It was bad enough when he sat on that ridiculous couch with Nancy Pelosi and lectured us little people about environmental whackoism, now Newt Gingrich is running around Iowa shilling for the idiotic ethanol industry.
The absurd notion of taxpayers being fleeced of their paychecks to subsidize the ethanol industry which couldn't exist on its own, so that drivers can put our food supply into our gas tanks, all to save polar bears and combat a non-existent phenomenon -- man-made global warming -- to me disqualifies Newt Gingrich from any possible consideration for the GOP nomination. He'd serve us much better on the lecture circuit, criticizing liberals from the sidelines. I cannot in good conscious vote for anybody who supports government ethanol subsidies.
UPDATE: Scratch Ambassador to China, John Huntsman too. He thinks the stimulus wasn't big enough. With republicans like these, who needs democrats?
7 comments:
Yeah, Ed, it made me sick to see Newt jumping into the ethanol mess. Even Algore sees it as a boondoggle by now. The rest of us need to quit jumping to Iowa's tune. Anyway, if I recall, Huckabee won the Republican caucus there in 2008 - and he did not get the nomination.
For me to get excited, somebody's going to have to come out of left-field I think. Somebody unexpected. Or, one of the old guard is going to have to start saying some pretty strong statements about the direction of the country.
Well, right now early I like Pawlenty, Thune, Daniels, maybe Barbour. Pence has dropped out to run for governor. Christie won't run, nor will Rubio. I hope Palin doesn't. Running a good race goes a long way toward showing somebody has what it takes. If anyone ever ran that I agreed with 100% of the time, something would be wrong. I was not - to my eternal embarrassment - a fan of Reagan when he first ran.
I'm not sure Obama is beatable, given the abject stupidity of half of America. Those voters fell for his crap once and it was obviously crap. Whose to say they won't line up again? They're just not that smart. I'm hoping for a takeover of the Senate and that'll pretty much shut him down for the Supreme Court appointments, I hope. He'll have at least one more and maybe two.
Look at it this way - Obama, like Jimmy Carter, won in a year of a perfect storm. In Carter's case it was post Watergate/Nixon pardon. In Obama's, Iraq war going to hell plus economic meltdown (probably helped by certain billionaires). Both also ran as moderates, and Obama as post partisan. Obama has proven to all and sundry that he's the farthest thing from a moderate, and highly partisan. I don't see him fooling all those "centrist" voters twice, but that's just me.
I wrote the following three years ago as a book review on Amazon.com I would not vote for Newt and I'm afraid he has come what is know in my business as a good idea generator - this is a pejorative connotation. Here's an exerpt from my review:
I'm a big fan of Newt Gingrich. I think he is doing a lot of good on the sidelines as a thinker. With this in mind I clamored for a copy of his new book "Real Change" hoping to find some new ideas on how to turn America around or at least reaffirm my ideas. I am disappointed. "Real Change" offers several ideas about change but no solutions or at least no details about the "solutions". To Newt's defense he does refer the reader to his American Solutions web sight regularly and this reader has yet to visit the site. Hopefully it is full of solutions (and details).
...Finally Newt needs to review his Physics, Thermodynamics, and Chemistry. He has not only jumped onto the Ethanol bandwagon but also has apparently discovered new laws of physical science. "Some have estimated that composite materials combined with a hybrid E-85 engine could produce a vehicle that could run for 500 to 1,000 miles on a gallon of petroleum." First E-85 refers to a fuel mixture 85% gasoline (petroleum) and 15% ethanol. This mixture contains LESS energy than 100% gasoline. For a vehicle to achieve this type of mileage it would require a vehicle like the Honda Civic to achieve at least 10-20 times the fuel efficiency currently available. Some of this could be achieved through lighter weight but there are no miracle composites available that would enable this type of improvement. And even it this mileage was attainable I doubt the vehicle would be large enough for even one passenger. I will take a look at his Real Solutions web site in hope of finding some answers and better information but my great expectations for this book have been dashed. However I remain a fan of Newt and recognize the fact America needs thinkers like him
http://online.wsj.com/public/page/letters.html
For those interested, Newt has a lengthy letter in the WSJ "splainin'" himself. Fine as far as it goes, but he doesn't even address the ethanol issue. There are several other good letters on the same topic.
One of Ed's virtual cookies to whoever knows the term "splainin'". Hint, a 50's TV show.
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