Washington Post reporter Dan Balz has a front-page piece about Newt Gingrich’s announcement that he’s running for president. Balz calls Gingrich’s Twitter declaration a “milestone in presidential politics,” adding that Gingrich “is an idea-spewing machine,” a “one-man think tank” and “someone who has remained in the forefront of the public policy debate over a span of decades” with his “devotion to the intersection of ideas and politics“: Gingrich has “kept himself in the middle of public policy debates on healthcare, education, energy and foreign affairs.”
One possible downside, Balz warns: “A keen intellect can also translate into the appearance of intellectual superiority.” Goodness, will the rest of us even be able to understand his abstruse campaign platform?
Not all media coverage is so bad. The New York Times editorial page reminds readers of some Gingrich’s actual positions:
The Democrats who won in 2008, including President Obama, are “left-wing radicals” who lead a “secular socialist machine,” he wrote in his 2010 book, To Save America. He accused them of producing “the greatest political corruption ever seen in modern America.” And then the inevitable historical coup de grace: “The secular-socialist machine represents as great a threat to America as Nazi Germany or the Soviet Union once did.”
The slurs don’t stop there. He compared the Muslims who wanted to open an Islamic center in Lower Manhattan to the German Reich, saying it “would be like putting a Nazi sign next to the Holocaust Museum.” He is promoting the fringe idea that “jihadis” are intent on imposing Islamic law on every American village and farm.
Last year, he called for a federal law to stop the (nonexistent) onslaught of Sharia on American jurisprudence and accused the left of refusing to acknowledge its “mortal threat to the survival of freedom in the United States and in the world as we know it.” This nuanced grasp of world affairs was reinforced when he said that Mr. Obama displayed “Kenyan, anti-colonial behavior.”
In his world, advocates for gay rights are imposing a “gay and secular fascism” using violence and harassment, blacks have little entrepreneurial tradition, and Justice Sonia Sotomayor of the Supreme Court is a “Latina woman racist.” (He kind of took back that last slur.)
“Intellectual superiority” would not appear to be something Gingrich has to worry about.
I’ve heard other outlets either ignore or praise Gingrich’s blatant insanity, and I applaud FAIR’s factual examination of the topic. The American public must realize that this man is not a good fit for any nation’s highest public office.
“Left-wing radical” and “secular socialist” are indeed grave slurs in this country, across the “acceptable” political spectrum.
Which might help explain why it finds itself in the situation it’s in, don’t you think?
He is promoting the fringe idea that “jihadis” are intent on imposing Islamic law on every American village and farm.
I thought this was true, and that the fringe idea is that there are enough of these “jihadis” to take seriously as a threat.
In order to get a nomination in the Republican party you have to run further to the right than the other cabdidates. that doesn’t leve much room for reasonable thought. But he is bright and has some ideas that are more practical on occasion. That latter might doon his candidacy.
Well, I hope his candidacy is “doon”ed, but whoever is elected will have to do what the corporate masters tell them to. The only difference being that some, like Gingrich, will do it with more alacrity than others. I will vote for whichever candidate I think is most likely to resist the powers that run this country.
Usually being a public intellectual is too, especially if it is on the wrong side of the ideological divide can and is a slur in some circles.
I never thought of Newt Gingrich as an intellectual.
If Gingrich, with his baggage of infidelity, opportunism, failed philosophies, history of shutting down government, etc, gets the Republican nomination, that would show how bereft of reality the Republicans are in their quest for power at any cost.
I had considered attending some alumni events this June at my alma mater, Salem State University, until I read that Newt Gingrich architect of the “Contract ON America” had been asked to speak there which TOTALLY took away my respect for an otherwise excellent institution. What on earth were they thinking?????
They say Newt is the smartest guy in whatever room he is in…(.Carl Rove is probably second).Problem with Newt is- his life is far from exemplary. Donald Trump..same thing.I would like to see both of them using their skills to work for someone who can articulate the message,without all the negatives.But the Donald likes the numero uno position.Newt….can’t for the life of me figure out why he is running.That train done past.
That’s a good question, Noreen. Gingrich is the biggest political fraud of the twentieth century, a man of gargantuan ego and endless, craven greed. There’s no need to list Gingrich’s many, many outrageous acts, is there? The true test will come when, and if, anybody in the Major Media has the temerity to call him out. Ironically, for sure James Dobson, psychopathic Christer Republican Kingmaker, will have something to say about Gingrich’s uh, sins, both political and moral. Gingrich has very thin skin, and is ill-suited for the rough game of Presidential politics. John Fugelsang, this morning on the Stephanie Miller show, spoke the simple truth about Gingrich: He knows he can’t win the Presidency–he’s doing it to make more money for his speeches. He’s simply increasing the worth of his brand by running for President.
At least we now know, unequivocally, how big of a bootlickin’, ignorant asshole Dan Balz really is. Wow! That anybody still buys that nonsense about the Great Thinker Gingrich and his many brilliant ideas is a marvel. Balz is either terrifically stupid, or so beholden to base power politicking in official Right-wing Washington (always praise the Republican leadership, no matter how awful and evil they are; always be at least ready to condemn the Democrats, especially if the Right thinks you should) that he literally has no idea what he’s doing. He’s truly and simply an anti-journalist. I’ll bet he makes a lot of money . . . .
A student in one of my college history classes asked the professor: â┚¬Ã…“Why did you get your doctorate in history? The professor’s response: â┚¬Ã…“I was not smart enough to complete the statistical analyses that is required in other fields.â┚¬Ã‚ I recall that every time Newt Gingrich’s name comes up.
another writer at wapo offers up this description of newt’s coming out announcement on the hannity show…”Newt Gingrich’s Pinocchio-laden debut”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/fact-checker/post/newt-gingrichs-pinnochio-laden-debut/2011/05/12/AFf8qb1G_blog.html
Isn’t a newt a little lizard like creature? As the hero always says to the taxi driver, “Step on it!”
Let’s just step on the newt!
Gingrich reminds me of Herman Goering at the Nuremberg trials, minus that “charming” smile. Of course Nuremberg or something like it should have been utilized to round up all of these neocon punks who broke both national and international laws, promoting and enacting torture and undermining the Bill of Rights which in turn made this nation and particularly it’s people below a certain status far less safe. Gingrich’s contract with America, which helped to open the coffers to Wall Street theft and chicanery was responsible for running this nation into the ground and now here he comes again to finish the job.
Newt is toast…….Movin on
I’m an actual conservative… and Newt fucking scares me. Talk about being full of shit.