Monday, January 30, 2012

Robert Reich Trashes Newt Gingrich

Reich says that even if Gingrich has a 10% chance of beating President Obama, if Gingrich gets the nomination, it's too much of a risk for Democrats to want a Gingrich nomination. He sees Gingrich as that much of a nutjob. Reich writes:

...no responsible Democrat should be pleased at the prospect that Gingrich could get the GOP nomination. The future of America is too important to accept even a small risk of a Gingrich presidency...

“Weird” is the word I hear most from Republicans who have worked with him. Scott Klug, a former Republican House member from Wisconsin, who hasn’t endorsed anyone yet, says “Newt has ten ideas a day – two of them are good, six are weird and two are very weird.”

Newt’s latest idea, for example – to colonize the moon – is typically whacky.

The Republican establishment also points to polls showing Gingrich’s supporters to be enthusiastic but his detractors even more fired up. In the latest ABC News/ Washington Post poll, 29 percent view Gingrich favorably while 51 percent have an unfavorable view of him...

Independents, who will be key to the general election, are especially alarmed by Gingrich.

As they should be. It’s not just Newt’s weirdness. It’s also the stunning hypocrisy. His personal life makes a mockery of his moralistic bromides. He condemns Washington insiders but had a forty-year Washington career that ended with ethic violations. He fulminates against finance yet drew fat checks from Freddie Mac. He poses as a populist but has had a $500,000 revolving charge at Tiffany’s.

And it’s the flagrant irresponsibility of many of his propositions – for example, that presidents are not bound by Supreme Court rulings, that the liberal Ninth Circuit court of appeals should be abolished....that the First Amendment guarantees freedom “of” religion but not “from” religion...

Yet Democratic pundits, political advisers, officials and former officials are salivating over the possibility of a Gingrich candidacy. They agree with key Republicans that Newt would dramatically increase the odds of Obama’s reelection and would also improve the chances of Democrats taking control over the House and retaining control over the Senate.

I warn you. It’s not worth the risk.

Even if the odds that Gingrich as GOP presidential candidate would win the general election are 10 percent, that’s too much of a risk to the nation. No responsible American should accept a 10 percent risk of a President Gingrich.

I’d take a 49 percent odds of a Mitt Romney win – who in my view would make a terrible president – over a 10 percent possibility that Newt Gingrich would become the next president – who would be an unmitigated disaster for America and the world.

7 comments:

  1. Funny, I could say much the same about Reich if he were running for office. Right wing nutjob, left wing nutjob. They all want power, and the government grows like a cancer regardless of which party has the reins.

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  2. While he get's Newt right, its kind of funny listening to a certified nut discredit another certified nut.

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  3. Then there's this:
    http://www.npr.org/2012/01/30/145995636/freddie-mac-betting-against-struggling-homeowners
    I guess they've forgotten their own history. Maybe they should hire a house historian. Oh, wait, uh...

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  4. A hatfield trashes a Mccoy. Nothing new here.

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  5. I can't wait until it is just the Doctor discrediting one certified nut.

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  6. Don't forget the certified Democratic nut.

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  7. "Newt’s latest idea, for example – to colonize the moon – is typically whacky."

    Actually, FWIW, the concept of colonizing the Moon is not in and of itself whacky. The mechanisms whereby Mr. Gingrich proposes to do so, by borrowing scores of billions of dollars from the Chinese to make it happen (because that's how it would have to happen the way things are right now) is whacky and worthy of derision as a policy choice.

    But the idea of growing cislunar and eventual Lunar industry merits serious consideration, as the space industry is one of the few industries this nation has left where it has a real competitive advantage, and there is real value to be had in cislunar space. We're slacking, as we are in many industries, and even the space industry may slip from our leadership. I just wish there were good ways for us average joes to invest in making it happen.

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