Tag Archives: Newt Gingrich

Lost Phone, Late Column, Political Update

BY RICH GALEN
Reprinted from Mullings.com

Yes, I think Herman Cain’s campaign is over but it doesn’t have nearly as much to do with this new charge of adultery as it does his continuing inability to demonstrate any knowledge about just about any issue that might turn out to be important to a high-level official such as President of the United States.

Yes, I think Rick Perry’s saying that (a) the voting age in New Hampshire is 21 (it is 18) ; and (b) Election day next year will be November 12 (it will be November 4) is a big deal. If he wasn’t sure about the voting age or election date, he should have talked around them: “For those of you who will be of voting age next November…” would have served him well.

It is another example of Perry’s absolute inability to think on his feet which might turn out to be an important skill for a high-level official such as President of the United States. Continue reading →

Gingrich Gets Hot Endorsement

BY RICH GALEN
Reprinted from Mullings.com

The New Hampshire Union-Leader (neé Manchester Union-Leader) endorsed Speaker Newt Gingrich for President in the Republican primary which will be held there on January 10, 2012.

This is no small deal for Gingrich because it is a legitimate endorsement from the daily newspaper of the largest city in the state.

As I tweeted yesterday (follow me at @richgalen): Newspaper endorsements are like polls & poker: Winners whoop & holler. Losers say “Shut up and deal.”

Endorsements, polls and poker hands are generally not determinative but in each case it is better to win it than to lose it. I don’t read the Union-Leader with any regularity, but I had to tip my hat to the lead (spelled “lede” in news-speak) in the front page editorial written by publisher Joseph W. McQuaid: This newspaper endorses Newt Gingrich in the New Hampshire Presidential Primary.

In support of this simple, but strong, declarative sentence Mr. McQuaid encapsulated his reasoning by pointing to the Contract with America in 1994 and the resultant take-over of the U.S. House of Representatives in the elections that year; as well as “forging balanced budgets despite the challenge of dealing with a Democratic President.” Continue reading →

Post Debate Download

BY RICH GALEN
Reprinted from Mullings.com

Generally: Every debate starts with more and longer packages, more solemn announcers, and a greater sense of import. Took 13:30 to get to the first question. I was surprised – pleasantly surprised – that for the most part the candidates had a good idea what they were talking about, and had thought through their basic positions. I say “for the most part” because Rick Perry and Herman Cain were clearly out of their depth. Continue reading →

#OWS

BY RICH GALEN
Reprinted from Mullings.com

City officials from coast-to-coast have finally decided to live up to their responsibilities to enforce the law and have been evicting the Occupy (fill-in-the-blank) squatters from public spaces.

The District of Columbia has decided to allow the squatters to remain in McPherson Square Park because … well, maybe so the city won’t have to mow the grass until next Spring.

I am not totally unsympathetic to the general theory of the demonstrators: The deck is stacked in favor of the people who have the lion’s share of the chips because they already own the casino.

In the end, the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement was a pale shadow (how’s that for an oxymoron?) of the Arab Spring demonstrations.

Part of the problem for the OWS crowd was nobody paid much attention to them. I suppose people who actually work on Wall Street paid attention to people who were attempting to occupy it.

But Manhattan is a pretty big island and for most New Yorkers a bunch of rich kids from New Rochelle sleeping in tents and relieving themselves in garbage cans was not much of a reason to miss their morning bagel-and-a-schmear before they got to the office. Continue reading →

Newt Up, Newt Down, Never Count Newt Out

BY RICH GALEN
Reprinted from Mullings.com

I have mentioned to you before that when it comes to making political predictions I am exactly 50-50. I am wrong exactly as often as I am correct, thus you can’t make any money betting on what I say, nor betting against me.

As a case in point let me direct your attention to MULLINGS from May 20, 2011, in which I wrote: In the week or so since Newt formally announced that he was a candidate for President, his campaign has gone from sputtering to on the rocks. I, like just about everyone else inside the Beltway, declared his candidacy over and his quest for the Presidency dead.

