Mitt vs. Newt

Son of a Politician!

Now, Romney goes negative on Gingrich, calling him (horrors!) a politician! This from the son of a prominent Governor of Michigan and presidential candidate in 1968. Mitt Romney himself has been Governor of Massachusetts, a candidate for the Senate from Massachusetts in a serious challenge to Ted Kennedy that got a lot of national attention, and a guy who has been running for president himself for at least four years, and really, much longer than that. Gingrich, to his credit and our relief, has at least been out of politics the last ten years. (He, ahem, sort of had to because of ethical issues and because his reputation had been trashed for his breaches of "family values" as he was going after President Clinton for his).

I really wish I could like Romney. He is the best of the Republican field (with the exception of Huntsman). But he seems so desperate to be president he will say things and take positions that are against his better self. I would love to see the old Romney successful. I really liked him as the moderately progressive governor of Massachusetts. I really liked the legacy of his dad who truly was an old-style progressive Republican and perhaps, the last of the Republicans who promoted civil rights for African-Americans.

Newt Gingrich isn't bad because he's a politician. He's just bad. There are so many things to go after him on, I can't figure why Romney would pick something that seems so trivial and poses as much of a problem for him and only becomes worse when he pretends he isn't what he accuses of Gingrich. I'm sure he think he gets some traction with the Republican base and a majority of Americans who don't really like "politicians," but Mitt, get a grip!

It's like Romney is getting really bad advice or just has bad political instincts himself. Of maybe they are just the typical instincts of a "politician" who will say or do anything to win. He is playing to the base emotions and the worse impulses of his party's base - promoting torture, war against Islamists, anti-immigrant amnesty, anti-tax, anti-government, pro-anything that makes the President look bad or like "the other," etc., etc.

Well, have fun on that other side, guys (and gal). The more infighting you do, the better our President looks. Gingrich is a smart enough politician to at least to warn against that infighting in some of the past debates. We'll see how he does as he moves forward as "front runner" in the polls as a challenge to Romney. His political instincts can get him pretty down and dirty as we've seen in the past.

The biggest surprise of all, even maybe for Gingrich, is that I think all he wanted to do was get a little more attention and sell a few more books. Now, he thinks he really is a contender.