I hope this trend continues. As of right now, I’m mostly leaning towards Newt.
After his presidential campaign got off to a bumpy start, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich says the campaign’s on solid footing, and it appears to be showing in the polls.
Just days after his May entry into the race, Gingrich took heat for referring to Rep. Paul Ryan’s Medicare overhaul plan as “right-wing social engineering.” Then there were the questions about at least one six-figure credit line at Tiffany’s.
In early June, most of Gingrich’s staff resigned. At the time, sources said staffers disagreed with Gingrich’s strategy of maximizing social media and debate performances instead of traditional campaigning. Of those who departed, Gingrich now says, “They were wrong, making assumptions that just were not right.”
Fox News polling may vindicate the plan. In July, when potential GOP primary voters were asked who they’d like to see as the nominee, 9 percent picked Gingrich. He has steadily crept to 12 percent in polling released just days ago. “Every week we do a little better,” Gingrich says.
Thoughts?
Blogs For Victory 
If he continues to gain 1% a month, he’ll be all the way to 24% by the election.
Go Newt! Still my favorite policy wonk.
I cannot forgive Newt for sitting on the couch with Nancy and espousing the AGW nonsense.
A TV commercial is certainly worth basing your important vote on. Good call.
He did it. He should know better.
Matt,
Just for fun… the next time someone mentions Newt’s baggage ask them to be more specific. Exactly what baggage are they referring too? Watch them stutter.
Is a man thrice married so flawed that he cannot effectively lead??
Look at his current marriage and his relationship with his children and grandchildren from his first marriage. It could hardly be better.
Legislatively he was a master as Speaker of the House. He could hardly have been more effective. The only criticism we hear is from the opposition… who’s asses he kicked.
We as conservatives need to stop apologizing and do a better job of defending Newt.
Steve Mishket
Dandridge, TN
I agree 100%. Newt has, hands down, won every debate, and has the right ideas and the experience to effectively implement them. He would also kick Obama;s ass in any debate – Vote Newt 2012!
The odd couple of former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and the Rev. Al Sharpton will bring their quest for education reform to Baltimore on Friday. Gingrich and Sharpton are on a three-city “listening and learning” tour to find out which school strategies are working and why.
The former speaker is a conservative Republican, and Sharpton is a civil rights activist and liberal Democrat. They don’t agree on much, but they found common ground in the concept that education is the new frontier on civil rights. They say the quest to improve schools should be nonpartisan.
THAT is the kind of baggage fiscal conservative want explained.
There is no question that education needs improvement. I sincerely question community agitator Sharpton’s selection as a partner in this venture, but the effort is noble.
Every time I listen to Newt speak of the policies needed to turn this economy around, I nod my head in agreement, and every time I listen to Newt speak of foreign policy, I nod my head in agreement. And that is what I am looking for – someone who can speak in detail about the practical policies needed to once again return America into the strong leader of this world in all aspects, and so far Newt is the only one that dials down into the unambiguous detail. Everything else is a distraction, or concerns for those with more delicate sensitivities.
Cluster
The whole problem is that Newt TALKS a good game but doesn’t deliver.
Education needs to be reformed, Bush had honorable objectives with NCLB. When he partnered with Ted Kennedy it looked like a the huge amount of $ spent might pay dividends. They did not, it was/is a DISASTER. Newt’s ideas on education are to go around with Al Sharpton, nuff said.
We need to be independent of foreign oil. Ethanol looked like a possible solution, like the huge amount of $ in subsidies might pay dividends. They did not, it was/is a DISASTER. Where is Newt on these things? Well there was an exchange between Newt and the WSJ-
From February 2011— John McCain, said that “Agriculture subsidies are outrageous today. Ethanol is a joke.” Then, one of the people hoping to be the party’s 2012 nominee, came out in strong support for subsidies for ethanol made from corn. Speaking in Iowa, Gingrich also said that the Wall Street Journal editorial page, which has come out against these subsidies, is “just plain flat intellectually wrong”
Well, that didn’t go over so well with the WSJ. The paper fired back, calling him “ethanol lobbyist Newt Gingrich” and wrote that, “his keynote speech to the ethanol lobby was as pious a tribute to the fuel made from corn and tax dollars as we’ve ever heard.” All of this is prompted Biofuels Digest to criticize the Journal, and we’re sure there will be more to come.
