MANGOBOSS.com |
What's Up This Month: Men's Fitness and Health: Waist-to-Hip The New Number That Counts Tiger Tops World's Richest Athletes-Earns $112 million What Does George Bush make? Read What Obama, Clinton, McCain and other politicians rake in Foods That Strengthen Erectile Performance Exercises That Improve Erectile Function Six Pack Abs The Work-outs That Work What Is Normal Height for a Man? Coming Next Week: 10 Most Powerful Men Under 40 |
| Fitness, Sports, Money-Nuff Said |
| I Easy as Taking Candy From a Baby-- How Much Do Politicians Rake In |
Newt Gingrich --- Shades of Reagan or Nixon? Related Links Gingrich or Romney-Which Candidate Do Men Support Governor Rick Perry's Very Bad, Awful Week Obama's Net Worth -2011 Updates Obama's Net Worth -2010 Obama's Net Worth - Through December 2009 Obama's Workout-How He Stays In Shape Hubris Syndrome-Is It Affecting Obama? Obama's Approval Rating Plummets to 38% Erectile Health Laughing Improves Erectile Performance-New Study 10 Superfoods for Men's Health Foods That Strengthen Erectile Performance Ten Signs You Are About To Be Fired How Much Do Politicians Make? Snoring Linked to Stroke Do Laptops Reduce Sperm Count? January 21, 2012 By Michael P. Delhomme, Columnist In the battle for the 2012 Republican nomination, the most intense “war within the war” is being fought for the right to claim the mantle of legitimate heir to the legacy of President Ronald Reagan. Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich has been the most vocal aspirant for the “Reagan” vote, peppering each of his debate performances with what has become a mantra of “when I worked with Ronald Reagan” moments. In fact, Gingrich so often cloaks himself in Reagan references that he at last drew the ire of his rival, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney. In the second and last Republican debate in South Carolina, Romney challenged Gingrich’s “Reagan” credentials as an exaggeration, saying “I have read every page of Reagan’s autobiography and only found one mention from Reagan of an idea that said he got from you, and that one he said he dismissed”. The desire among this season’s candidates to channel one’s “inner Reagan” is understandable. Reagan is revered as a Republican President who ended the Cold War and restored American economic dominance. However, Gingrich’s fiery personality and quickness to retaliate call to mind another President as well – Richard Nixon. There are dissimilarities of course. Nixon was not an accomplished debater, as is Gingrich. But there are also striking similarities. Nixon, the son of middle class Quakers, came to view himself as an intellectual from the other side of the tracks. Among those he despised – and the list was long – he reserved a special hatred for the blue-blooded, Ivy League-schooled political“elites”, such as the Kennedy clan and certain of the Rockefellers. A graduate of Whittier College in California and Duke Law School in North Carolina, Nixon took special glee in displaying his intellectual prowess. Nixon's personality often was described as "mean" and “mercurial”. His long memory for slights was legendary. He kept an “enemies list” of those whom he believed had crossed him. Even among his allies, he was often called “unstable”, a charge that subsequent events -- Watergate -- revealed had more than a modicum of basis in truth. Likewise, Gingrich has been described by former colleagues in terms that evoke Nixonian comparisons. Gingrich’s Republican comrades who served under his leadership as Speaker of the House in the 1990]s have been unusually forthright in their alarm at the prospect that he might achieve the presidency. Republican Representative Peter King of New York, has called Newt Gingrich “erratic”. Former Representative Susan Molinari, of Staten Island, New York, said of Gingrich: ”Newt Gingrich had a leadership style that can only be described as leadership by chaos”. Even Gingrich's campaign supporters affirm his instability. "Newt is volatile-to say the least", remarked former Republican Representative Bob Livingston of Louisiana. “Erratic”, “chaotic”, "volatile", with a need to prove his intellectual prowess. Sound familiar? Back to the future. In the race for the Iowa caucuses, Gingrich once enjoyed a commanding lead, with some polls putting him ahead by double digits. Then, a slew of commercials cut him down at the knees, and Gingrich finished the race in 4th place behind Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum who were in a virtual tie, and Ron Paul in 3rd. Perhaps the most devastating blow against Gingrich was a commercial by Representative Ron Paul, highlighting Gingrich’s history of “serial hypocrisy”. That charge was particularly stinging as it cut two ways at once : it hit Gingrich for his serial marital infidelity and his serial changes of political positions. Notwithstanding that it was the Ron Paul commercial that finally sunk him, Gingrich fastened upon the commercials run by the SuperPac supporting Governor