Matt Dowd: Newt Gingrich Is a ‘Force’ Mitt Romney Must Reckon With
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Newt Gingrich’s election pitch was clear yesterday when the former Speaker directly took on his opponent, saying he doesn’t “claim to be the perfect candidate. I just claim to be a lot more conservative than Mitt Romney, and a lot more electable than anybody else.”
“He wants to pre-empt, I think George, any sort of attacks that say ‘Well Newt might be the right conservative but he can’t win.’ So he is demonstrating one, that he can beat Mitt Romney in the primary, which he wants to show and, two that he can beat Barack Obama in the general election,” ABC political contributor Matt Dowd told me this morning on “GMA.”
Dowd believes that Gingrich is a “force” that Romney needs to reckon with eventually. But with the DNC’s latest ad accusing Romney on flip-flopping the White House seems to think that Romney is still the man to beat. Should the White House be concerned about Gingrich?
“I think part of [the Democrats'] strategy is a little jujitsu. I think what they could do is actually hurt Mitt Romney in the primary and create an even bigger opening for Newt Gingrich. I think the attack the Democratic National Committee has on Mitt Romney hurts him as much in the Republican primary as it does in the general election,” Dowd said. “So yeah, they are softening him up for the general election in case he is the nominee, but two they may create an opening for Newt Gingrich and cause Mitt Romney to take on more water in the primaries in the nomination process and hurt him in that process.”
The White House might rather run against Gingrich, but be careful what you wish for.
Take a look at my interview here:
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This guy can talk every bit as smooth as Obama. And he’s every bit just as slick. I “reckon” Obama is the one that will have to deal with it.
Posted by: newcountryman | November 29, 2011, 9:23 am 9:23 am
Romney is, in my view, more of a Democrat, than a conservative, more of a professional politician who says whatever he thinks people want to hear, and someone I would not entrust with doing what is right, in Washington.
Obama has doe enough damage……..we cannot take a risk on someone we have no confidence in, to follow Obama.
Posted by: Rick McDaniel | November 29, 2011, 9:53 am 9:53 am
I’m sorry Newt, I cannot support you. I can’t support a man who betrayed his family multiple times. I didn’t give Clinton a pass and I cannot give you a pass.
Posted by: hrs44 | November 29, 2011, 10:38 am 10:38 am
Please, Republicans, choose Newt. I sincerely want you to. Because Obama would absolutely crush him in the general election. You think he’s been vetted so far? Wait until he actually gets selected as the official nominee. All his dirty laundry would come out.
The really hilarious thing is, as Herman Cain’s popularity wanes, Newt’s is waxing. The people leaving Herman Cain because of his sexcapades are going over to serial adulterer Newt. You can’t make this stuff up!
Republicans should be embarrassed as hell about the field of ‘family values’ presidential contenders they’ve managed to attract this election cycle. Thoroughly embarrassed………………
Posted by: Searambler | November 30, 2011, 10:39 am 10:39 am
While it’s a nice change to have an expericed and intelligent candidate who also communicates very well, conservatisim alone will not get our country out of this mess. Our biggest threat today is the federal deficit and it is impossible to get rid of it by cutting spending alone. We also need to raise taxes at the same time. This is the only way to make meaningful progress. Any talk about cutting taxes further is just naive
Posted by: Adam James | November 30, 2011, 5:02 pm 5:02 pm
If Newt is such a good communicator, let him tell us why he resigned his speakership and his seat in Congress.
Posted by: rtupplus | December 4, 2011, 1:42 pm 1:42 pm
Dowd thinks Gingrich is electable???? Doesn’t he remember Gingrich resigned from Speaker of the House for ethics violations? Why don’t the republicans just dig up Richard Nixon and let him run?? Unfrickin believable!!!
Posted by: ss55 | December 6, 2011, 5:39 pm 5:39 pm
Newt is apparently trying to create a new hybrid form, Christian adultery. According to MSNBC, Bisek sings in the National Shrine Choir, and Newt would often wait for her at the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, listening to her sing while he read the Bible.
This is hardly the first time Newt has cheated, either. “It was common knowledge that Newt was involved with other women during his [first] marriage to Jackie. Maybe not on the level of John Kennedy. But he had girlfriends — some serious, some trivial.” — Dot Crews, his campaign scheduler throughout the 70s. One woman, Anne Manning, has come forward and confirmed a relationship with him during the 1976 campaign. “We had oral sex. He prefers that modus operandi because then he can say, ‘I never slept with her.’”
Kip Carter, his former campaign treasurer, was walking Newt’s daughters back from a football game one day and cut across a driveway where he saw a car. “As I got to the car, I saw Newt in the passenger seat and one of the guys’ wives with her head in his lap going up and down. Newt kind of turned and gave me this little-boy smile. Fortunately, Jackie Sue and Kathy were a lot younger and shorter then.”
Family Values? Pressing Wife for Divorce in the Hospital:
“He walked out in the spring of 1980…. By September, I went into the hospital for my third surgery. The two girls came to see me, and said, “Daddy is downstairs. Could he come up?” When he got there, he wanted to discuss the terms of the divorce while I was recovering from my surgery.” – Jackie, his first wife.
Dead-Beat Dad:
The hospital visit wasn’t the end of it, either. Jackie had to take Newt to court to get him to contribute for bills, as utilities were about to be cut off.
Draft Dodger:
Though he relentlessly pushes military spending and talks like a bigtime hawk, Gingrich avoided the Vietnam War through a combination of student and family deferments. (He married one of his teachers at age 19.)
Problems With Women?
Newt pressed his first wife to sign divorce papers while she was still in the hospital recovering from cancer surgery. He also graciously said “She isn’t young enough or pretty enough to be the President’s wife.” But his second marriage hasn’t been that smooth either. Newt and Marianne have been separated – “frankly”, she told the Washington Post in June 1989, “it’s been on and off for some time.”
Does Newt have some kind of problem with women? He has said that he read a book called “Men Who Hate Women and the Women Who Love Them”, and “found frightening pieces that related to my own life.”
Incidentally, Marianne told Gail Sheehy she doesn’t want Newt to run for President. ” I told him if I’m not in agreement, fine, it’s easy. I just go on the air the next day, and I undermine everything. … I don’t want him to be president and I don’t think he should be.” Newt’s response? Marianne “was just making the point hypothetically” that he would not run unless she agreed he should.
Posted by: billy mays | December 11, 2011, 4:59 pm 4:59 pm
Woman HATE Newt…he is a weird looking fast talking charlatan … snake oil salesman without the suave’ …..he’ll sell American rights down the river to the highest bidders and wave his jingo flag as WE ALL BURN …got it IOWA ?
Posted by: billy mays | December 12, 2011, 1:39 pm 1:39 pm
This man has more dirt than a farmers field.
Posted by: Frank | December 13, 2011, 12:24 am 12:24 am