Newt loves government solutions. He is not a fiscal or social conservative. He just talks a good game.
Newt delivered pretty well in 1994, and I am less influenced by others opinions of him, as I am more influenced by what he says he will actually do. What happened in the past is immaterial – Obama said he would close Gitmo and try KSM in NY – I am pretty sure his base will look past that and vote again for him.
Hard to argue with this – unless of course you don’t like the way he opposed the WSJ, or the manner in which he treated a waitress in 1997.
http://www.newt.org/solutions/jobs-economy
that old contract with america…it kind of faded out…
after all the elections were over…the establishmentarianism kicked back in…they forgot what that contract was…at least in spirit…the second year…it was business as usual…
baggage…yes…i remember…and no stuttering
Just think of it this way. A lot of us are standing up for Newt the same way he did for Doug Hoffman. Or if that doesn’t do it for you, think of it this way. We are defending Newt the same way the establishment repubs defended Sarah Palin for 3 years. Not at all.
Timothy Davis
Peoria, IL
sadly newt = yesterdays bad news.
All I am hearing is “Newt’s not perfect”.
The only way to never make a mistake is to never try anything. It is easy to sit around and talk, and dangerous to get out there and actually try to DO something. If what you try doesn’t work, you are branded by some as a failure, but one can learn more from a failed effort than from just tossing out ideas that never get implemented.
Do you think for a moment that Newt is a Sharpton fan? From what I have heard and seen, regarding Newt, he is a results guy, and if being associated with Sharpton opens some doors for him, lends him cred in some circles, gets him accepted, gets people talking openly about what they want and don’t want, then the Sharpton alliance is a brilliant strategy.
You know what jumped out at me? “they found common ground in the concept that education is the new frontier on civil rights.”
This is the key to overcoming any problem—-taking what you have to work with, in this case a public image of Sharpton as a civil rights activist—–and using that perception to get something done. How long have we conservatives been talking about the racism of allowing black children to go through schools without learning anything? How long have we been talking about the growing inequality of one group of people getting good educations and another group getting none? I know I started worrying a long time ago about the new evolving class structure that would be inevitable as children from more affluent families have access to good, private, education and the masses being stuck with the crap that passes for education in our public school systems. I’ve been talking about a gradual return to a form of feudalism that would be the natural outcome of a small educated and therefore rich and powerful class, and a large uneducated class with little or no hope of advancement, and being quite concerned. I have seen this as the end of the promise and hope once offered by our system of government, accompanied of course by the expansion of central government and increasing government controls.
So Newt is trying to do something about it—–and some are quibbling about how he is approaching it. Well, put up or shut up. I think the collaboration with Sharpton may be a brilliant strategy to actually get something done, and the application of the term “civil rights” in a way that is not specifically race-oriented is a big step in the right direction.
It’s this kind of creative thinking and result-oriented approach, as well as the willingness to try and risk failure and the inevitable carping that goes along with it, that appeals to me regarding Newt.
I keep hearing carping about the Contract With America and how it kind of fizzled out. Well, I was not aware that Newt Gingrich WAS the Contract With America, and that its success or lack of same rested solely on his shoulders.
I thought he was just the Speaker of the House. Who knew he WAS the House. And the Senate, too. Here I was just thinking how cool it was that this one guy came up with this idea, fleshed it out, got so many people behind it, used it to change the course of the nation for a while, used it to spark an electoral revolution, and made some really big and important changes, when evidently the real message is that he FAILED because he did not manage to control several hundred politicians and overcome decades of deeply entrenched political establishment single-handed.
Two “failed” marriages? And how many people were in each of those marriages? Last time I looked, that number would have been 2. Yet now it appears that Newt should have had absolute and complete control over those marriages, as well, and that the other person had absolutely nothing to do with the fact that these marriages “failed”. We know nothing of the internal reality of either of these relationships, nothing of the reasons for their endings, but some of us are sure eager to claim they reflect personal failures and character flaws for one of the two people in each of them.
My sentiments exactly. I think if people would just forget their sensitivities and other perceptions re: Newt, and actually listened to what he is now proposing – they would realize that his prescriptions are spot on.
you cant make a bargain with the devil and expect any good results.
Sharpton has a racist, marxist agenda.
