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05 Dec 2011 14:29

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Politics: Pelosi claims to have “a thousand pages” of dirt on Gingrich

  • I know a lot about [Newt Gingrich]. I served on the investigative committee that investigated him, four of us locked in a room in an undisclosed location for a year. A thousand pages of his stuff.
  • Nancy Pelosi • Giddy at the prospect of Gingrich being the Republican nominee for president. She said she’ll give more details “when the time’s right” which, we can only assume, means “if Gingrich wins the nomination.” source
Posted by Seth Millstein • 0 Comments • Permalink

05 Dec 2011 14:15

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Politics: Gingrich leads in Iowa…but so what?

  • 8 points Newt Gingrich’s  (average) lead in Iowa, one month before the caucuses
  • 73% historical win record (in Iowa) of presidential candidates who lead one month out. However…
  • 40% historical win record of candidates, like Gingrich, who only lead by single-digits source
  • » The point here isn’t that Gingrich won’t win. It’s that that attempting to predict election results based on polls is tricky, and remains tricky even when you factor in historical precedent. To drive the point home even further: Ronald Reagan led in Iowa polls by about 9 points a month prior to the caucuses. He ended up losing (to his future VP, George H.W. Bush), but then ultimately came back to win the nomination, making his Iowa loss more or less irrelevant. Every election has its own quirks and nuances; Gingrich is looking good in Iowa right now, no doubt, but so was Herman Cain before him, and Rick Perry before him, and Michele Bachmann before him.
Posted by Seth Millstein • 0 Comments • Permalink

04 Dec 2011 21:49

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Politics: POLL: Newt Gingrich looks strong (but beatable) in Iowa

  • If he doesn’t screw up over the next month … With Iowa just around the corner, the former House speaker has momentum to spare, leaping far ahead of Romney. And look at Ron Paul’s super-impressive showing in this poll. (In another poll, he’s ahead of Romney.) With Cain now out of the race, it looks like Gingrich could get a huge bump out of this whole thing, on top of the one he already has. Think Gingrich will coast, or will Romney become the comeback kid? Or will other candidates crop up? source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

01 Dec 2011 14:11

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Politics: Gingrich says lack of border fence due to lack of “seriousness”

  • We haven’t been able to build a fence on the border because we have not been a serious country.
  • Newt Gingrich • Speaking on immigration policy to a group of Nationwide Insurance employees in Des Moines, Iowa, after signing a pledge to erect a Mexican border fence by the end of 2013. It should be said that this stance is in no way incompatible with Gingrich’s softer tone on long-term immigrants from the last GOP debate, in which he argued that undocumented people who’ve lived here 25 years, paid taxes, and raised a family shouldn’t be booted out of the U.S. It’s entirely possible to earnestly hold both of these positions at once. However, this is Newt Gingrich, he of the most dynamic and politically calculated flops and reversals this side of Mitt Romney (here’s a recent and unflinching one to whet your appetite). As such, it’s hard not to view this as a cynical, purely political calculation; take a general election-friendly stance in a nationally televised debate, then feed the base some red meat when less people are watching. source
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink

28 Nov 2011 20:39

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Politics: Changing tactics: Newt Gingrich begins attacking Mitt Romney

  • It’s wrong to go around and adopt radically different positions based on your need of any one election, then people will have to ask themselves, ‘What will you tell me next time?’
  • 2012 GOP candidate Newt Gingrich • Dropping a clear attack at Mitt Romney for his tendency to flip-flop. This is a change for Gingrich: Before this week, he was known for going out of his way to avoid criticizing his fellow candidates and pointing the trigger directly at Obama. Now that he’s suddenly in the thick of the race, it looks like he’s getting braver about going after the perceived frontrunner. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

28 Nov 2011 13:25

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Politics: Newt Gingrich’s favorite new word is “aggressive”

  • 6 times Gingrich uses the word “aggressive” in this YN interview source
  • » But what should we be aggressive about? Here’s the tally. Twice, Gingrich was describing how we should approach the war on drugs (“We ought to be much more aggressive about drug policy”); once, he was describing how the US went about supporting non-communist trade unions in Poland in the 1980s (“…we when we aggressively supported Solidarity”); and on three occasions, Newt was talking about US-Cuban relations (“I think we need a very aggressive model”). Oddly, he didn’t once utter the words “fundamental” or “profound,” although he did use another Gingrich fallback, “logical,” on two occasions, and busted out “totally” once.
Posted by Seth Millstein • 0 Comments • Permalink

23 Nov 2011 12:04

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Politics: Newt Gingrich’s immigration stance: Possibly a major stumbling block?

Newt’s stance in favor of a guest program for immigrants, is one that’s very dangerous to take in a Republican primary, and it could hurt his surging poll numbers. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

21 Nov 2011 14:14

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Politics: The pun we were all waiting for

  • This is, in fact, the official name of Gingrich’s New Hampshire effort. Hopefully, “Mitt Hampshire” will follow, maybe with a banner image that’s a little less self-parodical. source
Posted by Seth Millstein • 0 Comments • Permalink

16 Nov 2011 21:00

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Politics: Barney Frank condemns Newt Gingrich on Freddie Mac claim

  • There are two ‘L’ words that apply with Newt, lobbyist and liar. Mr. Gingrich was reprimanded for lying. He has a history of doing that and this is nonsense that he was being paid $1.6 million and maybe more to talk about history.
  • Rep. Barney Frank • Pulling no punches in his condemnation of Newt Gingrich, over Gingrich’s claim that his $1.6 million in income from Freddie Mac was earned not as a lobbyist, but as a historian. Frank and Gingrich are former colleagues in the House, and it doesn’t seem they terribly care for one another — at a previous debate, Gingrich suggested Frank and financial reform law co-sponsor Chris Dodd should be jailed. source
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink

15 Nov 2011 21:58

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Politics: “Republicans are stupid,” says Republican candidate for president

  • One of the Republican weaknesses is that we rely too much on consultants and too much on talking points, and we don’t rely enough on actually knowing things.
  • Newt Gingrich • In an interview with David Brody. Not quite sure what the political calculus is here, as admitting publicly that your entire party doesn’t know what it’s talking about is rarely good politics. However, not “actually knowing things” would seem to be a disqualifying factor for someone running for president, so Newt’s obviously exempting himself from this assessment. source
Posted by Seth Millstein • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
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