The massive Newt Gingrich victory in South Carolina today portends the most ideological election in America since 1964.
Senator Barry Goldwater of Arizona overcame the moderate and centrist elements of the GOP in 1964, but led the party to total disaster in the fall against President Lyndon B. Johnson, winning only six states, five in the South and Arizona.
As much as Goldwater was divisive, in comparison to Newt Gingrich, the Arizona Senator seems in retrospect like a charm!
Goldwater was sincere in his beliefs, while Gingrich is a total opportunist, power hungry, and willing to create a “civil war” atmosphere in his mad dash to take power, and it is clear that he is a dangerous man like none we have seen in the past.
Only George Wallace, the former Alabama Governor who ran on a third party line in 1968, was equally dangerous, but fortunately, he was not on a major party line, and could only cause problems for the two major candidates.
Newt Gingrich, ironically censured by the House when he was Speaker of the House fifteen years ago on this date for ethical violations and fined $300,000, now has been resurrected by South Carolina evangelical voters and Tea Party activists.
The future of the nation is at stake in what looks more than ever like a real possibility of Newt Gingrich being the opponent of Barack Obama this November. This requires efforts, unsurpassed in the past, by those who do not wish such a destructive personality to sit in the Oval Office next January 20!
Stephen Colbert is looking more and more attractive!
Ron, I seriously doubt that we will be watching Newt raising his hands and waving to the crowd as the confetti and balloons fall in Tampa this summer.
It certainly throws more and more uncertainty in the process, which can only mean good things to Obama’s re-election chances (assuming that the economy doesn’t tank further).
Gingrich needs oodles of money (and more importantly, better organization). While the old saying that “Nothing suceeds than success” to draw additional money, I still think that Romney is the nominee by default.
Your state is next on January 31st!
For what it’s worth, take a look at the results to date and try to project how difficult a stretch Gingrich has to become the nominee! I think we all agree that at this point it is now down to a Romney-Gingrich horse race. By the way, Romney does get an almost even porportion of delegates in the S.C. results.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republican_Party_presidential_primaries,_2012
To prevent further hyperventilation about Gingrich’s victory in S.C., I want to point out a few reasons why I think that this election season will be different than the 1980 election, even though there are a few historical similarities.
Yes.Anything can happen, but Carter had already built up many more liabilities at a comparable time frame than Obama. While many of his critics call Obama “another Jimmy Carter”, I think there is no comparison.
Carter’s “crisis of confidence” malaise speech in the summer of ’79 was the breaking point. He was being seriously challenged by Ted Kennedy for the
nomination. He even suffered the embarassment of the “attacking rabbit” incident.
I can remember when the liberal Boston Globe editorial page commented on another Carter zigzag speech on the economy in the spring of 1980. A creative anonymous (at the time) composition room editor got away headlining the lead editorial with “More mush from the wimp” in the first run before it was caught by a more senior editor. The headline was supposed to say and was changed to a “We all need to make sacrifices..” type headline.
Yes, Iran happened that fall to add to the questions about his leadership.Remember, though that Carter’s attempt to free the hostages ended in disaster, whereas Obama’s nod to take out Obama was a success.
Plus, the field of challenging candidates in this election are weak. Back in 1980, the GOP hopefuls included Bush I, Howard Baker, Robert Dole, and, as you know, the eventual challenger, Ronald Reagan.
That was a far more capable group than Romney, Gingrich, et al. The economy was heading in the wrong direction for Carter, while, at least for the moment,
the economy is showing signs of improvement, although that could change in the blink of an eye, I realize.
Not trying to be a Pollyanna, but Obama’s approval rating is far better than Carter’s at the same point and with a few more accomplishments.
Carter did have the ephemeral Mideast peace agreement between Begin and Sadat, but that was the usual illusion and was trumped by the Iran hostage situation…
This is what makes Presidential politics a great “spectator sport” on a par with the NFL playoffs in my estimation!!
As Rick Perry would say, “Oops”. I hope Obama does not give the nod to take out himself. I meant to say, of course, Osama.