Newt Gingrich (h/t @RobGeorge):
I think Republican consultants are mostly very stupid. I think they have no education. I think they have no sense of history. … If I throw away African Americans, and then I throw away Latinos, and then I throw away suburban women, and then I throw away people under 40, and then I throw away everything north of Philadelphia — there’s a morning where Republicans can’t get to a majority.
The year?
Not 2012.
Not 2010.
Not 2008.
Sep 28, 2007
Fundamentally a visionary in a party of consultants.
The consultants won.
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Comments
Yeah, but he’s CRAZY! Nutso. Our own “flagship conservative” publication says so:
http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/285855/next-issue-jack-fowler#
We need to run MODERATES because they’re electable.
I think National Review is a fair metaphor for what needs to be done. Too much elevated “enlightened” conversation aimed at existing readership getting into granular retrospectives. Elegant look backs and dissections of the failings of both Republicans and Democrats.
They arent war planners they are the analysts that sift thru the data and comment.
What we need are the foward thinkers that plan the “how to win” with each battle.
Where are the war planners that anticipated and planned for such things as Obama’s Dream Act by proclomation strategy?
Where was the anticipation of Obama’s sudden concern with Gay Marriage? And w well considered counter?
Where were the smart political strategists determining that in this climate it may not be a smart move to trot out the posterboy example of what a big portion of the population has been convinced is the problem?
Where is smart messaging apparatus to counter unwarranted attacks?
Why play a defense game constantly?
We gotta learn again how to fight a war in current terms in the trenches in real time. Looking back doesnt change anything.
Add to above. Guys like Karl Rove arent war planners either. They are simple analysts that avoid trench warfare and base their thinking on what happened last time.
Its all well and good to suggest a 1 2 3 plan.
The real work is the hand to hand combat that achieves the goal. The well crafted pitch to voters.
There is no genius in exclaiming “we need Ohio”.
Planners figure out “how to win” Ohio.
Ill leave it alone I promise. Lemme just add this. Nolte makes my point better.
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Journalism/2012/11/21/GOP-Losing-Susan-Rice-Debate
If I condense what he says it goes like this: Once you give ground in a war its difficult to reclaim.
Again our failed messaging apparatus.
We should “own” the Rice story but nope. Its been recast without any real response .
NR is dead to me since they fired John Derbyshire.
GINGRICH is “Nutso”? Only someone ignorant of history itself would say that. Gingrich saved Reagan’s tax cuts against Dole, he righted Bush 41’s campaign enabling him to come back and win, he orchestrated both the MONEY, the RECRUITMENT, and the MESSAGE of the greatest conservative legislation enacted in law – and the largest expansion of the conservative “membership” in modern history.
Any attempt to paint him otherwise is unfounded on FACT. How prescient, and insightful is he? It’s even more profound if you hear him discuss what he was going to do as Speaker, after realizing what he accomplished. And then you realize how radically the GOP sold out to statism after he left – http://www.politijim.com/2012/02/those-damn-narcissists-like-newt.html
Yeah aarradin, I’ve noticed…that dole, mccain & mitts.
Winners all, oh wait
I know Newt personally. We are not close, but he and I have even sat in a booth together at a mutual friend’s birthday party and had a beer.
Newt is brilliant, but starts with negatives that are too high because of being successfully demonized after the 1994 House Revolution and then the 1995 Shutdown and the 1998 Impeachment.
But, if you read his books and listen to most of his interviews, he has a grasp of history and of the bigger picture of government and governance than almost anyone else who has ever managed to get elected to an office, and he can explain these things in a way that is often compelling to both the politically-minded as well as those who prefer to get all of their news from People Magazine and Entertainment Tonight.
Newt needs to be a Republican consultant, a behind the scenes architect, a Karl Rove, if you will. And, he should have known better than to run for president. Does he really want to BE president? Endless meetings, fundraising, “constituent services,” massaging House, Senate and Gubernatorial party members, etc.
