I just came back from my morning walk-with-Xm-Radio. There was nothing good on Air America or C-Span so I turned on the BBC world service. Lo and behold, "The Interview" by Carrie Gracie turned out to be of none other than Newt Gingrich, who plans to run for President in 2008.
Newt is just as much of a loon as he always was, and I disagreed with him on almost every point; but I think that we as Democrats need to be aware that he is a very convincing and eloquent speaker. This is what we need to be afraid of: because if half the country is willing to elect a man who can't utter a complete sentence, then a man who sounds like he knows what he is talking about will have major potential to cross over.
Newt laid out his platform, which included winning what he called "The long war" against the irreconcilable elements of Islam. He talked about the possibility of using force in Iran, to prevent the Iranians from getting a nuclear weapon. He seemed to suggest that there need not be any UN cooperation if such a thing were contemplated. He compared what is happening now to the Hundred Years War.
He defended the US's stance on human rights and would not brook Carrie Gracie's suggestion that we have "come down in the world" in terms of being able to lecture other countries on human rights violations.
He talked about the environment, and wanting to switch away from petrochemicals and encourage as much biodiversity as possible--so you can see where he might pick up some crossover votes with that stance, if anyone believes him. He talked about the need for reform in connection with the Abramoff scandal.
Most of all--and the thing that made it hardest to complete my walk--he sounded cool, calm, and collected. He's been outside the Bush circle, and so remains relatively unscathed by all that has gone wrong. And in terms of those 83 ethics violations that he was charged with in 1997? "Not a single one of those was proven," he claimed--it was all Democratic politicking.
Know your enemy, Sun Tzu said.