Monday, April 09, 2007

Newt V. Losers   [Jonah Goldberg]

You might have heard that Newt Gingrich is debating John Kerry tomorrow on climate change. Chris Horner over at Planet Gore is decidedly more dubious of his potential performance than I am.

My objection is more political. Gingrich (yes, yes, for whom my wife works) loves the idea of reprising Lincoln Douglas debates. He writes and talks about it often, and one gets the sense that he thinks he can build his fabled Newt for President movement out of gabbing a lot. He may well be able to do it, as he is the second best talker in America after Bill Clinton. But gabbing with John Kerry and Mario Cuomo before him isn't the way to do it. Kerry is a loser of a more recent vintage than Cuomo, and an improvement. But at the end of the day, if Gingrich wants to seem presidential he needs to debate presidential candidates not has-beens and never-wases. If he really wants to be president, the last thing he needs is for people to see him as the star of the political has-been circuit.

04/09 02:41 PMShare