It’s only one week until G-Day, and America’s favorite deposed right-wing House Speaker is still talking a like a candidate. The latest: his lengthy statement in today’s New York Post, which comes across a lot like something written by a guy who thinks that only he can save the world. It’s pretty boilerplate Gingrichism — right-wing hobbyhorses dressed up as something new, futuristic, and nonpartisan — but it includes specific call-outs of Republicans (for dissing Tavis Smiley) and Democrats (for dissing Fox) and bundles the whole thing together with call-to-arms-ish language.
As David has noted, a Gingrich candidacy remains a very real possibility; if anything, Fred Thompson’s failure to catch fire seems to make it more likely. I smell a new poll question.
Update: New poll posted in the left-hand column. My vote: he’s in. I’m betting on Newt’s ego.
4 Responses to “Will Newt Pull the Trigger?”
I don’t see how he could pull together a campaign at this stage of the election cycle. Somewhere I heard he’d made a comment, that if his supporters could pull together $30 mil by Nov. 1st that he would jump in. That is one big number in a short time!
I think he just likes being fawned over to run more than anything. I’m betting he’s just going to string along people and not run.
nah, newt just likes the attention and he knows as soon as he says he’s not running, the phone stops ringing. he is too smart and knows too much about politics to think he can be president, he would cancel out hillary’s negative and be just as polarizing.
Something to say?
I say no. He is enjoying the free media that comes with teasing us — but he’s a smart guy, he must know he can’t raise the money to compete with Romney and Rudy, and that he can’t overcome his utter unelectability, of which primary voters would become well aware as soon as the first head-to-head polls were done. If he made phone calls and realised he could lock up the whole Christian right leadership, and pull in a bunch of big corporate money fast, he MIGHT do it, but I think he’s already made those calls and realised he can’t. There is no real love there for him from either of those constituencies. The day he has decides the media has lost interest in his flirtation and has turned their attention to the actual campaign, he will make an ostentatious announcement he is not running, in order to get one last day of free headlines, then go back to, as Jon Stewart put it, “waking up at elevent and pouring beer on his Sugar Corn Puffs”.
Left by The Sleep Thief
September 23, 2007 at 12:00pm