Dateline: Derry New Hampshire:
Program note: the most well know GOP personality who could be found to introduce Newt Gingrich at this event was batty old Bud McFarlane, who spent a few minutes sharing his apocalyptic vision of despair ($200 a barrel for crude oil, cyber attacks, flying monkeys) before introducing a William Taft corpulent Newt Gingrich to a packed hall of some 300 locals.
Newt Gingrich has the mentality of a rock star, he starts his rallies casually late, he has more ex-wives than Ozzie Osborne and knows the crowd pleasing value of rambling thru his greatest hits.
The truth is though, Elvis once wanted to be Dean Martin and so Newt Gingrich wants to be Ronald Reagan and explicitly sells himself to New Hampshire auds as The Gipper's tanned rested & ready Illegitimate Son.
It is true though, that Newt Gingrich is a visionary, it is just that the things he sees rarely make a lick of sense in any manner shape or form.
And like all visionaries, Newt is an egomaniac, a good ten minutes of his campaign speech is given over to a long history of U.S. conservatism in the post Viet Nam Era, the only other GOP politicians he mentions in this ramble is Jack Kemp (once) and Ronald Reagan (who could accomplish but little without the help of Newt Gingrich).
Otherwise it was all "How I invented conservatism".
Newt talks a lot about "transcending partisanship"which on elaboration apparently consists of lying about the President's record, putting the "vital middle" under the whips and chains of the conservative right and rewriting all history to demonstrate the universal efficacy of wingnut dialectics.
And then Newt got to his central ideological thesis, the "magical things" that happen when supply side economics is read into Federal Policy. That those "magical things" usually end in crippling budget deficits like the ones we have now is never ever mentioned.
But this is Newt Gingrich we are talking about, he is a politician of hope after all, otherwise why would he keep coming back to the bizarre metaphor of supply side "magic"?
My Ghod then the cannonade od specifics began...twelve separate proposals and variations on lower taxes, deregulation, the "Reform of the EPA, the Federal Reserve and the FDA", fire Ben Bernanke, abolish the inheritance tax, introduce a voluntary flat tax (If I heard him right), drop the capital gains tax to "zero" and drill our way to energy independence.
(BTW it is a truism of GOP "magical thinking" that the USA could be an oil exporter but for Federal bureaucrats and endless regulation.)
Oh and he wants to abolish ObamaCare before he is inaugurated if at all possible by a notional all-republican congress.
Big surprise there.
Oh and while he is a firm advocate of this continental oil and gas pipeline from Canada which the Obama admin is mulling over, any power lines strung from Quebec hydroelectric to "Boston" ought to be buried underground so as not to spoil the tourist vistas and landscape of Northern New Hampshire.
Well, Newt Gingrich wouldn't be a rock star if he wasn't casually contradictory.
In a full half hour of this nonsense, the only worthwhile measure that Gingrich espoused was reopening the Manchester VA hospital as a full service facility.
I heartily endorse this measure it is unconscionable that Granite State veterans must take the Greyhound Bus all the way to Boston to get health care out of the VA Hospital in Jamaica.
Why Senator Kelly Ayotte hasn't been heard on this matter I cannot imagine, clearly she is too busy toadying up to Mitt Romney all over the state to give it all much thought.
Meanwhile, Newt Gingrich wants to challenge Barack Obama to seven Lincoln-Douglas style debates, with timekeepers and no moderation. The Former House Speaker clearly thinks that he would win in such a debate format hands down given his own particular rhetorical gifts (most of which revolve around lying loudly with as many false historic analogies as can be crammed him).
Me I dunno, I'm not sure Gingrich's style would "wear well" over seven debates, there is a bloated arrogant touch of Steven Douglas to the man.
That having been said, this eructation went over big time with the crowd, unlike Romney's sleepy aud early Saturday Morning, this bunch was primed to be fired up by the One and Only Gingrich.
Over and above all that, Gingrich if nominated, will try and turn 2012 into a play by play re-run of 1980, which is a mistake in my humble opinion as elections & football games never ever repeat themselves in the USA, each one has it's own unique dynamic.
But the crowd ate it up since hating on Jimmy Carter is practically GOP theology these days and everyone loves to relive a past triumph.
Other than that, Newt Gingrich offers exactly nothing at variance with Rick Santorum or Mitt Romney they are firmly for low taxes, deregulation, a strong dollar, a stronger military and couldn't care less who pays for it all.
But unlike Romney (an outright android of a politician) or Santorum (A religious fanatic posing as technocrat), Newt Gingrich thinks himself a Rock Star a man in simultaneous communion with the audience and the very muses above. His stomach is huge, his ego is preposterously huge and in two weeks he will likely be back collecting "Conservative Welfare" down in DC.
On that I could be wrong, but I can't see Gingrich, ego and all taking this fight all the way to the GOP convention let alone the general election in the fall, sooner or later rock stars have to get off tour, rest up, dry out and rewrite their act.
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