Honest Abe The Newt

by tristero

So, Newt Gingrich wants to be president because, get this, he thinks he can be the new Lincoln:

In casting himself as the reluctant but critical-for-these-times candidate, the former history professor is looking back to 1860, and the wildfire support for Lincoln’s candidacy touched off by a series of speeches…. “I was fascinated by Holzer’s portrait of Lincoln spending three months at the Springfield state library, putting together the definitive argument about the Constitution, the Founding Fathers and slavery,” Gingrich says.

“He turns it into a 7,300-word speech – gives it once in New York, once in Rhode Island, once in Massachusetts, once in New Hampshire. Then he goes home. I was struck by the sheer courage of the self-definitional moment that said, ‘We are in real trouble, we need real leadership, and if that’s who you think we need, here’s my speech’,” Gingrich says, suggesting he intends to do the same thing.

So can we look forward to the 21st version of such immortal phrases as “the mystic chords of memory,” or “a house divided cannot stand,” or “the last best hope on earth?”

Well, Newt gives us a preview. When asked if he is running for president, Gingrich replied:

‘I’m going to tell you something, and whether or not it’s plausible given the world you come out of is your problem’ …. ‘I am not ‘running’ for president. I am seeking to create a movement to win the future by offering a series of solutions so compelling that if the American people say I have to be president, it will happen.’

What command of the language! What magnanimity of spirit! What perspective on his own ambitions!

Now if he’d only grow a beard, lose 250 pounds, buy those shoes with humongous soles teenage girls wear to make him 6’5″ – what else would he need? A brain and a heart, you say? Oh, don’t be snarky.

Sigh. It truly is amazing the slime that has access to the mainstream discourse these days.

(Btw, simply because Gingrich totally mangled Lincoln at Cooper Union, don’t prejudge the book. I read it when it came out and as I recall, it’s actually very good. )