The closest he should be to any public “education” is when he walks past his GED posted in the basement of his “church”.
Sorry newt, I like ya but no vote from me.
Pandering is beneath you.
PS
maybe newt could team up with slic willy and council young fat interns.
Not quite sure what “bargain” Newt has made with Sharpton. Sounds to me like he is using Sharpton to gain cred in the black community as well as to improve the lot of students across the nation.
Sharpton has a political agenda, but he will only benefit from becoming a hero for improving the educational opportunities for black children. I don’t care if he is doing this for the ‘right’ reason of just helping people, or just for personal gain. It’s the results that count.
You be sure to let us know when the perfect candidate comes along, one who has never agreed with someone you don’t like, never done something with which you don’t agree, never had a wrong opinion or idea which he was adult enough to change when he got more information, etc. I’ll be curious to see who meets your exacting standards of absolute perfection.
Im not interested in helping the “*BLACK “COMMUNITY”*
I wand good LOCAL schools period foe all colors that is what the problem is now everything for the special groups.
Screw the race hustler sharpton.
amazon woman – it may take two to make a marriage work or fail – but it only takes one with no morals to be a constant adulterer. And that would be Newt. With such a flimsy excuse is that he was just working so hard and loved his country so much that he just had to have affairs – while his wife was in the hospital for cancer treatments. What a swell guy. This was not a one time fling for him – he has an extensive history of having adulterous affairs while married. But go right ahead and blame his wife for causing him to be unfaithful.
Velma, you are quite the prissy little busybody, aren’t you? You have absolutely no information about the truth of Newt’s marriage or why it failed.
A marriage is more than just a legal contract. Once the covenant between a man and wife is destroyed, for whatever reason, the legal status is irrelevant when it comes to pompous declarations about “adultery”. For all you know, it was Newt’s wife who was fooling around, they decided to get a divorce, and then she found out she had cancer.
I had a friend whose husband was a serial adulterer, and she finally gave up and said “Fine. The marriage is over. But since you’re the one who destroyed it, you pay for the divorce.” She moved out and as far as she was concerned, the marriage was over. She was quite taken aback to hear someone talk about her being ‘unfaithful’ when she went out on a date. They had been separated for months and the final divorce was just a legal formality. But I’m sure a moralistic snoop like you would jump on the chance to call her names.
Who claimed “…he was just working so hard and loved his country so much that he just had to have affairs…”? What an utterly stupid thing to say, which explains why YOU said it.
And claims of Newt’s alleged “…extensive history of having adulterous affairs while married…” is just vicious gossip, which explains why you are so attracted to it and so eager to spread it. It is also typical of you to misstate what I said—-what we call ‘lying’. You lied when I said I was blaming his wife for his being unfaithful…what I said was that you simply know no more than what vile sludge slops around in your own head.
There goes dreggs regurgitating the drone narrative about Newt.
Well they have nothing else to use to defeat him – personal attacks always work with liberals and their dumbed down drones.
Pathetic.
Newt already let himself be run out of Congress. What will he do once the firebombs are thrown in earnest? Run away completely? Join the donkyrat party?
Looking for the perfect candidate? HAH! How about just some consistancy. How about a repub that doesn’t stick his finger in the air to see which way the wind blows.
How about one that doesnt sit down with the enemy to “compromise”?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know. It’s people like me that are are destroying the cocktail party, country clubbing, canape eating republican party.
GMB
There are good people out there these retread tires arent them.
Give us a candidate that will make the donkyrats cross the aisle and work with us. Make the donkyrats try and slow down the rate of conservatism. Reagan for all his faults made the donkyrats work with us. Reagan won two landslide elections being as conservative as he could be.
Instead we have repubs running as progressive lites. Unwilling to oppose the progressives in anything. How is that winning?
Newt’s big ideas.
Tax Cuts
Vague Monetary Policies
Deregulation
Mysterious plan to balance budget
Repeal Obamacare
Undo pork spending if the pigs say its okay
Neo and GMB,
Amazona raises a good point – give us some names of people you could support. I want to then dig into their background.
I also want to remind Neo and GMB that Reagan worked with, and compromised with Tip O’Neil all the time. In fact, those compromises led to Reagan’s amnesty program – so I don’t how you two can support Reagan in anyway.
cluster
the donk party had not yet been completely hi jacked by the marxists yet when RR was in.