Chair of the RNC would be a possibility, but he would probably be demonized in that position, too. He could be very effective in a completely behind-the-scenes roll where the press and the Democrat-Socialist-Labor-Farmer Party cannot use him as a Boogeyman.
The GOP would be wise to hire Newt to teach all GOP elected officials how to conduct themselves during an interview and during debates. Newt refuses to let himself be a patsy. All our elected officials need to know what he knows. The edge he has on others is, as you say…he has such a superb grasp of virtually every topic that comes up.
I agree Newt would be a great RNC Chair – but THEY NEVER WILL! THEY are the ones who sabotaged him while he was Speaker because he refused to bring a tax of ANY KIND to the floor and was trying to whittle down government. Look at the sabotage of the campaign. The ONLY way for the GOP to ever embrace a Reagan figure is either via the Atwater way or the Palin way. If Gingrich turned to reform the GOP the way Sarah Palin did in Alaska, he likely would finally have a base of support that the statists could not overwhelm.
Newt is a big picture guy and undoubtedly brighter than most of the Republican consultants.
It is indubitably true that neither our consultants nor most of our candidates know very much: few know any history beyond the last electoral cycle or two, fewer know anything about the high culture of the West, and virtually none of them know anything about the ideas that animated the Founders, and which animate much of the classical liberal/conservative blogosphere.
But, as you point out, Gingrich is hopeless as a candidate or even public face of a conservative/classical liberal party.
That, Jack, is the problem. We let Newt get demonized because we will not send out our troops to defend our own. Just look at the Democrats out there defending Rice, just like they defended Clinton for sending out his cabinet to lie. When calling Rice “incompetent” is being described as code for racist thinking, we should be pointing and laughing and heaping scorn on anyone who tries that tack.
Typos, corrections, scrivener’s errors:
Change grasp to better grasp.
Change roll to role.
Newt has also said /done some things that have been negative for public perceptions of Republicans.
He himself is a Consultant /lobbyist..
Besides a Consultants job is to proffer advice -the responsibility for acting on it is the recipients alone.
Even I said some smart things in 2007 -I think I did .
On the bright side things are going quite well. For Republicans at State level.
One thing I thought of was that people are happy with better everyday boring economically logical Republican management but want some sort of magic from far off DC.
Uh-huh. Not buying it, Prof.
Newt and the consultants he chastises both forgot that the Republican Party had a chance to grab the support of individuals. The Demos are already about “groups” of one flavor and the next.
And the worst Republican consultant is the snake, Ed Rollins.
Newt happens to be the smartest bear in the woods. The problem is as follows. Entrepreneurism, Self Reliance, and Self betterment have been replaced by chasing bright shiny things, free stuff, and submission to socialist powers. This election the American people have rejected fact, logic, and reason for lies, fairy tales, and dammed lies. We have allowed ourselves to be bamboozled by people who have lied to us in the past (“I have not had sex with that woman”), broken promises they made (I will cut the daffiest in half – reduce healthcare costs – strengthen relations with our allies), and destroyed our economy (high unemployment – ruined the nation’s credit rating) for now and the future. We picked a president that watched four Americans be butchered and did nothing to stop it, gave tax payers and borrowed money to contributors for failed businesses, and declared his intentions to bankrupt an industry supplying most of America’s energy sources.
The psyche of the American public has done a 180. We do not consider the government as an extension of ourselves anymore but as a separate entity that should rule over and control our lives. A woman in New Jersey was interviewed on television last week. She complained that there is no power and now she has to walk up several flights of stairs to get to her apartment. She complained that the government is not there to help her. She whined that there is debris in the hall way and stairwell. She can’t get to work so she just sits and waits for help. It never occurred to her to pick up a broom and clean the debris from the apartment herself. She is wallowing in self pity and the thought of helping herself never entered her mind.
The fault for this turn of events lies with the voting public and the leaders of the Republican Party, the public for allowing to be fooled and the Republican Party for orchestrating a woefully lame campaign. There were so many opportunities to turn the tide and deliver a Romney victory and the Republicans wasted every one of them. One would think that they learned something from the previous presidential election. Perhaps the reason is that both political parties are cut from the same cloth. Perhaps the Republican Party is not so much a “small government” party as they claim.
