Throwing Israel under the bus surely qualifies...

:^/

Michale.....

Well, hasn't President Obama been saying for years now that something "extreme" must be done to save the economy? But I do agree with Newt (and David.. :D) Social engineering from the Right is just as distasteful as social engineering from the Left...

Further, you keep going on and on about how bad the Ryan budget is, but in every poll I have seen and read about, the majority of Americans prefer Ryan's budget to anything the Democrats have come up with..

Now, ya'all know my feelings about polls, so that doesn't amount to a whole lot, to be sure...

David,

1. You can't even have a conversation about healthcare from the right unless you tow the most extreme line.

Just like you can't have a conversation about healthcare from the Left unless you tow the most extreme line... IE Single Payer

I genuinely am starting to lament the fact that there seem to be no viable conservative candidates in the upcoming election. Its almost as if the Republican party has decided that they would rather have Obama as President because he makes a great enemy. Or something. Idunno. Its hard for me to understand how they can't come up with someone who is a more attractive candidate.

My guess is that the GOP is thinking that the execution of Bin Laden will make Obama unbeatable..

I think the GOP is putting too much stock in that.. Obama's poll numbers already lost the Bin Laden Bump last week, so I don't think the GOP needs to worry too much about that..

I have a feeling that the GOP might fall victim to the Delaware Dilemma.... :D

On another note.. We seem to be hearing a lot of "birther" nonsense again..

But, it's coming from President Obama..

Waditellya?? We're Americans.. We love to gloat.. It's who we are... :D

Michale.....

My take on it is that what Newt said on Sunday was actually pretty reasonable. Newt got burned as Speaker, he knows what "going too far" means, and he was attempting to nicely say this to the Republicans. His position on Ryan's plan is that most of it is fine, but that you shouldn't force people into the new plan, instead entice them to sign up because they see it as a better plan. This is how we got Medicare Advantage, remember. His criticism was really that Ryan's plan doesn't give people a choice.

But that all got lost in the fray. The way I see it, Newt forgot he had a primary to win, and was talking how he would be if he was in the general election campaign.

The way I see it, to put it another way, is that Newt was lying later on, with all the walking back he tried to do, but that he wasn't in the first place. I don't think he misspoke, I think he committed what's called a "Washington gaffe" -- to accidentally speak the truth when political doublespeak is expected.

-CW

That sounds pretty straightforward: 'I misspoke, and then corrected it. If anyone claims the mistake represents my position, they're lying.'

"I just hope the lamestream media won't twist my words by repeating them verbatim."

Even that can be parsed as reasonable: 'I said something ambiguous. Quoting it without explanation sounds like ____, but as I have made clear elsewhere, the other meaning is the one I intended.'

There's a reason that politicians never say anything but prepared talking points. Real human speech contains errors and ambiguities, and our political theater has no tolerance for either.

Yes, Newt was lying. It wasn't a mis-statement. It was a prepared talking point that didn't play well. But would it have been tolerated any better if it had been an error?

http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2011/05/18/a-brief-history-of-the-end-of-time/?mod=google_news_blog

My pick would have been Huckabee. But he's no longer in it to win it, so its all quite unclear.

Was hoping you'd post on this topic. I almost hate to say it but there's several things about this that seem sad to me:

1. You can't even have a conversation about healthcare from the right unless you tow the most extreme line.

2. I genuinely am starting to lament the fact that there seem to be no viable conservative candidates in the upcoming election. Its almost as if the Republican party has decided that they would rather have Obama as President because he makes a great enemy. Or something. Idunno. Its hard for me to understand how they can't come up with someone who is a more attractive candidate.

3. Politico really does not like Newt: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0511/55125.html

4. Gingrich did a better job than most progressives I've seen describing Ryan's ideas on privatizing Medicare: right-wing social engineering. I give credit where credit is due.

Sad, sad, sad
-David