Newt Gingrich was interviewed by The Examiner and pretty much dismissed the entire Republican Presidential field as unworthy:
Dismissing the GOP presidential field as a “pathetic” bunch of “pygmies,” Newt Gingrich hinted Monday he might step in to beat Democrats Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama.
“If, in mid-October, it’s quite clear that one or more of the current candidates is strong enough to be a serious alternative to a Clinton-Obama ticket, you don’t need me to run,” the former House Speaker said at a breakfast sponsored by the American Spectator. “If it becomes patently obvious, as the morning paper points out, that the Democrats have raised a hundred million more than the Republicans, and at some point people decide we are going to get Hillary unless there’s a radical change, then there’s space for a candidate,” he added. “So you’ll know by mid-October one of those two futures is real.”
Asked by the Examiner if he was prepared to commit to a run, Gingrich said, “I’m perfectly happy to do what I do,” he said. “Whether that leads to the presidency is the country’s problem, not mine.”
Gingrich mocked Republican presidential candidates for subjecting themselves to a May debate hosted by Chris Matthews of MSNBC’s “Hardball.”
“You’re watching an utterly irrelevant, shallow television celebrity dominate everybody who claimed they want to lead the most powerful nation in the world,” he said.
Gingrich ridiculed “the idea of 10 or 11 people standing passively at microphones,” and said he refused to “shrink to the level of 40-second answers, standing like a trained seal, waiting for someone to throw me a fish.”
For the most part, Gingrich is right about what the process has been reduced to, the most recent example being the stupid and inane CNN/YouTube debate. More and more the Presidential election process seems to be turning into a political version of American Idol, where personal popularity is more important than substance.
And I don’t think Gingrich entering the race will change things. For one, the process is what it is. For another, Gingrich simply has too much baggage to be taken seriously at this point in his career.
I think this quote from Newt himself pretty much sums up why he’s deluded if he thinks he is the giant among pygmies who will save our country from Hillary:
““Whether that leads to the presidency is the country’s problem, not mine.””
Yes, it would be our problem if he became president. I doubt he meant to speak with such clarity on the subject.
Gingrich has a lot of baggage, but he is absouletly right about the “TV” formats that these debates have. You can’t give an opinion on issues as serious as war, foreign policy, the trade deficit & the economy, taxes, etc., etc., etc., in one minute sound bites.
The only democrats I would consider right now are Biden and Richardson. In the GOP, it would only be Hagel, if he runs, and possibily Gingrich, if he runs. I’m kind of waiting too see whether Booomfield runs as an Independent and what he has to say about the issues, if he does.
Gingrich has “baggage!?!” Hell, he’s got the entire cargo hold of a 747 on his back.