Scott Tibbs
blog post
January 12th, 2004

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Newt for President?

There is some talk about Newt Gingrich running for President in 2008, which Jim Pfaff comments on at OpinionTimes.com.

I think Newt would be unwise to take this leap. He has too much baggage from his days as Speaker of the House. Remember the attacks on him in 1995 and 1996? Remember when Democrats morphed Republican incumbents into Newt in television commercials, copying the Republican tactic used in 1994 with Bill Clinton? The attacks on Newt would be intensified exponentially if he ran for President.

But it would not get to that point. Newt would not make it out of the primaries. There are too many other contenders who are much more attractive to GOP voters and are much more able to win the general election. Furthermore, Newt has some past character issues that will be used against him (in both the primary and general election) if he were to run for President.

Newt engineered the most significant political win of the last 50 years when the Republicans took over both the House and Senate in 1994. He is a visionary who has some very good ideas on public policy. But while Newt would be a far better choice than John McCain, he is not Presidential material.