Tip was a drunken Irishman good ole boy, who loved the US.
today many hate the constitution, under the guise of “civil liberties” and “liberalism” both thin veils of communism.
Newt was of the old era.
I have heard he could be on the ticket as VP with Cain.
THAT I could support 100%
Amazona doesn’t raise a good point. Newt isn’t a not-quite-perfect candidate, he is a loser.
He believes that companies outsource jobs because of regulations and taxes. All the data says they outsource jobs for lower labor costs.
He is rarely specific about spending cuts and has said almost nothing about the free protection of Western Europe that the U.S. provides.
Cain or Paul
So regulations and taxes have nothing to do with the cost of business in the US? Many people, besides Newt have stated that ever-increasing regulations are hurting business growth. Newt has also mentioned a 10% across the board cut on all federal agencies, but more importantly, which candidate has been real specific about spending cuts?
baldork
He believes that companies outsource jobs because of regulations and taxes.
He is 100% spot on that one.
All the data says they outsource jobs for lower labor costs.
BS
“Newt has also mentioned a 10% across the board cut on all federal agencies” – I call b.s. find a link to Newt’s campaign with the above item and without the word EXCEPT.
“So regulations and taxes have nothing to do with the cost of business in the US?”- There is a useful notion called a Pareto Analysis http://erc.msh.org/quality/pstools/pspareto.cfm about which you seem to be completely unaware. Optimizing tire pressure while running the AC in your car at full blast hardly saves fuel.
“which candidate has been real specific about spending cuts?” Ron Paul 2012
Aside from the fact that unions are largely responsible for driving up labor costs, which is the “real” job killer according to you, dismissing regulatory costs is just naive, if not ignorant. Here’s just a small example:
http://www.nfib.com/press-media/press-media-item?cmsid=56103
And honestly – I could never vote for Paul. I also can’t find any link, but on Halloween, Newt was on O’Reilly with Monica Crowley filling in, and stated that he might start with getting spending under control by cutting every federal agencies budget by 10% – Cain has also said this, and it makes sense.
Clueless
The minimum wage is a big job killer. Imagine if the US could compete on a fair level with the prison labor in China. That would be glorious huh.
Couldn’t find a link. Well I could find plenty of links but they all had the word EXCEPT in them. Find a link where Newt says he’s willing to also cut 10%of the handouts to the people who always vote (read medicare part D e.g.). I’ll even consider voting for Newt if he has shown that much more integrity than I’ve seen in the past.
Are you against Paul because he is serious about ending crony capitalism and too big to fail or you don’t like his foreign policy where he is against nation building at US taxpayer expense?
baldork
Find a link where Newt says he’s willing to also cut 10%of the handouts to the people who always vote (read medicare part D e.g.).
sure SCREW the people who PAID into MANDATORY ponzi schemes for 50 +++++ years.
How about “raising” the taxes of the looting 46% who pay NO, ZIP, NADA, federal taxes.
Say 10% flat tax, stop ALL “earned” income tax “credits” all we are asking is for them to PAY THEIR FAIR SHARE!!!!!
See Wallace November 7, 2011 at 2:10 am. // Moderator
walleye
unlike you looters and takers, I PAID for and STILL PAY for what I get through NO choice of mine.
See Wallace November 7, 2011 at 2:10 am. // Moderator
http://www.propublica.org/blog/item/whats-the-evidence-that-regulations-kill-jobs
Republican mantra, but no real evidence of facts.
scummy
ever hear of ross perot?
that sucking sound was more than slic & monica, larry & barry, bwany & 16 yo pages.
It was KKKlinroons NAFDA and US jobs.
scully
you have NO Fn clue just some stupid post from some loon.
I OWN a business, and have owned several.
I work with other business owners EVERY DAY.
I can tell you with 100% certainty how much the govt intervention costs and totally SUCKS!
sure jerk – you be a big ole bad business man. right. That is why you post on this site all day long. You workin’ hard! You are such a loser.
Oh, Velma, give it a rest. You’ve done plenty of posting during business hours, and you work for someone else, meaning that you were taking money for time you spent NOT working for your company.
neo owns his own businesses so it’s his own business if he posts during the day. At least he’s not stealing from his boss.