[Update, 10 Apr 2012: Here’s where I started to become a Newt convert. Believe me, I was against him early on.
This was after the Tea Party had knocked down several attempts to unseat Cain, which was important, but the writing was on the wall.]
I think the Tea Party is in very good shape, having demonstrated that it can and will go to bat for those who earn its protection. This message needs to be heard, among other places, in the offices of the Freshmen we sent a year ago, and those who wonder whether opposing the GOP leadership means defeat at home.
My unofficial motto for the Tea Party is “I Got Your Back!”
If we had already gelled behind a candidate, we would have been debased when they were smacked down. More on this later. Our candidates are being vetted against the MSM, by the MSM. Some make it through, some do not.
If we insist upon defining the boundaries of conservatism, rather than assembling around the rampant abuses of statism, we will be taken down in an instant.
I’m voting for Cain, or Perry, or (I surprise myself here) Gingrich. I jumped on the Cain Train, sent in some cash when he was first rising and getting attacked, because I give him a pass I do not give other candidates, but I also think that Cain passes are in short supply these days. In a magnificent display of UNCOORDINATED power, the Tea Party has successfully defended Cain from one of the most focused media onslaughts ever mounted. That has taken a toll, however. We have gotten out in front and preserved for him an opportunity to mount a defense and a comeback. That is on him, however. Gingrich and Perry don’t get passes like that, because (as Perry will no doubt say) this ain’t their first rodeo. Hell, I only grudgingly offer to support Gingrich, and that’s because he has forced me to come along. That dude is a fricking fighter and a survivor, if he’s still in this race, and he has compelled me to offer some respect.
I have always viewed Gingrich as unelectable, and I was furious at him for (as I put it) taking a magnificent piece of artillery from commanding heights, and getting it stuck in the mud on the valley floor–with no artillery support. Man, I was mad.
But a funny thing happened on the way to flaming out–this cat is harder to kill than Rasputin, and I began to wonder–could that carry over into the general?
We all know about Gingrich’s baggage, and I keep hearing that it has been de-bunked. Doesn;t sound de-bunked to me, but maybe. We ALSO know that public opinion can turn quickly, and that most people know only one, maybe two things about him. They have NOT already discounted his blistering performance at the podium, because they have never seen it.
I picture a scenario in which Gingrich finally gets just one shot at Obama in a debate–he would leave communist wreckage all over that stage. They would pick up the remains of socialism with a sponge and a cup. And America has a way of taking these A-Ha! moments in a delightfully serious way.
Anyway, that’s my defense of Gingrich, which believe me, a month ago, I would not have dreamed of offering.
Of course Newt would wipe the floor with Obama (love the sponge & cup imagery). Question is: would Obama agree to debate Newt? Duane said in the Hughniverse chat room on Friday it’d never happen–Obama and his advisers would certainly know he’d get flak for not participating, but he’d suffer less from that than getting his clock so thoroughly cleaned before the entire country.
And of course Newt’s already thought through that scenario and stated that if Obama declined to debate him, he’d simply show up about 4 hours after his every campaign appearance and rebut everything Obama had said there. I love that Newt’s so willing to engage his PITA factor :)