Sunday, May 20, 2007

Gingrich makes his appeal to the disenfranchised right

Newt Gingrich's appearance on Meet the Press was aimed at one audience: Hard core Republicans who view the Bush administration as both incompetent and traitorous to key Republican values. Gingrich talked tough on Iraq, used a plethora of references to Ronald Reagan (a sure sign you're talking to misty-eyed conservative ideologists), and had, well, pretty much all the answers.

Middle America probably loved it.

Two problems jumped out, however:

1. He was long on proposed solutions, but didn't account for any sort of political opposition. DeTocque will happily throw out 20 proposed changes to "Win in Iraq", but it's the EXECUTION of those things which seems to get everyone in trouble.

2. If he does decide to run for President (which will probably be determined by poll numbers based on appearances like this), he WILL fill a void amongst Republican candidates, but he WON'T get very far: when push comes to shove, he'll lose out when his opponents keep bringing up that nasty affair he had while leading the impeachment charge. He might talk the talk, but the evangelicals will have their say...

6 comments:

Unknown said...

Tocq - I came looking for insights on Koucher's appointment as Foreign Minister in France. Certainly increases my respect for Sarko significantly. How big a deal do you think this is?

kungpao said...

Vous le vouz Koucher avec moi?

Eric Sundström said...

Hey guys-

Gingrich: I watched Meet the Press as a video podcast (oh I am so modern and all) and I can agree: He can talk the talk but remember how he walked the walk.

Kouchner: A very smart move, Sarko's government has a few people from the Socialist Party (as Kouchner) and one from UDF. And it is gender balanced, as he promised. As they say in France, chapeau!

kungpao said...

I still don't understand how they're talking about all these candidates who "might jump into the race"

Gingrich, Thompson, Clark, Gore: you bitches better get moving. This thing's over in 9 months!

Eric Sundström said...

...and I hope that Al Gore will throw his hat into the ring soon!

kungpao said...

I still haven't read anything that explains the timing of entering the race to me. Assuming these guys all have money *(which they do, with the exception of Clark maybe) when is too late?

I kind of like the strategy, though. The longer the frontrunners twist in the wind of 24-hour news, the less appealing they are. So just when America can't stand to hear anything else about Hillary Obama Giuliani and McCain, the second line comes in.

Like Hockey!