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Sunday, May 15, 2011

Newt 2.0

Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich artfully rolled out his 2012 presidential campaign this week. Having officially announced his candidacy on Wednesday, he appeared on Meet the Press for fully half this week's episode. He handled himself quite well, was articulate, and displayed a remarkable (for current Republicans) degree of intellectual honesty. He also said overly nice things about Mike Huckabee--perhaps, a bit of foreshadowing. I'd say the GOP has its first legitimate candidate for 2012.

4 comments:

Colin said...

it's perhaps notable that Gingrich is seemingly overshadowed by Cain in his home state. The man is an ego-maniac (granted, most politicians are), deeply flawed and with no apparent natural constituency. I can't see this candidacy going very far.

Ben said...

It may not go far but Gingrich's will certainly go farther than Cain's. Cain's apparent (and, likely, soft) popularity in Georgia, is easily overshadowed by Gingrich's access to the media.

The GOP field at this point is filled with deeply flawed candidates. I don't think Gingrich will be the nominee but he's closer to it than the rest of the lot assembled for the first GOP debate a few weeks ago.

Colin said...

I think right now Gingrich is probably the least likely nominee in the announced field. His MTP appearance is quickly shaping up as a disaster, with Newt being condemned all over the place. As Larry Sabato notes this morning, Newt's campaign has essentially imploded.

Ben said...

I think it's wise not to get too caught-up in the horse race in general. Newt's campaign has not imploded.