Newt Will Run with $30 Million Commitment
Written by Sam on September 24th, 2007
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich will begin next week to seek financial commitments from donors for a presidential-nomination bid, the Georgia Republican told The Washington Times yesterday.
If he can get pledges for $30 million over the next three weeks, he will join the Republican presidential-nomination race — a prospect he had been downplaying until yesterday.
I watched an interview on Fox News Sunday yesterday morning between Chris Wallace and Newt Gingrich. Gingrich said that if he can get pledges of at least $30 million he will join the presidential race. The main reason for his goal is to make sure he is financially competitive, namely against Mitt Romney, who if he needed to could basically write a check to finance his campaign.
“If the reports back that, in fact, we think the resources are there for a real race — remember, Governor Romney has been very successful legitimately as a businessman. He can write a $100 million check.
I mean, there’s no point in getting into a fight with a guy who can drown you unless you at least have enough resources for a vote.
And so if we have enough resources, then close to that we’ll face a very big decision in late October. If there aren’t enough resources, I’m not for doing unrealistic things.”
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Anyone who has read Breach of Trust by Tom Coburn knows that Newt would not make a good president.
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Anyone who is living in modern day America knows that Newt would bring actual substance and intelligence to the race and would turn away from the soundbite game of “gotcha” that we have now. Our entire system is broken, and needs radical and comprehensive change. Newt is the only one saying what needs to be said. That makes him number one in my book.
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I agree with you on this. I’ve always liked Gingrich, because he actually articulates ideas in a coherent way. It would be nice to have a race between a person who legimiately articulates conservative principles and one who legitimately articulates liberal principles.
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Well at least we can all agree on something. Mark this moment in history.
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I hope and pray Newtie runs. He is a man with more ethical baggage than Bill Clinton. His list of personal foibles is twice as long as Clinton’s, but delivering the divorce papers to his wife on her cancer bed tops the list. Never have I heard such a windbag on virtually any topic that he knows nothing about. The MSM will devour this overinflated gasbag for what he is, a morally challenged hypocrite. Please run Newtie!!!!
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This is an uninspiring way to kick off a presidential bid. “If you fund it, I will come … ”
Doesn’t make me want to run out and volunteer for him.
Gingrich is smart and articulate and has a very good sense of history. Perhaps he would add to the debate.
But, would we actually want him to be the GOP nominee? He would likely have credibility problems in the “pro-family” department due to the circumstances surrounding his second divorce. He did, after all, have an extra-marital affair with a congressional staffer while he was speaker.
Were Edwards or Obama to be the Dem nominee, they would likely have more claim to the “family man” mantle.
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It’s too bad that all this personal baggage gets in the way of ideas these days, but it does.
It seems like the Republicans have much more of a problem with their people on this matter than the Democrats do. The worst they could come up with about Al Gore was that he went to a fund-raiser with some monks that he didn’t know was a fund-raiser. Oh yeah, and John Kerry shot himself in the leg to get his purple heart. Oh, and Max Cleland is a coward terrorist.
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The difference between Republicans and Democrats is we cull our own. We force our scandle laden Republicans to leave the public sector. You guys promote
yours.
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Paul,
The reasoning in soliciting pledges is that the entry into the race would not be based “on personal ambition”. I like the idea of the people drawing a candidate into the race. As for adding to the debate, I say to you, what debate do we have right now? Show me a debate in the party and/or country and I will answer that question. What benefit is this whole process to us if candidates only repeat “focus-grouped” slogans. Who is talking about REAL solutions to SS reform, tax reform, immigration and comprehensively addressing the growing threat from terror? Nobody is. A few of the republicans are tossing out bones to glazed over perfectionists in the republican party, but that is getting the country nowhere. As for the family, how long will we continue to shred our best people for personal mistakes and admit that we elect humans to office who are not perfect. In my opinion, it endangers the country take this hard line tack against good people. It is the IDEAS AND SOLUTIONS that we want, I dont care if its from Ward Cleaver or not. Americans will respond to leadership and answers much more than the “family man” mantle.
