On October 18th, following one of the several hundred Republican debates, I published a tweet that set the twittersphere on fire. You'll be excused if you don't remember the tweet I'm referring to off the top of your head, because I had not yet dedicated myself to trying to take over the internet by commodifying my whimsical, yet trenchant, outlook on life. The tweet read thusly: "I think the Republicans might go with #newt." Allow me to take a second to commend myself on a tweet that truly encapsulated what twitter is all about, I combined the hashtag aesthetic with real time astute analysis.
Why did I tweet that you may ask yourself. At that point Newt had seemed to generate little traction, was dragged down by the mainly negative perception many had on him from his tenure as Speaker in the 90s. The mainstream(lamestream)media was desperately trying to find which Republican would take the mantle as the anti-Romney, going from Bachmann, to Perry, to Cain. While I still hold an affinity for Cain, I'm staunchly pro-pizza and lets just say this godfather had an offer I couldn't refuse with his 9-9-9 tax plan, I was able to cut through the media spin and recognize that none of these characters had the appropriate gravitas needed to be a serious candidate for President.
This question of gravitas was what led me to tweeting said tweet. It was clear that Romney, though he appeared the most electable, was unable to raise his support above around 25%. Romney has been running for President for something like 6 years now and he seems to be a teflon candidate, not in the sense that scandal bounces off him, but rather the support which he should arguably be gathering, is unable to coalesce for him as though he has the dispersionary force of Teflon. Herman Cain was a clearly a flavor of the week, an opportunity for Republicans to assert their civil rights bonafides. Bachmann, as a small town congresswoman, simply didn't have the national standing to run against Obama. Perry achieved the difficult task of appearing more juvenile and dumb than President Bush. Paul was good at motivating his supporters, but had little outside appeal. Santorum and Huntsman seemed to be running for vice-president. So by process of elimination I was left with Newt as the front runner, and now it seems the Republicans have come around to my thinking. Newt is not an ideal candidate he provokes a visceral hate in many voters who remember him as speaker. He's been married more time than the dude from TLC's Sister Wives. But he does have a certain gravitas, you can't write him off as a buffoon as you can many of his competitors. Look for him to capture the nomination, and be joined on his ticket by Bachmann or Cain, if he isn't sunk by scandals of his own, or perhaps New Hampshire Sen. Kelly Ayotte.
*this post was paid for by Newt Gingrich 2012, Pepsico, and viewers like you.
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