Should Newt Have Run?

The whole Limbaugh-abetted kerfluffle over Newt Gingrich's remark that "we are at the end of the Reagan era" reminds me of how long it seems (though it's only been a few months) since it looked like Gingrich might jump into the GOP race himself. Nothing that's happened since then has made it seem any more likely that Newt would have been able to win the Republican nomination outright had he thrown his hat into the ring; on the other hand, the crazy fragmentation of the GOP field does suggest that Newt-the-candidate would have been a major factor in the race, and thus it's hard to see how a Presidential run wouldn't have benefited the Gingrich brand - and won more attention for the Gingrich platform - than the book promotion he's doing instead.

It's true that Gingrich tends to be overrated (by conservatives, that is) as a font of new ideas, but I still would have liked to see him in the race - not only because he'd be vastly entertaining in the debates, but because his standing within the movement positions him to give voice to certain truths without coming in for quite the ritual denunciations that Huckabee and McCain have summoned up.

Photo by Flickr user Matthew Bradley used under a Creative Commons license.

Comments

Newt strikes me as an ideal VP choice for basically any of the potential Republican nominees.

Posted by right | January 17, 2008 1:42 PM

We may be at the end of the Reagan Era, per Newt, but we are not at the end of the Bush Era...and George Bush has picked his candidate: Mitt Romney.
Best evidence to date? Vin Webber's role on the Romney campaign. Vin is the consummate Washington Insider, as comfortable doing business with Madeline Albright, James Johnson, Vernon Jordan,Donna Shalala and the rest of the Democratic Establishment as he is with the plutocrats in his own party. And he was a key apparatchik for Bush in 2000.
Romney's latest speeches about how he's an outsider, and he's going to change Washington...ludicrous. He's running for Bush's third term.

Posted by fougasseu | January 17, 2008 1:57 PM

Newtie would throw up at the thought of being vice president.

Posted by Woody Bombay | January 17, 2008 1:58 PM

Wouldn't he have split the serial wife dumper vote with Rudy?

Posted by Colonel Danite | January 17, 2008 2:15 PM

Wouldn't he have split the serial wife dumper vote with Rudy?

Yeah, but I think him leaving his wife during the whole cancer thing beats Rudy doing it at a press conference.

Posted by justinb | January 17, 2008 2:47 PM

In this race, I think all Republican pols must be kicking themselves for not running. ANYONE could win, even Newt.

Posted by jimmy | January 17, 2008 2:54 PM

I can't help but think having a Dickensian name as Newt Gingrich would also be an impressive bar to a presidential bid. I mean if I'd never heard of him before, I'd have expected "Newt Gingrich" to have been one of Voldemort's lackeys along with Peter Pettigrew and Lucius Malfoy.

Posted by Chris | January 17, 2008 2:55 PM

In this race, I think all Republican pols must be kicking themselves for not running.

No one moreso than Fred Thompson.

Posted by right | January 17, 2008 3:51 PM

Re: the presidential campaign benefiting the Newt brand, that was precisely the point behind the tease. If I recall correctly Newt had gone as far as lining up $30m in contributions before announcing that he had decided to not run because he'd have to give up his salary at American Solutions (which also serves a critical role in his current business plan).

Remembering that his futuristic platform of platitudes is a "scam," as his old friend Matt Towery put it, ought to put a damper on your enthusiasm for his truth-telling capacity, I should think.

Posted by Other Ezra | January 17, 2008 4:34 PM

Newt Gingrich has a better chance of bagging a threesome with the Simpson sisters than he does of ever becoming president. This is the sort of fantasy only Republicans can entertain.

Posted by MoeLarryAndJesus | January 17, 2008 5:00 PM

As I've written before, I suspect that Newt is now (1) praying for a deadlocked convention, and (2) negotiating with Satan to be the nominee who comes out it.

Posted by Gene | January 17, 2008 7:21 PM

I really like Newt-- he's incredibly articulate, sharp, and his Contract with American was bold and successful. But the Media would destroy him in the general election, even as a veep candidate-- Romney/Gingrich would be a terrible nightmare for the GOP. Does anyone remember the NR cover "The Gingrich who stole Christmas"??? Even conservatives were throwing him under the bus just about a decade ago, for stealing school lunches from the mouths of hungry children... The LAST thing we need is for a pair of nerdy, wealthy, white right-wingers to be pitted against the first serious African-American and female presidential candidates at a time when the Dems could so easily rip the GOP for turning a blind eye to the problems Americans face here at home. The GOP needs a softy-- someone like McCain. Even Huckabee is less vulnerable to this type of general election onslaught than either Romney or Gingrich.

Posted by MD | January 17, 2008 9:14 PM

MD writes: "The LAST thing we need is for a pair of nerdy, wealthy, white right-wingers to be pitted against the first serious African-American and female presidential candidates at a time when the Dems could so easily rip the GOP for turning a blind eye to the problems Americans face here at home. The GOP needs a softy-- someone like McCain. Even Huckabee is less vulnerable to this type of general election onslaught than either Romney or Gingrich."

The actual LAST thing America needs is another GOP stumblebum getting elected and validating the idiotic, revolting rule of Prince George the Stupid. The GOP is going to get the scourging and keelhauling it deserves and I hope it makes every last single two-time Bush voter cry itself to sleep every night for the next 8 years.

Hot holy damn, Batman, but you guys have it coming. And then some.

Posted by MoeLarryAndJesus | January 17, 2008 11:15 PM

The more you think about it, the more you might just decide that Giuliani/Gingrich is a dream ticket. Talk about family values!

Rudy:
Married to his own cousin for 14 years
Cheated on his second wife with a woman he met in a cigar bar, then announced his split at a press conference
Built NYC's disaster HQ in the WTC so he could walk there for trysts with his girlfriend

Newt:
Served divorce papers to his cancer-stricken wife in her hospital bed
Cheated on his second wife with his congressional staffer while leading the Clinton impeachment drive

They make Bill Clinton look like Mitt Romney. And man, you know they'd have some wild weekends at Camp David!

Posted by Woody Bombay | January 18, 2008 12:40 AM

Jim Keane writes: The GOP is going to get the scourging and keelhauling it deserves and I hope it makes every last single two-time Bush voter cry itself to sleep every night for the next 8 years.

Great point Jim the Sockpuppet. I didn't really get you the first 100 times you said it. But now that you have repeated it 101 times I really have to recognize your powers of observation.

Posted by Mark Adams | January 18, 2008 12:45 AM

Marky writes: "I didn't really get you the first 100 times you said it. But now that you have repeated it 101 times I really have to recognize your powers of observation."

It's the same thing that keeps you dragging your ass to Mass every Sunday, Marky. We even have a call-and-response thing going now.

Now stand for the ritual denunciation of Saint Reagan.

Posted by MoeLarryAndJesus | January 18, 2008 8:42 AM

Conservatives who think Newt had any chance at all are delusional. You guys don't remember who unpopular he was?

Posted by Eric K | January 18, 2008 6:33 PM