Yeah. Well…

In a poll released late last week Mitt Romney was leading Republican candidates with 23%; but Newt Gingrich was right on his heels at 19% (just outside the margin of error which was 3.5% among registered voters in the poll). Herman Cain may be succumbing to both political gravity and the grave nature of the charges against him and was at 17 percent in this poll. Continue reading →

Pre-Post Look at Debate

BY RICH GALEN

Reprinted from Mullings.com

PRE-DEBATE
The President finally got around to sending his Jobs Bill up to the Hill today. In spite of the early betting it is almost all paid for with higher taxes on: people making over $200,000; hedge fund managers; oil and gas companies; and, corporate jets. The candidates’ staff spend the afternoon looking for any language in the bill which will draw applause or derisive laughter from the audience. Continue reading →

End of World Is Not Nigh

BY TONY BLANKLEY-

REPRINTED FROM THE WASHINGTON TIMES

Except according to the Lord’s plans – which are not known to man – the “end of the world” is not nigh, although to listen to politicians and pundits, we should be packed and ready to go by next Thursday.

The headlines recently have read like Woody Allen’s 1979 “My Speech to the Graduates”: “More than any other time in history, mankind faces a crossroads. One path leads to despair and utter hopelessness. The other, to total extinction. Let us pray we have the wisdom to choose correctly. I speak, by the way, not with any sense of futility, but with a panicky conviction.”

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AAA Arcane August Story

BY RICH GALEN

Reprinted from mullings.com

I woke up early yesterday morning to follow the story of the continuing drop in the markets following the S&P downgrade of U.S. sovereign debt from AAA to AA+. It occurred to me that, as we enter the second week of August, this may be the most arcane “August Story” in my experience.

Anthony Weiner is the typical August story: Public official, sex, denials, resignation. That it happened in June was just one more reason to not have any sympathy for Weiner.

Last year, every visit to that new office Keurig coffee machine included a discussion about the state of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, brought to you by BP. “Junk Shots” and “Top Kills” sustained us throughout the summer before a relief well was finally completed in September.

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“Send In the Clowns…They’re Here”

BY RICH GALEN

Reprinted from mullings.com

 To succeed in America – to truly succeed in America – you have to be more than excellent at what you do; you have to be a carnival barker making certain that every single person in each of the 50 states knows that you are excellent at what you do.

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Government Shut Down

BY JOHN FEEHERY

Reprinted from thefeeherytheory.com

During the Eddie Murphy years, Saturday Night Live had an iconic skit  that can best be called “Who Shot Buckwheat.” In a spoof of the media  culture that glorifies murderers and assassins, it examined why John  David Stutts shot Buckwheat.
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The Age of Digital Campaigns

BY RICH GALEN

Reprinted from mullings.com

 We’re probably within a week of the first Republican candidate to file papers opening an exploratory committee to “test the waters” in the 2012 Presidential campaign.

  Continue reading →

GOP, Don’t Be Timid, Govern

BY TONY BLANKLEY

Reprinted from the Washington Times

What should congressional Republicans’ policy objectives be for the next two years regarding federal deficits and prosperity? Two very different strategies are being considered by authentic conservatives: 1) Attempt to govern from their majority in the House and try to start the process of reducing the costs of entitlements – most conspicuously, Social Security and Medicare – as a path back to prosperity and good jobs or 2) recognize that the GOP cannot govern without holding the White House and that therefore they should not touch entitlements but merely tinker with discretionary spending and frame the issues for 2012, when they may win the presidency and Senate as well as hold the majority in the House.

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Playoffs for Political Hacks

BY RICH GALEN

Reprinted from townhall.com

For those of you who may have missed the official Mullings bio (which is mostly true, by the way), Dr. Robert Hill, Professor Emeritus of Political Science at Marietta College, Marietta, Ohio 45750 once introduced me as “What you get when you get when you cross a political hack with a philosopher.”

I’m not sure about the philosopher part, but I proudly introduce myself as a “political hack” on airplanes, on the Washington Metro, and at the Safeway which generally keeps further conversation to an absolute minimum

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Is Government Really Broken?

   

BY TONY BLANKLEY

If you want to see broken government, consider the fall of the constitutional Roman Republic and the rise of Julius Caesar: “Fortune turned against us and brought confusion to all we did. Greed destroyed honor, honesty and every other virtue, and taught men to be arrogant and cruel, to neglect the gods. Ambition made men false. Rome changed: A government which had once surpassed all others in justice and excellence now became cruel and unbearable.” So said the historian Sallust at the time.

Continue reading →