Stephen Spruiell, writing in National Review, says Newt Gingrich is talking like a presidential candidate - one who would raise the level of discourse in the campaign to a real discussion of important issues:
During a scathing and often hilarious discourse Wednesday night at New York’s Cooper Union, former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich at times sounded like a candidate for president himself as he chided the current declared crop of presidential aspirants for lacking substance. Although Gingrich deflected questions about whether he intends to run for president in 2008 - “the most likely campaign… is going to be two New Yorkers, one of whom sounds like a New Yorker,” he told event moderator Tim Russert - he gave the polished and energetic speech of someone who’s giving it serious thought.
Gingrich is running for president right now. He's just smart enough not to announce it yet. As long as he is not officially a candidate, the media will pay attention to the issues he talks about. Once he declares, they'll do what they do to almost every candidate: focus on soundbites, gotchas, irrelevant old information and the horse race.
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If Newt runs against Hillary, it will be a competition of who's the lesser of two hypocrites. Surely, Newt knows better than to waste his time running. No matter how conservative he sounds now, people will remember what a moral liability he turned out to be.
Posted by: Davy | March 2, 2007 10:42 AM | Permalink to Comment