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I agree that the incident with Jefferson is outrageous. He should have resigned or been forced out long ago. Most liberal activists would tell you the same thing.
My point was just that most of our big-name Democrats don’t have the sleazy personal baggage that a lot of Republicans seem to have.
In fact, the sum of the number of marriages among the top 3 Democratic presidential candidates is 3. Among your top 3 candidates, I count 6 plus affairs. Three cheers for the family values party!
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Michael C.,
You mean like how the Republicans forced Senator Craig to resign after his arrest and scandal?
Oh wait, that is right, he is back on the floor voting for an anti-gay bill…the hypocrisy on both sides never ceases to amaze me.
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The modern era of extremism and division in American politics began in the early 1990’s, with Gingrich and Limbaugh leading the push to demonize the words ‘liberal’ and ‘Democrat.’ Remember, Newt Gingrich is the man who blamed Susan Smith’s murder of her two children on ‘the Democrats in Congress.’
The Contract with America was a sick joke, and I’m amazed that Gingrich would draw attention to it again. Gingrich is afraid to run because all of his dirty laundry would be aired again, but he can’t resist using the race to draw attention to himself. He’s a has-been and he knows it.
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who is Dwight Schrute, and what is his pic doing on this article? is he really a pervert?
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Michael C: What planet do you live on where the icky Republicans are forced out of the public sector. Here on planet Earth, we leave the creepy, bone-smoking, cruising-for-underage-boys Republicans in charge of the programs full of young boys; and the cruising-for-bathroom-sex guys are welcomed back into the chambers with open, um, arms. On the off-chance one of us likes girls, we usually end up divorced from the women we marry because we continually try to get them to go to swingers clubs and have sex in public.
Pls send coordinates. Will borrow Xenu’s spaceship from Tom, and be there as soon as I can.
P.S.: What do you do with the scandle-laden Democrats on your planet? Please tell me you feed them to tigers, or something cool like that. Just like the Republicans, they pretty much get a free pass, too.
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Wait and see, Craig will be gone soon enough, if not by the next election cycle. Both senate and House Republican rules have provisions for resignation for scandal, The democrats do not have similar provisions for their members.
And to say no big name democrats have scandals is stupid. Do not get me started on the Clintons, or what about Harry Reid’s land deals, or Nancy Pelosi found guilty by the FEC of charges similar to those that lead to Tom DeLay’s indictment.
Publius you make a valid point about the zealous fervor of Republicans in the 90’s regarding the Clintons. I remember thinking, well maybe this scandal will stick or the next or the next one. I was wrong and so were so many other Republicans. Not for standing up for what is right and true but for making it personal about the Clintons. That fervor definitely contributed to the craziness of the ’00’s by the fringe left.
But lets face it moral failure is moral failure regardless of whether you have a D or an R next to your name. The key is to be consistant in your treatment of the scandal. Republicans by and large are while democrats turn a blind eye and then circle the wagons for democrats.
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I couldn’t care less about “moral failures”! I want professional and competent people in the administration.
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The problem is that not enough Americans pay attention or care about what the government is doing. Frankly, I would bet well over half of the members in the legislature are guilty of unethical behavior of some type and should be voted out of office, but Americans have just become a bunch of herded sheep. Too many people make their decisions based on partisan talking points and sound bytes and don’t do their own research with an open mind. People should be making their decisions based on the candidate’s record, their character, and their ideas, not which party they belong to.
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Tyler, they are one in the same.
Sam, I could not agree more.
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I would urge all of you to research Ron Paul, whom I believe is already an excellent candidate.
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I used to live in Cobb county, the region which was represented by Mr. Gingrich.
Thief, career liar, and all around tool.
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“The difference between Republicans and Democrats is we cull our own. We force our scandle laden Republicans to leave the public sector. You guys promote
yours.”
Thanks for the laugh of the day - it’s sad that you actually believe that.