by Jack Lee
Newt Gingrich has always been one of my favorite politicians. Not only does he has a brilliant grasp of history and its significance for today’s conservative, but I can’t think of any other person in our time that has tendered more outstanding ideas for reform to improve and strengthen our democracy. Ok, now if you haven’t read even one of his books, please spare me the rebuttal. Go read up and then come back and tell me what you think about Newt.
Because of my admiration for this conservative patriot, I took it quite seriously when he said Friday that conservatives had done themselves no favors by going along with President Bush when he was wrong. Bush needed to be restrained and it was our duty to be critical when necessary. Well, I have a clear conscience on this one, because I’ve been fairly critical of Mr. Bush, but I absolutely agree 100% with Newt that we were too supportive or acquiescent when we should have been critical.
Gingrich noted now the whole Republican Party is in trouble! Gee, I think I mentioned that a few times too! He pointed to the very real and undeniable reality that on Super Tuesday there were millions more voters that turned out for either Hillary and Obama than we did for Republican candidates. That glaring difference signals the energy and enthusiasm is sorely lacking in the Republican Party and unless it changes, we’re going down in defeat!
Gingrich is telling us straight up, with no sugar coating, if the Republican Party doesn’t get in gear and do some dramatic changes such as appointing Gov. Romney as it’s Chairman and taking on a charismatic conservative as McCain’s running mate (like Huckabee for VP) we are going to get beaten and beaten badly in November and I absolutely believe it and so should you.
Here’s why we need brilliance: In 2001 Sen. McCain almost switched party’s. 4 years later he was considered a great running mate for John Kerry! Good grief, in this context the democrats have already won! Either McCain (a semi-democrat, aka RINO) or the most left democrat in the Senate Barrack Obama or this moderate left-winger Hillary Clinton will be in the White House. To put a happy face on this one and make it a save for the GOP is going to take some extraordinary political excellence. However, and there is always that annoying however, given what we have seen come out of this party during the last 8 years I seriously doubt the leadership of the GOP can even rise to the level of moderately good, let alone a level of excellence. I would like to be wrong, but I don’t think I am.
Here’s the really sad part for the Republicans and perhaps for the future of our nation. The Presidential race of 2008 was ours to lose when Bush took charge of the White House. It was the time when we controlled both houses and despite this tremendous advantage we failed to do anything meaninful. We failed at leading by example and saw too many republicans caught up in scandal. This Iraq war, although arguably not our just the republican’s fault, is now seen as Bush and the GOP’s failure by too many Americans. The GOP in Congress didn’t just fail at reform; we failed to read the will of the people! Take a look at immigration, big spending, on pork, on tax reform, the economy, NAFTA, GAT, and so many other issues, what did we do? Nothing.
This is why I wonder if we should have any reasonable expectation of salvaging anything from this presidential race?