Gingrich finalls says "No Prez"

Newt Gingrich has been flirting with the idea of running for the nomination and the presidency for some time. He has been thirsting for it at least since he was elected Speaker of the House, and likely much, much longer. He has been claiming that he would run "if no other candidate truly represented the American people", and claimed to hold out hope that Fred Thompson was the guy. Recently, he told his supporters he would run if he could raise $30 million in pledges by Oct 21. But now, his spokesman is claiming he has decided NOT to run, citing his conflicting responsibilities as head of a non-profit think-tank.

My own thoughts? He is reading the tea leaves and has finally realized a run at this point would be merely an exercise of his own vanity. He is valuable as a source of ideas for the Right, but is only a liability as an actual candidate.

Newt calls war on terror 'phony'

In a speech the other day, Newt Gingrich said that we are waging a phony war on terror. His point was not that there is not a war to be waged on terror groups, but that the way we have been approaching it has not been realistic.

"We've been engaged in a phony war," said Gingrich. "The only people who have been taking this seriously are the combat military."

I think that this is a serious critique of the way the war has been run - as opposed to when Edwards called it a bumper sticker war and totally discounted that it needed to be waged. Gingrich's point on the other hand was that if we want to win then we need to take out those things that support terror groups - namely monetary support, of which a large part comes from middle east oil. Energy independence was where he was going. I think he made a good point, though I think that the use of the word 'phony' might have been over stating the case - surely used for dramatic effect, he knew what he was doing.

I know there are some ethical concerns about him as a presidential candidate, but when listening to him work out a lot of the current issues in American politics makes me wonder if he really is the best person for the job. Granted right now he gets to work in general political theory and not actually have to work with others on the issues. At the very least he would make political debates interesting.