Today's LA Times has an interesting take on Gingrich's race to the White House, regardless of what happens when the votes are counted at the end of today's GOP Primary Election in Florida:
"This is a long way from being over," he said, as he shook hands and took pictures with voters after they cast ballots at the First Baptist Church of Windermere. "I'd say June or July unless Romney drops out earlier." (More here.)
Gingrich is a fighter, often with an odd sense of humor and an inordinate taste for the witty put-down.
He ALWAYS has been.
Most people fail to remember that when he entered politics, it took 3 attempts for him to win his seat in Congress. His rise in national politics was pedantic, systematic and ultimatley... it sounds like an odd word to use but... fantastic. He lost and lost and ultimately won the GOP majority in 1994, along with the Speakership.
Gingrich went on to say in the article, when asked about those who said he was NOW politically dead:
"The same people who said I was dead in June, or the people who said I was dead in Iowa, those people?" Gingrich said. "They're about as accurate as they have been the last two times they were wrong."
Newt Gingrich is a member of a very small club of politically un-dead public figures/candidates/possible GOP Presidential nominee Zombies, including Richard Nixon (loss for President, loss for Governor), Ronald Reagan (loss for President in '68, '76) GHW Bush (loss for Senate in '64 and '70, loss for President '80) George W. Bush (loss for the House of Representatives in '78) who, by following their own personal plan, ultimately became president.
The movie version of zombies may include the oft-repeated phrase "More brains..." but the Gingrich's political attack against Romney simply seems to state "More Bain...."
Den
Stu -
You are, of course, correct. The success that he DID have as a State Legislator, though, was fairly heady. His rapid rise among the state party elite surely could have made him Governor, but his sites were set on DC. The US Senate loss was most troubling to him, I'd imagine, because it was ultimately dealt to him at the state level. Thanks for the reminder of another political un-dead!
Den
Posted by: Dennis Mansfield | February 01, 2012 at 07:29 AM
Den,
You forgot the biggest Republican looser of all time....Abraham Lincoln.
Posted by: Stuart Davis | January 31, 2012 at 03:25 PM