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15 May 2011 11:52

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Politics: In this post, we call Newt Gingrich’s bluff on food stamps

  • What I said is factually true. And to hide behind the charge of racism? I have never said anything about President Obama which is racist.
  • 2012 presidential candidate Newt Gingrich • Defending himself from charges of racism after he referred to Obama as the “Food Stamp President.” Gingrich claimed is was “factually true” because one in six Americans receive them. OK, Newt, we checked your numbers and you’re right — over 44 million people out of roughly 307 million received food stamps in February 2011, a record level that’s jumped by nearly 20 million since 2008. (Though we’ll add this much: The number is closer to one in seven, brah.) But the problem is tone, Newt. By calling a president a “Food Stamp President,” you make an attack that sounds less like a reasonable criticism and more like a broadside: Would you have said this about Clinton? Or Bush? Exactly. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

09 May 2011 23:41

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Politics: Newt’s Pre-Announcement Announcement Fail

  • A two-day advance warning that Newt Gingrich will announce [a presidential run] on social networks demonstrates a gross misunderstanding of the modern media landscape.
  • Republican Strategist Mindy Finn • On the Newt’s pre-announcement announcement. Funny, we were thinking the same thing. We’ll never quite understand why the modern Republican party is unable to grasp the nuances of social networking, but it’s sure fun to watch (Note: Finn advises Tim Pawlenty on digital outreach, so perhaps hope remains for the GOP’s new media skills). source
Posted by Seth Millstein • 0 Comments • Permalink

19 Apr 2011 10:30

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Politics: 2012 election poll: Nobody’s really doing it for GOP voters yet

  • It really sucks to be a GOP voter right now. Despite wide frustration on the right side of the aisle over Barack Obama’s policies, nobody appears to be doing the trick for conservative voters, according to this poll by The Washington Post and ABC News. And it gets worse: In a general election, Obama would best the entire field. Only Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee really get within fighting distance. Tim Pawlenty and Newt Gingrich are 15 points behind. Sarah Palin is 17 points behind, by far the worst showing. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

06 Apr 2011 22:49

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Politics: Trump’s polling paints a muddy picture

  • yeah… In the latest WSJ/NBC poll, The Donald trumped his opponents, vaulting ahead of Sarah Palin and Newt Gingrich and tying Mike Huckabee for second place. He also came in second in a New Hampshire poll, losing out to Willard “Mitt” Romney.
  • but In last week’s PPP poll, Trump scored an approval rating of just 28% (with net approval at -18), and lost a hypothetical match-up to President Obama by 11 points. He also came in a dismal fifth amongst primary voters in a recent CNN poll. source
  • » What to make of this: By and large, the takeaway here is that the Republican field is very weak, and there’s no clear favorite (Huckabee and Romney could perhaps be considered “co-favorites”). Trump has done well in a few polls, but this is more likely due to a) boredom on the part of primary voters, and b) Trump’s recent media blitz. It’s difficult to imagine a candidate with such toxic approval ratings winning a national election; he’d have to win over an additional 18% of voters just to break even. That being said, 26% of voters in the PPP poll haven’t yet made up their mind about Trump, giving him lots of room to grow. Still, we agree with Christian Heinz over at The Hill, who noted that Trump’s numbers illustrate “the tremendous thirst for a new, charismatic candidate” in the GOP primary. Charismatic? You betcha. Electable? We’re not so sure.
Posted by Seth Millstein • 0 Comments • Permalink

09 Mar 2011 13:37

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Politics: Newt Gingrich loves America too much to stay faithful

  • There’s no question at times of my life, partially driven by how passionately I felt about this country, that I worked far too hard and things happened in my life that were not appropriate.
  • Newt Gingrich • Making an argument about his own infidelity that one suspects he would’ve decried as disgraceful and a reason to resign if Bil Clinton had said it. You might wonder why, at this moment, Gingrich is even addressing this past, until you consider who he’s making this pitch to. He spoke to the Christian Broadcasting Network, and knowing full well the power of the Christian right-wing in Republican politics, he wants to make it plainly clear that he’s not only sorry, but he’s apologized to his God as well. The broader consequence is that it reminds everybody of Gingrich’s biggest political liability; his actions during the Clinton impeachment were as close to bald, unambiguous hypocrisy as you can see in the political realm. source
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink

