Eye of Newt

"Eye of newt, and toe of frog,
Wool of bat, and tongue of dog,
Adder's fork, and blind-worm's sting,
Lizard's leg, and howlet's wing,--
For a charm of powerful trouble,
Like a hell-broth boil and bubble."

Macbeth (IV, i, 14-15)

Newt Gingrich is blessed with a brilliant intellect and an unfortunate first name. But that name came in handy as I thought about this passage from Shakespeare. If there were any phrase to describe Gingrich's rapid rise through the Republican presidential ranks, it's "a charm of powerful trouble."

Gingrich was written off, left for dead over the summer as his campaign seemingly imploded over stories of a mass staff exodus and extravagant spending sprees at Tiffany's. "There goes Newt again, people would say. I like him. He's clearly the smartest guy in the room. But he's so undisciplined. And he's got so much, you know, baggage." Meaning: the Clinton wars of the 1990s and the personal issues with his previous marriages.

But who's to say what's baggage and what's not? And who's to say what's damaging baggage and what's baggage people can live with? Voters decided they could live with Bill Clinton's baggage---and he had a whole Louis Vuitton set. Let the American people decide what they can live with and what they can't with regard to a candidate. If GOP primary voters decide that Newt is too baggage-laden, they'll spurn him. They might, however, decide that they're over all that stuff...and the rest of the country might agree.

The longtime frontrunner, Mitt Romney, has played it safe and low-key, efficiently waiting as one challenger after another has risen and faded: Michele Bachmann, Rick Perry and most recently, Herman Cain. Cain still has some juice left but the sexual harassment allegations against him have taken a toll. He's receding a bit in the most recent polls.

Which brings us to Newt Gingrich. Those polls show him either tied for first place with Romney or pulling slightly ahead. Is he just another flash in the pan like the others, or does he have staying power? Can he stay disciplined and on message or will he wander off the reservation and shoot himself in the foot? Will the tortoise beat the hare?

Unanswered questions. But for now, Newt is rising for the following reasons: He's a serious conservative intellectual. He's a no BS guy who speaks with authority and absolute fearlessness. And everybody knows that he would crush Obama in a debate with the sheer force of facts, conservative principles, innovative ideas and his total confidence in all of those things.

He is a "charm of powerful trouble" for Romney right now and may be ultimately for Obama. He is also a "hell-broth boil and bubble" for his opponents. Those who underestimate him do so at their peril.

Comments

[xbjllb]

Hello everyone. Welcome to yet another in a long run of daily exercises in pearl before swine tossing.

[Lolly P.]

We miss you on the McLaughlin Group, where you are the perfect complement to the often annoying others.

That show is excellent and was even better with you aboard.