Below The Beltway

You can tell its summer in Washington not only by the 90 degree temperatures, by also by the amount of column inches that get devoted to elections that are more than six months away. In this case, there’s yet more speculation about 2008 Republican race. In this case, the candidate of the hour is Newt Gingrich, and Mary Katherine Ham has a column about a possible Gingrich candidacy up at Townhall:

When I gaze upon the stable of possible candidates for the Republican presidential nomination come 2008, I usually sigh. Not in a swooning kind of way, but in that ho-hum, blow-your-bangs-out-of-your-eyes kind of way.

They?re just not doing it for me. Sure, they each have their pros. And, of course, their cons (being half-owner of the McCain-Feingold First Amendment Demolition Company, for instance?), but no one just screams ?vote for me.?

But then there?s the wild card?Mr. Speaker himself, the original lefty-abhorred architect. So, what about Newt in ?08? It?s this option I find pretty intriguing. I am a young conservative. I?ve heard from some folks?older politicos than I?that that makes me more forgiving of Gingrich?s flaws.

Ham is right about one thing. The current crop of proposed Republican candidates is underwhleming to say the least. Can you really picture Mitt Romney or Sam Brownbeck as President of the United States ? Neither can I. And others, specifically a certain Sentaor from Arizona, are simply too distasteful for me to ever consider voting for.

I’ve written before, though, about the possibility of Newt Gingrich as the Republican nominee. And it looks like Ham feels the same way I do:

[H]e has ideas?the real, concrete kind, the kind the Dems haven?t seen since they started spending all their time mustachioing Bush portraiture in new and inventive ways?and he articulates them well.

He speaks without a whiff of moral relativism when he talks Islamofascism. He knows, for instance, that the current health care system, Medicare, and Social Security are huge threats to both the health and economic status of generations of future Americans. He knows these issues aren?t sexy, and he knows it might be easier politically to ignore them, but he talks about them, and he does it with a sense of purpose and optimism that is contagious.

Anyone who has seen Newt Gingrich speak, which I haven’t yet other than on television, knows what Ham means I would guess. And, besides, wouldn’t be nice to have a candidate in the race that actually makes it interesting ?

But wouldn?t it be fun to see Newt make a run? Wouldn?t it be fun to see him talk about problems and solutions and maybe, just maybe, force his opponents to talk about them, too? Whether you agree with him on every issue or not, I think this horse could only strengthen a Republican stable that has had me doing little more than sighing.

So, yea, like I said in June, Run Newt Run

H/T: Outside The Beltway

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