Muddling Toward Maturity Blog

NEWT GINGRICH THRASHES ELITE MEDIA FOR DIVERTING ATTENTION FROM RELIGIOUS FREEDOM ISSUE

No one challenges the elite media's topic obsessions better than Newt Gingrich.  Three cheers for his response to David Gregory's questioning. 

 

SARAH PALIN - "CANNIBALS IN GOP ESTABLISHMENT EMPLOY TACTICS OF THE LEFT"

I am impressed with Sarah Palin's take on what's been going on in the Florida GOP primary.  You owe it to yourself to read her comments in full. 

And may I say in passing, that others also recognize the despicably sinister, untrue, totally unfair attacks being levelled at Newt by the GOP establishment who want to sew up Romney's nomination as the GOP presidential candidate.  I say this as a Rick Santorum supporter.  (See Jeffrey Lord, "Elliot Abrams caught misleading on Newt.")

Click "continue reading" below for Sarah Palin's comments.

NATIONAL REVIEW EDITORIALIZES AGAINST NEWT GINGRICH

Ouch!  Hard hitting rejection.  Click here.  - http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/285787/winnowing-field-editors

PEGGY NOONAN ON NEWT

Noonan -  "Gingrich is Inspiring--and Disturbing."  Well worth reading.  Update: Mike Potemra thinks so too.  He writes:

I think this is one of the best attempts to understand Gingrich. (How might Gingrich himself phrase the same sentiment? “This is the most fantastically impressively written newspaper column since Gutenberg invented printing”?) What makes it so remarkable is that is scrupulously fair and even-handed — doing justice to both Gingrich’s immense talents and his (in my view) disqualifying weaknesses — without ever being mealy-mouthed.

Added 12/10/11 - Ross Douthart in "The Tempting of the Religious Right"warns religious conservatives not to throw their support to Newt:

[...] a religious right that rallied around Gingrich would be putting the worst possible face on its cause and at the worst possible time.

His candidacy isn’t a test of religious conservatives’ willingness to be good, forgiving Christians. It’s a test of their ability to see their cause through outsiders’ eyes, and to recognize what anointing a thrice-married adulterer as the champion of “family values” would say to the skeptical, the unconverted and above all to the young.  [more..]

NEWT GINGRICH PANNED BY INFLUENTIAL CONSERVATIVES

- (Original Post) George Will's "From Romney to Gingrich: From Bad to Worse," doesn't pull any punches.  Will is definitely not a fan of Newt.  For reasons given, I'm uneasy about Gingrich, too.  Victor Davis Hanson isn't enthusiastic either.  I wish voters would pay more attention to Michele Bachmann and Rick Santorum, and look again at Rick Perry.

- Added 12/9/11 - Peggy Noonan's evaluation of Newt is well worth reading.  Update: Mike Potemra thinks so too.

- Added 12/10/11 - Ross Douthart in "The Tempting of the Religious Right"warns religious conservatives not to throw their support to New

NEWT GINGRICH: THE LEFT TRYING TO DESTROY TRADITIONAL RELIGION IS A THREAT TO OUR CIVILIZATION

Newt Gingrich speaking today in Iowa at the Thanksgiving Family Forum GOP Presidential Debate:

Will this man stay solidified in his views, overcoming erratic tendencies and huge disappointments and questionable activities displayed in his past?  If so, he could be the person providentially inspired to redirect American leadership away from its present destructive, suicidal path.

     - Update note 11/21/11: - Gingrich's embryonic stem-cell history problematic (but Romney's abortion record much worse as a commenter indicated).

The entire video of the forum, moderated by pollster Frank Luntz, can be viewed here.  The actual candidate forum begins at about 30 minutes in if you jump ahead.  Participants include Bachmann, Cain, Gingrich, Paul, Perry, Santorum.  (I'm not sure why the two Mormons, Huntsman and Romney, did not participate.)

Katrina Trinko reported for National Review Online: 

WHY NEWT GINGRICH MAY WIN THE EVANGELICAL VOTE

I have a hard time faulting Ryan Mauro's reasoning.   Richard Land (Director of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission), thinks Newt has a serious problem with evangelical women.   I'm not convinced of that.  Read more. . .

Update 11/19/11:  For the record, the nasty story of Gingrich serving divorce papers to his wife as she lay dying of cancer is untrue.  Click here.