I will summarize this article with bullet points, then add some of my own thoughts.

1. He was forced from his Speakership and many who served with him don't recall the experience fondly (including many conservatives, like Coburn).

2. Marianne Gingrich running around and criticizing him would create a maelstrom of personal muck for him to wade through the likes of which no candidate has ever had to deal with.

3. His anti-media style plays well with the base, but the independents will see it as simply lashing out.

4. Raise your hand if you believe he was not a lobbyist for the GSE Freddie Mac. Me either. It is a legal distinction without a basis in reality.

5. He would be, I think, the second-oldest man ever elected. So, we're going to try and foist an angry, old, fat white guy against Obama?

6. His record of coming up with good ideas contains a number of clinkers.

7. (see #2) His personal history will scare women off in droves. I'm guessing he can't get above 32% of the female vote. That is not a winning formula.

8. Debates swing close elections. Newt probably can school Obama in debates. However, his churlish behavior the rest of the time will ensure the race is not close.

Ok, so that's why he should not be the nominee. Care to explain why he can/will not ?

Sassenach wrote:Ok, so that's why he should not be the nominee. Care to explain why he can/will not ?

Yes. At some point, panic will set in among the power brokers in the party., Either they will resign themselves to a massive defeat and save their money or they will prop up Santorum long enough to keep this thing split up.

Plus, the schedule is not favorable to Newt. He will not win Florida, although it could be closer than I would like. Romney will win Nevada, maybe with Paul second. On Super Tuesday, Newt can't play in Virginia. He will win Georgia and maybe Tennessee.

Let's put it this way: Newt is the Democrats' dream candidate. He will drag everyone down with him. I don't care how well he debates, there will only be three (his boast that he will dog Obama into several Lincoln/Douglas style debates is just that--a boast).

He will panic the establishment even more than Ron Paul. Why? Because he could get the nomination if he's not stopped (Paul can't) and he would destroy the Party.

You'd like to think that Gingrich's personal life would eventually hurt him. I mean, this is a man who was having an affair behind the back of his cancer-stricken wife and then dumped her while she was in hospital. That's a despicable way to behave no matter what your religious convictions may be. Surely he can't get away with spinning this media conspiracy line for long. His chequered past calls his character seriously into question.

You know, you could set up one of these threads for each of the GOP contenders...

Sassenach wrote:You'd like to think that Gingrich's personal life would eventually hurt him. I mean, this is a man who was having an affair behind the back of his cancer-stricken wife and then dumped her while she was in hospital. That's a despicable way to behave no matter what your religious convictions may be. Surely he can't get away with spinning this media conspiracy line for long. His chequered past calls his character seriously into question.

I'm not a Gignrich fan, but his daughter from the first marriage describes these events differently. Namely, he and his 1st wife were unhappy for awhile, had talked about divorce before she had cancer, the cancer was not fatal (she's still alive today) and it was an amicable divorce. The imagery of her dying of cancer while he's heartlessly dumping her is a bit of a media creation. That's the daughter's view ... feel free to investigate.

I think that his treatment of his 2nd wife may have been worse, especially if what she says is true ...

danivon wrote:You know, you could set up one of these threads for each of the GOP contenders...

Or the current office holder, for that matter.

b

Or the current office holder, for that matter

.
Why Obama will not and cannot be the nominee?
Dude?

RickyP,
Please, you are smarter than this. Sass talks about Gingrich's personal life, Danivon says you can talk about each of the GOP candidates in their own personal thread. (I quoted that part for your convenience). Obama has skeletons as well.

I must applaud (and I have before) President Obama on his family life. It has the appearance of a nice family and he is protective of them. Those skeletons are in his associations, and we have discussed them before.

Personally, I am more interested in what President Obama has and has not done while POTUS.

b

Obama has skeletons as well.

None that stopped him from being the nominee or winning the last election.... So they really don't count as show stoppers this time... Not even that being Kenyan thing that Gingrich raised...
And besides he is going to be the nominee... and therefore the discussion that is being had about the republican potentials isn't really relevant.
For Obama the only relevant thing is the performance of the economy. Its creeping in the right direction, but he'll still carry that as his albatross. (Or perhaps ironically turn it to advantage if the class warfare angle takes off.... and Gingrich sems to have given it quite a boost.)

rickyp wrote:b

Obama has skeletons as well.

None that stopped him from being the nominee or winning the last election....

Because Hillary was afraid to use them as she might be instantly branded a "racist." Furthermore, the press was MIA.

Cocaine? Rezko? And, while Wright received some attention, we never received any explanation of why Obama went there for 20 years, called the man his "mentor," and never knew what he or the church taught.

And besides he is going to be the nominee... and therefore the discussion that is being had about the republican potentials isn't really relevant.

That's only if you believe he was vetted last time.

For Obama the only relevant thing is the performance of the economy.

There are many other issues--corruption, incompetence, and any number of foreign issues that Obama has botched.

Didn't you set this thread up as a repository for your Newt-hate? You've set up more than enough already about Obama and there's nothing to stop you doing so again.

Still, it's refreshing to see such positive campaigning. It's not why Republicans should vote for Romney, but why they should vote against Gingrich. Or, from the other side, Gingrich has loads of reasons why Romney should not get the nomination, and few for why he's the best guy.

The 'anti' politics is visceral, but destructive. The more that the conservatives fight each other like rats in a sack, the easier ride that they give their opponents.

danivon wrote:The 'anti' politics is visceral, but destructive. The more that the conservatives fight each other like rats in a sack, the easier ride that they give their opponents.

Maybe but I'm of the opinion that most of what happens in the primary will stay in the primary and that people will be talking about other things once the general rolls around.

I'm sure that most of it will. But do you think that the general will be filled with positive campaigns? Or with a load of hit pieces and scare-adverts and 'if you vote for X, the country will be destroyed!!!' rhetoric?

People have a short attention span, so most of the damage done in the Republican primaries is likely to be short term.

Having said that though, I'm assuming here that Romney will ultimately win. If Gingrich wins a gruelling knife fight of a contest then it could get very ugly. Two-thirds of Americans apparently have a negative opinion of him, and his ratings have reportedly gotten worse since the start of the primary campaign. The longer he keeps getting exposure the worse it could potentially get.