Romney. When asked by a reporter if he felt he had been “swift-boated” in Iowa, a reference to the smear tactic used against Senator John Kerry by Republicans in the 2004 race, Gingrich curiously chose to ignore the devastating attacks from Ron Paul, instead replying ” no, I think I’ve been Romney-boated”. A week later, Ed Rollins, the veteran Republican political operative who served as National Campaign Director for the 1984 Reagan-Bush team, astutely observed on Fox News that Gingrich had become Romney’s “ enemy for life”. After his defeat in Iowa, Gingrich swiftly retaliated, launching a scorched-earth attack against Governor Romney’s wealth and business success, borrowing anti-capitalist lines typically reserved for Democrats. Conservative analysts winced. Charles Krauthammer, widely viewed as the most brilliant political scholar of his generation, observed that Gingrich's attack essentially undermined a pillar of the Republican brand, in effect shooting himself and all Republicans in the foot: "Yet, in a stroke, the Republicans have succeeded in turning a Democratic talking point -- a last-ditch attempt to salvage re-election by distracting from their record -- into a central focus of the nation's political discourse." Gingrich's pivot to the left had another unintended effect. It reminded those Republicans who had forgotten that it was former Speaker Gingrich who had caused the shut down of the government itself after he felt slighted that President Clinton did not give treat him properly on Air Force One. Indeed, hell hath no fury like Newt Gingrich scorned. For those who don’t remember the details of the Air Force One incident, here is a contemporaneous account from the Seattle Times of November 16, 1995: “Gingrich complained yesterday that in 24 hours of flying to and from the Jerusalem funeral of slain Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin last week Clinton failed to discuss their budget differences - and made Gingrich and Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole, R-Kan., sit in the back of the plane and leave by the rear exit. The speaker said his personal pique helped prompt the partial shutdown of the federal government. The alleged "snub," the Georgia Republican told reporters, was "part of why you ended up with us sending down a tougher continuing resolution" - the stopgap spending bill that Clinton vetoed Monday, leading to the shutdown. "It's petty, but I think it's human," Gingrich said of his reaction.” (italics added) When you absorb the full sequence of events, the incident is both revealing, and deeply concerning in light of a potential Gingrich presidency. The Speaker of the House caused the partial shutdown of the government of the United States because he felt personally snubbed. Shutting down the government to retaliate for a snub? Going postal with an anti-capitalist anti-Republican argument in a Republican primary? In his penchant for taking offense, his need to retaliate disproportionately --- killing a fly with a sledgehammer -- and his preference to explain his defeats solely in terms of being a victim of those he views as blueblood elites, Gingrich bears an eerie resemblance to Nixon. Nixon was a brilliant man who was undone ultimately not by the external enemies he imagined among the bluebloods but by the internal enemy of his own fragile psyche. Somewhere in the dark, unhealed, hurt places of his mind, Nixon lost his better judgment. It's a serious flaw, to so willingly bargain away one's better judgement to soothe a petty hurt. Yes, it is, to borrow a phrase from Gingrich, "petty" but "human". But it’s one human flaw that a President of a nuclear superpower cannot afford to have. For the inhuman pressures of a Presidency have an uncanny knack of testing just these type of petty human flaws, with sometimes disastrous consequences for us all. Related: Barack Obama 's Net Worth Gingrich or Romney-Which Candidate Do Men Prefer? Rick Perry-Winging It to Oblivion 10 Superfoods for Men's Health Top 10 Tips for Prostate Health How Many Pull-ups Can an Average Man Do? Recommended: Find out what Obama's estimated net worth will be after his first term in office and what other world leaders make: What Politicians Make /Ten Signs You Are About to Be Fired / The Sacred 90 Minutes in Obama's Day Other Related Links President Obama's Approval Rating Plummets to 38% Barack Obama's Workout --How He Stays In Great Shape Ideal Weight for Men of Different Heights What Politicians Make (Bush, McCain, Obama, the Clintons) Snoring Linked to Stroke Foods That Strengthen Erectile Performance 10 Superfoods for Men Prostate Cancer Linked to Fatty Diet Signs of Testicular Cancer Ten Signs You Are About to Be Fired Male Pattern Baldness Affected by Diet Snoring Affects Erectile Health |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
About Us Privacy Policy Register (c) copyright 2008 -2012, and all prior years, mangoboss.com and its parent network. All Rights Reserved. |
| Richard Nixon Resigns |