08 Mar 2011 11:19

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Politics: Newt Gingrich: Sorry for the confusing presidential announcement

  • Did anyone else find the rollout of Newt Gingrich’s presidential plans to be a tad confusing? If so, Newt agrees with you. “It (the roll-out) led to unfortunate confusion,” Gingrich said yesterday. “I wish we had been a little more structured last week. But I don’t take it as a very serious problem.” Newt’s defense of his work during the 1995 shutdown was timed kinda weirdly and gave opponents a good talking point. Of course, it didn’t help that Fox News added their own wrinkle to the mess. But on the other hand, Newt did in fact prove us wrong, so we guess that’s worthy of some credit. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

02 Mar 2011 12:33

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Politics: Fox News kills Newt, Santorum contracts over presidential plans

  • This had been contemplated from the start. This is Fox policy, this is the announcement that is being made today.
  • Fox News’ Brett Baier • Explaining why Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum, each of whom are running for president, just had their contracts suspended while they consider presidential runs. Sixty days from now, if they actually plan to run, their contracts get terminated. So … wait. There are a bunch of other folks on Fox News’ payroll in the same boat. Like, you know, Sarah Palin and Mike Huckabee, who have basically used their entire careers on Fox News as one long presidential pre-campaign. And they’re not getting ditched yet, simply because they haven’t done their presidential exploratory committees? Wuuh? Fox News has some very strange policies about what constitutes “considering presidential runs.” source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

27 Feb 2011 11:47

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Politics: Government shutdown: Will 2011’s GOP ploy be like 1995?

  • If Gingrich couldn’t control his hard-line freshman class of 73 members in 1995 — he jokingly referred to them then as ‘a third party’ — it’s hard to imagine how the kinder, gentler Boehner will control his 87 freshmen, many of them lacking government or legislative experience, let alone the gene for compromise.
  • New York Times columnist Frank Rich • Offering the assessment of why the GOP should avoid playing the government shutdown game. It’s something that Rich says a number of GOPers are trying to argue doesn’t match the political playing field of 1995, where a defiant Newt Gingrich overplayed his hand too much and caused much embarrassment for the Republican party in the process. However, Gingrich doesn’t remember it that way, strangely enough. In a Washington Post column, he claims that he, on the other hand, plowed the way for much larger cuts in the ensuing years. Nice revisionist history, Newt. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

17 Dec 2010 00:02

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Politics, U.S.: GOP divide: 2012 contenders disagree on tax cut legislation

  • five potential GOP candidates support the tax cut deal: Mike Huckabee, John Thune, Newt Gingrich, Mitch Daniels and Tim “T-Paw” Palenty
  • four potential GOP candidates oppose it: Mitt Romney, Sarah Palin, Mike Pence, and Rick “The Rock” Santorum source
Posted by Seth Millstein • 0 Comments • Permalink

05 Dec 2010 23:56

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Politics: Max Headroom: Newt Gingrich calls Julian Assange a “terrorist”

  • Newt calls Julian Assange an “enemy combatant”: Talk about harsh words, but Newt Gingrich’s take on how bad Julian Assange is for the country is perhaps a weeee bit over the top. No matter, he just keeps on talking anyway, calling Obama’s approach to handling national security matters “amateurish.” Maybe we’re crazy here, but we have to imagine that the Obama administration didn’t singlehandedly build all of these security mechanisms that broke down. Rather, the work of MANY presidential administrations nosedived.
  • Like “groundhog Day”On “Meet the Press” today, Mitch McConnell claimed that he’s been talking to the Obama administration more in the last two weeks than he has in the last two months. However, he claimed (bizarrely) that Saturday’s vote on the tax cuts was like “Groundhog Day” – the same thing over and over again. That’s a good look for you, Mr. Kettle; reminds us of Mr. Pot.
  • Did he say “more immigrants”?The New York Times’ Thomas “Tommy Boy” Friedman was also on “Meet the Press” today talking (in that big-idea mode of his) about globalization and immigration. During the chat, he suggested that (in a talk about ways to boost the American worker’s value) the U.S. bring in “more immigrants” – which we’re still trying to wrap our heads around.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
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