Newt Going Exploring?
He Pledges to “Go Out Looking,” Seek Pledges
By Mark I Posted in 2008 — Comments (9) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
At the beginning of the second hour of today's Rush Limbaugh Show, Newt Gingrich said that his long time advisor was going to "go out looking" to see if there was a need or desire for a "candidate who can debate Hillary Clinton directly." He added that, in order to make a run in a field in which one candidate "can write himself a personal check for $100 million," he felt he needed to have $30 million in pledges before he could make a bid for the nomination.
Newt said he is completely focused on his American Solutions workshops, coming up on September 29th. But he said his advisors would begin gauging interest in a Newt presidential candidacy the very next day. Sending out his closest advisors to field test the candidate’s star power and seek pledges sounds like the job of an exploratory committee.
Read on...
At the beginning of the year, it looked like Newt would definitely run for president. He said today that he would know "by the middle of October" whether a run would "be practical." There's another potentially large factor that will be known by the middle of October: the third quarter fundraising numbers to be announced on October 15th. His ultimate decision may rest on the relative strengths and weaknesses of the declared candidates after those results are announced.
If Rudy Giuliani posts a big number, it's more likely that Newt will stay out. If McCain has another poor fundraising performance, as he did in the second quarter of the year, it may open the door to a Newt entry a crack. Fred Thompson, thought to be Newt's closest challenger for conservative primary voters, may not have to reveal his fundraising success to date until the fourth quarter totals are announced in January thanks to his carefully timed entry into the race late in the third quarter.
The most likely scenario here is that Newt does not run but instead throws his support behind one of the three front runners. All of them have issues with the conservative base that makes up the Republican primary electorate. Newt may well decide that his best chance to affect the race would be in staying out and stamping one of the three with his conservative approbation. But that’s not a prediction.
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Newt Going Exploring? 9 Comments (0 topical, 9 editorial, 0 hidden) Post a comment »
docked at the first port of call.
Get real.
Newt doesn't have a chance in hell to win the general election, ANY Democrat would beat him.
His entire primary candidacy would be a vanity tour to promote himself.
Newt has a lot of great conservative ideas, and is without question brilliant, but he is absolutely unelectable with his baggage and personality.
Unfortunately, Presidential elections aren't just about ideas, they're also about the individual, and Newt is not someone people will warm to, no matter how good his ideas are.
Newt belongs at a think-tank and not on a voting ballot.
Conservatives would do well to focus their support on conservative candidates that can actually get elected and change public policy.
"Back in the thirties we were told we must collectivize the nation because the people were so poor. Now we are told we must collectivize the nation because the people are so rich. "
William F. Buckley, Jr.
Newt go away! You aren't running, and you wouldn't win the nomination. Please go back to a think tank where you could do some good!
or at least participate in a couple of debates. He is almost the polar opposite of the last non-candidate candidate who recently announced--bright, innovative, combative, a terrific extemporaneous speaker, willing to debate anyone, anytime on any issue. And decidedly not folksy.
I'm not going to bash Newt but I think his place is as a consultant, strategist, and commentator, not as a candidate.
I'd say there's a one in three chance that Newt enters the race. I feel that he has too much baggage to be a serious contender and may be better off endorsing Fred Thompson.
If Newt enters, Rudy wins the primaries.
Newt's entry would have other effects on the primary contests other than simply to elevate the level of debate. He's attractive enough to the conservative core that he sucks the oxygen out of the room from the other potential conservative-branded candidates. However, there are enough conservatives that think Newt is unelectable that he would never garner enough support to top Rudy.
-- digitalhap
The pivotal issue in the election will be the war in Iraq and the war against Global Jihad.
None of the existing candidates says much more than repeating the Bushisms. None of them dare question the most farcical Bushism of all "Islam is a Religion of Peace".
Newt is developing a new and more knowledeable take on the global jihad and I think he may soon identify Islam as the enemy, not just "radicals" and "extremists" and he may even stop his own misidentification of the "irreconcilable wing of Islam".
Newt understand more about this enemy than the others. If he can distance himself from the others by a different, stronger approach towards the global jihad, he could win on that issue alone.
In either a Thompson or a Giuliani Administration. :-)