Anyone who thinks Newt Gingrich isn't positioning himself for a run at the Republican nomination isn't paying attention. He's clearly doing exactly that, and with his usual Newt-like sense of the bizarre and insulting. While firing up Republicans by speech exhorting them to be the "Party of Yes", he's playing the "say outrageous things that make no sense but sound scary" game too:
“To win in 2010 and 2012, it's not enough to say no to the radical agenda of Obama, Pelosi, and Reid,” said Gingrich. “Tonight's speech will explain why real leadership requires Republicans to offer a compelling vision of safety, prosperity, and freedom that stands in vivid contrast to Obama's secular, socialist, machine now running Washington.”
That would be the secular, socialist machine that just dumped the public option or a Medicare expansion in favor of keeping health insurance private? The secular, socialist machine that paid homage to capitalism by expanding private insurance coverage provided by private insurance carriers? Alrighty, then.
In the past year, American Solutions for Winning the Future (Newt's 527), has banked 3 times what any other organization has. Granted, much of that money pays for Newt's private jet, chauffer, and PR consultants, but there is no question that he's a contender for 2012.
His new book will be out May 17th. Can you guess the title? Bingo. "To Save America: Stopping Obama's Secular-Socialist Machine" I wonder how much he paid Frank Luntz for that.
