Writing about Newt Gingrich‘s presidential bid on the New York Times‘ Caucus blog (5/10/11), Matt Bai seems to confuse GOP rhetoric for fact as he suggest that, when it comes to marriage vows, Republicans are generally known for walking the line:
Mr. Gingrich, a bit of a rogue in his personal life, has never been a favorite of his party’s powerful social conservatives, who tend to think of scandalous affairs as the purview of Democrats, and maybe Rudy Giuliani.
In order to maintain a tired and inaccurate cliché, Bai has to have forgotten John McCain, Henry Hyde, David Vitter, Larry Craig, John Ensign, Mark Sanford and Tom Delay, just to name some of the most prominent married Republicans who have had scandalous affairs. (See Extra!, 1/09.)
This is the sort of off kilter, numbingly conventional analysis we have come to expect from the Times political writer who routinely replaces reality with cockeyed conventional wisdom on deficits, Social Security, and the need for the Democratic Party to move to the right, to name just a few.
Conservatives beg government to provide barriers to sexual behaviors that they are too undisciplined to refrain from without the assistance of external coercion.
If they are unable to refrain from engaging in the “sinful” behaviors that will bar them from heaven, they call upon the state to aid their salvation though elimination of these near occasions of sin by suppression of those who flagrantly engage in the behaviors that arouse their irresistible passions.
Can I have your number, Glenn? Meow!
Let’s not forget Tom Foley and Strom Thurman – both of their scandals involving minors
Bai is just doing his job for his corporate and theocratic masters. The truth is good if it serves their purposes.
Newt is a very smart man. His voice and analysis,and legislative understanding is a valuable well we can all draw from. That said…. and as a member of the tea party,I feel he would not be a viable choice at this time for the office of the presidency.We look at the completely unqualified man that Obama was going in.With a massive leftist ideology,and a past that lets be honest -is less then stellar,and its easy to say Newt would be far better on every level.Given.But we on the right can not settle for “far better”(unless the choice is only that)We must present a candidate with less negatives to lead this country into the future.I would love to see him in the cabinet.Trump too!But president ..NO!Obama has lowered the bar so far that I am afraid we are going to get every Tom Dick and Harry that can raise the coin.We must not except better.We must have the best.
Gingrich puts Porky Pig to shame. Trump is just a fat idiot whose casino is in bankruptcy. If the RepubThugs can’t do better than retreads, Obama has nothing to fear!
Okay, who is smarter:
Newt Gingrich:
B.A. in history from Emory University in Atlanta in 1965. He received an M.A. in 1968, and then a Ph.D. in modern European history from Tulane University in New Orleans in 1971. His dissertation was entitled “Belgian Education Policy in the Congo: 1945â┚¬“1960.” Newt Gingrich taught history at the University of West Georgia and Kennesaw State University
Barack Obama:
Colombia University, BA, political science major with international relations focus
Harvard Law School, elected editor Harvard Law Review supervising the law review’s staff of 80 editors, graduated magna cum laude
Obama taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School and was a Senior Lecturer
before both of them became elected Congressmen… and Newt went to school during Jim Crow & sexism when he only had to compete with a much smaller segment of the population, so WHO is smarter?!
Dawn I have never heard anyone question Newts intelligence,and you are certainly welcome to do so.As far as Barack i had to laugh.We still don’t know how he actually got into Columbia or Harvard.His grade were simply not up to par with students that enter either school.By all accounts he did well in Harvard.His lecture time i have always felt is a time he is well to keep hidden(read what his lectures were about)But i welcome Libs looking at “qualifications”. Lets look at George bush senior please………
Naval war hero(pilot)Fine education(Ivy league). Success in business. Entered politics locally. Rose up to Senator where he proffered copious amounts of legislation. Head of the RNC. Sat on the boards of several fortune 500 businesses. Ambassador to China. Head of the CIA. Vice president.AND HE WAS CONSIDERED NOT QUALIFIED BY THE LEFT!!!
I cant find any qualification for Obama. Nothing. Nadda. Never ran a popsicle stand. Everything about the man is locked up tighter than a Scottsman’s purse( and with good reason)We have been through his radical ties and leftist ideology. His inexperience.The one thing he wrote(that we are allowed to read)”faith of my father”that solidified his place as some kind of genius is now being purported to of been written by Bill bomber air head.Read the book de-constructing OBAMA .Look he simply is not in any way shape or form qualified for the position he holds ,and damn it all if it doesn’t show.In fact your lauding his past shows how amazingly unqualified he really is.All this being said I do not endorse Newt.But as far as who is most qualified Pa—lease.As far as who is smarter ,who the hell knows.A book on Newt placed his IQ at 152.Obama has been reported to have an IQ of 116.So if you believe in this criteria(i don’t)….Also we basically know that number is correct on Newt;with Obama( as with everything) it is a bit hear sayish and shrouded in smoke and mirrors. Having heard Obama speak off teleprompter I am surprised it is that high.As far as smarts….. I still give it to Clinton and Carl Rove
Ah, you can always count on michael e. chiming in with his tiring t-bagging talking points. I always get a laugh when I see the flapping tbag hanging from your tri-cornered hat.