Perhaps they did not fight the Democrats as hard as they could have because their goals are not that different from the Democrats. Both sides are applauding the “ending of the war in Iraq” and preparations to “end it” in Afghanistan. Picking up one’s marbles and going home is not a good end. Winning the war is the only acceptable way to end a war, or all the sacrifices made are in vain. Killing one leader of the enemy does not mean victory. No matter how many “victory laps Obama takes” our enemies are well, alive, growing stronger, a bigger threat, and danger than ever.
The election is over and this country is in the same mess it has been for four years. We still have a socialist front man for the Marxists in our government. The Senate is still under the control Harry leaving us in a stalemate in Congress. Locally the Republican Party has been just as ineffective in California. The American people are in denial of the facts and need to be informed.
No amount of effort in registration and monetary support will make a difference how the people will vote. We have had several decades of effort wasted on Republican candidates only to suffer defeat after defeat. Facts, logic, and reason have not worked. What is needed is an effective way to educate the public and bring back the spirit that made this a once great, strong, and prosperous nation. WE need to appeal to the emotions of the people. That is the only way we can get more support for our cause. We must show a direct benefit to voting with us. We must promise better, more valuable things and deliver to usurp the euphoric promises and scare tactics of the Democrats. We face a huge and daunting task that will take time. This is the only way we can make any headway. So let’s roll up our sleeves and get to work.
I was surprised at Prof. Jacobson’s point because most conservatives I read these days make your point.
The trouble is that many conservatives can’t manage to put forth a vision of fairness for all with out (1) criticizing people for self-identifying with whatever group they care to (which is their right guaranteed under the First Amendment), and (2) simultaneously privileging evangelical Christianity over other religions.
Gingrich’s insight, and Prof. Jacobson’s seeing in it prophetic value, is in really based on the speech and behavior of too many GOP politicians and positions, and part of why there is such a streak of libertarianism in the party in reaction to big government Republicans. It’s also why blacks, Hispanics, Asians, secularists, fiscally conservative and socially moderate voters feel pushed out. The GOP tells them NOT to self-identify with any group, and poo-poos them if they do. Who cares if they do? Who cares if they want to feel kinship? But the Republican party message is they are not real Americans if they do.
The next that should be natural Republicans because they are conservative in every meaningful way, but won’t find a home in the Republican Party are Muslims because half the party is out to prove their religion wants to violently destroy America. They’re coming from every part of the world, and want to live the American Dream, and they’ll find themselves sitting with other minorities because of their religion. They are small business owners with an entrepreneurial spirit, they want good schools that don’t discriminate against their religion, they wasn’t their children to go to college and make a good life, but to continue their group identity.
Let them. They speak English. They do their work conscientiously and courteously. They’re not looking for a handout. But I bet the GOP loses them. It’s painful to watch.
It takes a village of idiots — GOP idiots — to accomplish the collective catastrophe they have.
If only we could bottle their ineptness, and donate it to the Israel to drop on Iran.
I guess if you don’t pander directly to certain interest groups that means you are “throwing away” their support. Conservatism is good for everybody, we don’t do grievance politics.
Newt is a fascinating person, but knows it all too well. Also, he was a poor administrator as Speaker, and did poorly with both his campaign and foundations. I always thought he would make a great Chief Innovation Officer to a Conservative administration.
I would seriously like to see Newt, Romney, and a few others, plus staff, go off and study two things. First, come up with ways to fight the standard Democrat demagoguing. The same issues have been around for decades, and we need something which works at the gut level.
Second, ways to connect with groups in ways which do not reject traditional values. An example would be “immigration reform.” That always comes down to rewarding people who broke our laws, repeatedly, by giving them a “path to citizenship” ahead of those who played by the rules. As the son of a legal immigrant who came for purely ecconomic reasons, this has always been a sticking point. You need a way to remind people that the rule of law is a significant part of what makes America great, and the lack makes so many countries Third World pits.
