Ok so now who is the candidate for 2008. I have limited it to what I consider tier A (Giulani, Romney, McCain) and tier B candidates (Newt, Brownback, Huckabee) because I seriously doubt the tier C candidates (Tancredo, Ron Paul, Tommy Thompson, etc) have a prayer.

Fortune Magazine just did a piece on Newt Gingrich which I thought was very informative and a fair evaluation of him, pointing out his strengths and weaknesses.  I spent most of today at a buddy’s house just hanging out and being that he is a political geek like myself we of course had a lengthy discussion of the ‘08 Presidential candidates.  He is solidly behind Gingrich, should he decide to enter the race, and I am thinking that will probably be my leaning as well based on the other candidates we already know are in.

Yeah, Newt has his baggage, no doubt, but point out one of them who doesn’t.  And what’s Hillary going to say about his divorces when she stood by and allowed her husband to have extra-marital affairs for her own political expediency?  His ethics charges were dropped and I think from hearing him speak in different forums, Gingrich has realized over the years some of the mistakes he made as Speaker.

What I really like about Gingrich is his ability to communicate with the American people in such a way that he allows them to understand not just what issues are important to our country, but why they are important, something W has failed to do since day one.  He’s already demonstrated that he knows what matters most to the American people, as indicated by his leadership in the Republican Revolution of 1994, and he’s dead on about all the mistakes Bush has made over the last six years and why the Republicans lost both majorities.  If he were preside over the White House with the same message and values that swept the GOP into the majority in 94 then he could revitalize a broken party.

I will not support McCain under any circumstances, even if he is our nominee.  I don’t think Giuliani can win the nomination because of his social liberalism.  Romney has caught the Kerry Flip Flop bug and I can’t see Brownback winning the general election.  Ideally, Ron Paul is my preferred candidate and I will most likely vote for him in the primary next year if he is still in the race, but he is an ultra long shot to win the nomination.

I think Newt might be the one we need.

Fortune

For all those curious about the presidential try-outs that were the National Review Institute, I’ll leave a few of my thoughts:

• Jeb Bush and Newt Gingrich were the stars of the show
• There is zero excitement behind Huckabee. Saturday night he spent twenty minutes walking around the foyer by himself, no serious presidential candidate would be left unmobbed for twenty minutes.
• People wanted more out of Romney. He was smart, pro-business, and has the presidential look but there was no fire in the belly. Nothing that would motivate folks to get out there and fight
• At the Saturday night session when Jonah Goldberg asked which GOP Presidential candidate was “unacceptable” there was a roar from the crowd about 75% McCain and 25% Giulani. I thought this was a surprising show of weakness for McCain, who made no appearance nor any surrogate appearance at the event.
• Brownback, Giulani, McCain all skipped out on the event and failed to even have a presence there. This was a very interesting development. NR is fairly hospitable to Giulani due to NR’s HQ in New York City and McCain has spent a lot of time trying to reach out to conservatives. The one who missed the biggest opportunity was Brownback, his absence made little sense.