nominee.
‘Domestic incidents’ are easy to manufacture, if the “right” (i.e., wrong) people decide that one is required.
Judas Escargot
@wrb:
I see Newt, and to me he seems like something out of a Heinlein novel.
FlipYrWhig
@Bruce S: Gingrich has always been a pompous ass, but I have a feeling that Callista is an Angela-Lansbury-in-Manchurian-Candidate-level paranoid schemer.
FlipYrWhig
@wrb: ITYM Benny Hill.
wrb
@FlipYrWhig:
Newt as Benny is hilarious to picure
Villago Delenda Est
@FlipYrWhig:
Hard to imagine someone who does her damnedest to replicate a Barbie doll version of Jackie Kennedy to be that manipulative.
Perhaps I’m just not seeing it because Angela Lansbury and Meryl Streep portrayed Eleanor Shaw Iselin with such palpable evil. Callista seems much more like a Stepford wife.
Samara Morgan
@JGabriel: here.
i asked medved in a post where he was raving about mitt as the inevitable candidate if mitt could get 65%.
banned and deleted per usual.
;)
PanurgeATL
@RSA:
So why do they call it “gender-reassignment surgery”?
Personally, I think we should throw out “gender” (a category that probably wouldn’t exist under the WHO’s definition if “sex” hadn’t existed first) and just let people be who they want to be without thinking they had to fit in either box.
RSA
@PanurgeATL:
You mean a “sex-change operation”? :-)
I won’t argue for the rule; it’s just a convenience. The only time I’m perfectly sure about using the word “gender” is when I’m talking about linguistic categories–that is, not often.
g
Seven three-hour debates? Really? I’m sure they’ll be a big draw…..
Gingrich has been talking about Lincoln-Douglas style debates, which consist of one person talking for up to 90 minutes uninterrupted, then a half hour response followed by another long rebuttal. I’m sure the folks at home are really going to tune in to this.
(I can guarantee you, also, if Nootie really does do a 90 minute speech, he, too will be using a teleprompter.)
g
@Kane:
I was surprised to hear the NPR coverage of the primary results, and Mara and Cokie and Don were all talking about what a great guy Gingrich was, personally, to journalists. Always willing to talk with them (no surprise there), always friendly.
Of course the flip side of that is the drubbing he gave to Juan Williams – both during the debate and later on the campaign trail, holding Williams up to the crowd as someone who didn’t understand the concept of “hard work” * – just because he could. And Juan Williams is his Fox News colleague.
It’s hard to believe that journalists would put up with this kind of two-facedness, even though God knows, they sure fawned over the towel-snapping behavior of George W. Bush.
* dog whistle for “lazy n****r”
bjacques
Newt Gingrich is a grown-up Eric Cartman.
Mike Huckabee is Kevin Spacey in “Se7en.”
We gotta really work on the downticket races, because when–not if–Gingrich or Romney takes the party to another defeat, House and Senate Republicans will want to take it out on Obama. Better if they don’t have a majority in either house.