The initial question of the debate from moderator John King was to Newt Gingrich regarding his second wife's accusation of an open marriage. She claims that he wanted her to stay married to him while he was having an affair with his now third wife. His response was that the accusation was false and he is tired of the media attacking Republicans. He then went on to blast the media. Well, of course he has to claim that the accusation is false. He would go down in flames if he actually admitted the truth. But, in the interest of being innocent until proven guilty, perhaps this accusation is false. But this isn't the first time he has behaved in this manner. Marianne Gingrich is Newt's second wife and was his mistress while he was married the first time. She is now claiming that he left her for another woman. Amazingly, his pattern of behavior is consistent. Is this accusation true? Considering his past behavior and his response, I believe it is true. But, since he had no room to maneuver in the topic, he deflected to something that he knew would bring him a standing ovation. Let's attack the media! The media is an easy target. No one likes the 24-hour news cycle. Everyone thinks that they frequently overstep their limits. Let's bash them as trying to take a candidate down because that is sure to bring a positive response. Amazing deflection and something for me to remember.
The other lesson from last night's debate was to see how well Speaker Gingrich confused the issue so that people forgot what was actually being said. He blamed the media for keeping decent people from running for president. His response implies that he is a decent person. But what is his definition of decency? A person with the taint of cheating on wives is not what the average person would call decent. So does that mean that decent people don't run, therefore we are forced to choose between indecent candidates including Newt Gingrich? In the end, people are wondering if Newt is delusional or if he realizes that he is also not decent but it doesn't matter because we can all agree that the media is the cause of our problems, I think. I'm not sure. He sounded good, maybe. Whatever.
But at the heart of the matter, Newt Gingrich has a shady past in regards to his personal matters. Yet he has said that he is the best conservative candidate out there. In fact, when Rick Perry finally stepped out of the race he said that he thinks Newt has the heart of a conservative reformer. Newt and Rick Santorum have been vying for the social conservatives from the beginning. Newt claims he is reformed because of his strong Roman Catholic faith and the love of his third wife, Calista. I, on the other hand, believe that Newt is attempting to dodge a bullet by baffling the people with bull and assuming that we will accept it. I learned from a master last night how to dodge difficult situations. But I also learned exactly what Newt must think of all us. He thinks we are all so ignorant that he can bob and weave and we will all be so dazzled by his prowess that we will forget just what kind of person he is. I do not want a president leading this country who assumes I am that ignorant.
A little humor regarding Newt Gingrich from Jay Leno:
"Newt Gingrich said he's afraid America will become an atheist country dominated by radical Islamists. Right. Our big problem could be religious atheists, almost as bad as pacifist warmongers. If they hook up with the communist capitalists we're screwed." —Jay Leno