No one is interested in your reading material which is only fit for lining a birdcage. Deconstructing Obama promotes the idea that Bill Ayers was the true author of President Obama’s literary efforts. Tell us the truth….weren’t you Trump’s speech writer?
But, I do question YOUR education. You must not be an American, because you really mangle the English language and its proper constructs. It’s so tiring and difficult to translate tbag.
My my, Max, I couldn’t have said it better. Just for the record, any idiot or moral reprobate can get a fine degree from a fine institution. One’s educational record is mostly irrelevant to be President–it’s impossible to be schooled for such a job, though at least having good judgement and perhaps being humble would be the best qualifiers. And George H.W. Bush? A nincompoop, though not quite the word-class nincompoop his dumbell criminal son Dubya is. It’s easy to dazzle the masses in this country with wads of cash via an old-line wealthy family, a sinecure at some higher institution (invariably purchased, easily done because favors are expected), and at least avoid out-right, localized murder in the course of one’s “business.” Mass murder (always of hapless foreigners) in far-off, mostly unknown places (like, say, Panama or Iraq) has always been acceptable for our betters and their palavering servants.
No Max I did not like Trump,and I said he would never run.Right again.My education is the similar as your president(his last school at least)And in my humble opinion mine was better.And i entered that school in the old fashion way …..with stellar grades. How he got in ,i do not know.My reading list is varied.I am reading a “history of Gettysburg” at present if that helps you.
The idea that Obama did not write that book is obvious. Anybody can see it and many have. Especially those trained in such things.It is the best kept ,worst kept secret going.His writing previous to this were amateurish. After as well.(Of course he has hidden and sealed much of what he has written).Bill Ayers has claimed authorship on several occasions.His writing style matches perfectly..Of course he is a liar. And Obama never met him.And I am surprised at how naive you are.You talk of my mangling the language.Well my fellow schoolmate is accused of this in his writings as well. Strangely not in his seminal book that shows no sign of his stylistic writing.He has lied about so many things that I don’t doubt that this is just another in a long line.
Tim
I don’t disagree that only an Ivy league education in law prepares you for the presidency.Im not even going to argue with you that Bush senior ,and Junior were mentally challenged.Maybe Carter and Clinton were as well.Maybe every president is.What i am saying is Obama had little if any qualifications for the job.And he has shown no particular intelligence.In fact just the opposite.He was a boy man with a glib tongue and a penchant for forming to any mold that would help him to be elected.Today he said we should drill more…..Nothing but a pose to defang his rivals.He lies more than I do about fishing.
Hmmm. I guess me, Jim Naureckas, Steve Rendall and the whole civilized world will wait and wait for “proof” by “trained” folks that Obama is as dumb as a handful of gravel and that, by golly, Bill Ayers actually has claimed to have written (and indeed did write) Obama’s stuff. Instead of being honest, Our Man doesn’t have the guts to simply say “I Hate that fuckin’ black boy who’s President.” It comes screaming at us out of every mangled line, every witless lie, every ill-considered and poorly conceived, fractured, run-on sentence. The grossest, hoariest old racist bullshit is presented as if everybody here is a naive naif that’s never encountered a dumb cracker before. But roll with it, dude: it’s not new, and it’s all very familiar. And, apparently, it salves some distorted, sick inner need.
“His writing previous to this were amateurish.”
Tim it is a sorry trick to state that anyone who is against Obama and his warped ideas for this country…. is a racist! That is not new,and it’s all very familiar . And,apparently,it salves some distorted,sick inner need.
Another old trick is that every conservative going back for a number of years, is an uneducated baffoon. While every lib is enlightened. This laughable campaign to show Obama as some sort of genius savior, puts the onus on you, and not me for the proof. Actually the proof is in the pudding.The only wave this country is riding now is a tsunami down the proverbial drain.
Did he write the book?I think it is his varnished story….. written by another. Will we have definitive proof of that?I think in time.Will it matter to you?Never
It is not difficult to judge a person’s approximate IQ from simply listening to them talk. You don’t have to read someone’s analysis in a book, or listen to someone’s blathering “proof” on TV or AM radio, to know who is smart and who is not…. Unless you’re not very smart.
And……….What would you think is Obamas IQ?It has been reported to be 116.Actually there are all kinds of speculations on his IQ.I think the claim of 116 has some basis in fact,but i would not bet me life on it.My estimation is he is smarter than your average bear.Not brilliant.And a nice enough guy.Smart enough for the job?Sure….if not for his learning curve, that reflects a strongly socialist bent