Newt Gingrich and the Churchill Syndrome

Today we analyze our 5^th of the republican presidential candidates, former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich.

First, your collective Facebook scores using the Ex. 18:21 four-part test:

Able = 2 out of 3

Fear God = 1.65 out of 3

Honesty = 1.5 out of 3

Principles over Politics =  .96 out of 3

Suppose a talented national leader were given the opportunity to serve at a high level, but his personal sense of self-importance, bullish style, and aggressive agenda fueled the opposition, turned friend to foe, and led to his being forced from the national stage? Suppose his nation’s foolish decisions led her to the brink of destruction and out of sheer desperation, he was once again entrusted with national leadership. Because of his brilliance and determination, he leads his nation from the brink, only to be ousted from the national stage when the danger is gone.

No supposing to it, that is the shortest summary of the political career of Winston Churchill you may ever read. And it mirrors that of Newt Gingrich right up to the part of him leading us away from the brink of destruction.

As I’ve said in an earlier blog, Newt Gingrich is by far the most brilliant of all the candidates and one of the most important conservative influences of the last thirty years. I don’t believe there is a person alive that watches those debates who could not honestly say after most of his answers that deep down they are thinking “that’s the guy I want with the finger on the button when things get bad.” There is just no denying the fact that he is a man among boys (and one girl) in those debates and it would be an absolute smack down if he had the chance to go debate Obama. There is not enough room here to have a thorough discussion of “the baggage,” so I’ll simply say this about that issue:  Newt has many self-inflicted wounds (just like every living human being) for which he has publicly repented, and there are very, very legitimate attacks to be made against him for some of his private AND public actions…but Romney’s PAC and others, including the media, are being very dishonest in their attacks. There was plenty of truthful stuff to attack, so I don’t get the exaggerations…but they are exactly that. I totally understand that Newt will be relentlessly attacked if he is the nominee and it will get very ugly, but I also believe that he can fight back effectively and win and I believe he would be exactly the kind of president we need for the crisis that we are in. So I will be fully on board with Newt Gingrich if he is the nominee, but I will not be supporting him in Iowa because he is not my first choice at this point.

Due to his infidelity, many will not trust him or consider him honest, so he justifiably received a low score of 1.5, yet that is still better than Bachmann (due to dishonest attacks against other candidates) and Romney (due to flip-flopping).

Also due to the well publicized sins of his past, some question his fear of God. For me, he seems truly repentant and his conversion and devotion to Catholicism seems very real and of deep conviction. More tangibly, even as an intellectual conservative, his voting record of protecting innocent life and other Biblical principles is evidence of a healthy respect for the laws of nature and nature’s God.

With regard to principles over politics (hating covetousness), I can understand a low score for Newt considering how many decades he has been in the political arena and some would point to his “compromises” as Speaker of the House. But I would argue that he made very calculated decisions based upon the hand he was dealt and the votes he had in the House in order to get the maximum part of the conservative agenda passed that was possible with Clinton in the White House and fifty squishy republicans always threatening to bolt. Much like Ronald Reagan, he was willing to accomplish 60% of the agenda today and come back tomorrow to fight for more (as opposed to always taking an all or none position).

Newt is the only one of the seven candidates that I believe scores off the charts on “ability.” He has the experience, the depth, the historical knowledge, the communication skills, the vision, the backbone, and the determination to pull our nation back from the brink of destruction and back on the track of freedom principles outlined in the Declaration of Independence. Considering the seriousness of the times, I believe his ability outweighs the question marks many give him in the other three categories.

Whether or not Americans feel desperate enough to forgive Newt of his idiosyncrasies in order to tap his brilliance and determination remains to be seen.

 

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