This used to be so obvious that nobody ever had to think about it. Now, expecting the law to matter means you are any number of evil “-ists.”
For their prize the consultants should be sent to Devil’s Island for a “vacation.” They are fundamentally screwed up.
We are all now fundamentally screwed by the second coming of the One and by being refusing to adjust to the changing demographics. The Newtster knew it would happen all along. Newt saw the long train running leave the station years ago. Kudos Newt. Bye Bye Grease Board Rove.
Too bad all the money spent on the Romney campaign wasn’t used to create private charter schools providing REAL fundamental education for our floundering kids. And also used to create conservative TV/Cable station and radio stations for Hispanics and Asians and …blacks…used to create a ROI for the future.
Let’s rid ourselves of PBS. Let’s create our own outposts of culture. We don’t need more political consultants or political “scientists.” We need artists, musicians, writers of fiction, playwrights and first grade Conservative think tanks. And I say, less numbers and more community.
We should all get a refund from the failed “sage” consultants. The money squandered on them is why I am a sore loser.
The losers – the people devoid of reality, the in the moment texters- won the election. Democracy allows fools to vote and vote they did.
There is much wisdom in your post. As I said above in reply to ‘Jack the Ripper’, the level of cultural and historical ignorance among ‘our’ politicians and consultants is breathtaking.
We collectively ignored (or railed ineffectively against) the Gramascian long march of the left through the universities and the institutions of both high and popular culture; allowing them to educate two, perhaps even three, generations of teachers and they in turn to indoctrinate three, even four, generations of students with values alien to those of the West. It’s not just the universities: virtually all of the museums and foundations and mainline churches founded and supported by men (primarily) imbued with a traditional ethic of individualism, liberty, and individual philanthropy rather than government, have been taken over by the left and dominate the cultural and intellectual world in ways that cannot even be easily described.
Until individual liberty and self-reliance sing to the American soul again — as they have in the past — we will not win. It’s up to us to figure out how to make that happen.
I think there is an opportunity: many young people are open to ideas of liberty, but confuse liberty with purely social issues of abortion and gay marriage.
Conservative values can never be imposed by the state successfully. They will predominate only when people individually decide they make more sense.
“Too bad all the money spent on the Romney campaign wasn’t used to create private charter schools providing REAL fundamental education for our floundering kids. And also used to create conservative TV/Cable station and radio stations for Hispanics and Asians and …blacks…used to create a ROI for the future.” Yes, yes and yes!!!! This is where we need to go. Progressives have been doing it for decades through the schools and media. This is how we have to do it and add to that a group headed by Newt to teach our candidates how to debate and turn the tables on the media. Also, why do all debates have to be moderated by the MSM???? We are doing better on the municipal and state levels. Volunteer, run for office and start building from the ground up. We may be late to the party, but who said we can’t do it?
I still would pay big money to see Newt mano a mano with Øbama in a real debate.
If Newt were a Dem, he would have no negatives…
I’m from the RNC and are here to help are words that should chill every Republican candidate. I will not send the RNC, NRCC or NRSC money because so much of what they take in goes to inside the beltway consultants they tend to force on the campaigns they help.
Some of our state party organizations have the same problem.
The question left unasked in this discussion is whether the Republican brand has been so irretrievably tarnished by association with troglodyte positions that a politician wearing the label cannot be elected nationally. I more-than-half suspect it has.
It may be time for a new principled classically liberal – fiscally conservative but socially more libertarian as far as the use of state power goes – party to rise from the ashes the way the Republicans rose as a principled abolitionist party from the ashes of the Whig split over slavery.
Newt’s TEMPERAMENT/Stratospheric Ego are the impossible anti-personnel mines for him as “a consultant” or RNC Chair.
He absolutely MUST be the Smartest Person in Any Room. And, he absolutely, positively MUST be seen & heard by many.
The ‘consultants’ are stupid? How about the GOP people who keep hiring them??
If Howard Dean can be the DNC Chair, Newt can be RNC Chair.
Could be worse for the Republican establishment — he could be the Tea Party Chair.