Giving Newt the Boot

Whether anyone really cares or not, I am offering a brief series on my thoughts regarding the Republican primaries. 

Today's candidate is Newt Gingrich.

Newt Gingrich - I like Newt.  I hold a deep appreciation for revolution he led in 1994.  I appreciate the way he has articulated conservative thought so eloquently over the years.  However, in my opinion he just falls flat now.  I just cannot gin up any excitement for Newt.

I was privileged to attend Newt's first "Renewing American Civilization" class at what was then Kennesaw State College in the 90's.  From the first day, when he gave a compelling and competent defense of prayer in  school, I was hooked.
He was always holding up books - many very old - and reading excerpts from them.  I found his class to be very inspiring.  In fact, no other class in my secondary educational experience left a more long-lasting mark.  I have read numerous books since that time either directly or indirectly resulting from his lectures. 

The same inspiration he brought to his RAC class, he held forth among the new wave of Republicans in office.  They took the stage and quickly fulfilled their list of promises for the first 100 days (as I recall, pretty much all of them) on time.

Then all of a sudden Newt went mute.
I kept waiting for him to step up during the "Government Shut Down" facade, to defend the actions of congress and to present compelling arguments for conservatism but Newt was strangely silent.

It later became apparent that Newt had joined the growing list of politicians under threat of Clinton, Inc.'s Scorched Earth Policy due to ongoing extra-marital affairs.

Newt did his requisite quiet time lurking in the background for awhile (a practice common among exposed politician's and Southern Gospel Music performers).

Then he was back; and in 2008 he toyed with the idea of getting in the Presidential race.  He dangled the prospects of his decision for quite awhile - milking it, savouring the attention - and then decided not to run.

I think that is where Newt missed the train.

He could have stepped into a primary race dominated by moderates and would have been the ONLY conservative alternative.  And if he had held to the conservative arguments - I think he would have exposed Obama for the "empty suit" he is.

But alas - Newt had "skeletons"; possibly some yet unexposed.  I think Newt was fearful going up against Clinton, Inc. again.  And my guess is that he saw that whether Clinton or Obama won the Democrat nomination, he would be cast as the dastardly villain ... again.

For whatever reason, he bowed out - but for me his prolonged "flirting" with the option just left a bad taste in my mouth.  I think we needed  Newt in 2008.  To top it off, he seemed to join a chorus of other milk-toast Republicans who, at the time, were saying that just maybe the era of Reagan was over and we needed to move on. 

At that point, Newt showed up on my list of stuff I'm done with.

As you may see, most of my decisions were made prior to this election season.  Don't expect much analysis or deep thought for tomorrow's offering... I will be looking at Ron Paul.