Being that it is eighteen months out from the Presidential election, now's the time to start talking candidates. We've resisted as long as we could because as soon as Mr. Obama was elected, it seemed as though Meet The Press began talking 2012, which we found counterproductive. However, we at that time where it is the focus and today's program started with the first installment of the "Meet The Candidate" interview with newly declared candidate Mr. Newt Gingrich.
At the top of the program, Mr. Gregory reported that on his Fox News show, Mr. Mike Huckabee announced that he would not be running for President. Mr. Huckabee said that 'all the factors say go, but my heart says no.' Sifting through the comments during the round table, it's very obvious whey Mr. Huckabee decided not to run. Matt Bai, New York Times Magazine Editor, commented that he's making good money and doesn't want to go through the gauntlet of running for President. At this point, Mr. Huckabee is a showman. At the end of the tape of Mr. Huckabee (Mr. Gregory nicely noted that he drew out the announcement leaving it to the end of the show), there was a statement from Donald Trump, a person apt to speaking uncomfortable truths. He said that 'your show's ratings are great, you're building a house in Florida...' Mr. Huckabee is comfortable, and as Peggy Noonan said, no one wants to be the guy that loses to Obama. After the election, Mr. Huckabee's show will probably be canceled, we predict.
Some in the more liberal end of the media noted that Fox News has employed several would-be Republican candidates as commentators and show hosts, essentially giving them free airtime to explain their views, which would violate the Fair Elections act, if in fact any of them had already declared. It seems like a technicality. However, what happen in practice was that Fox News threw money at these people and they all got comfortable, with the except of Newt Gingrich who has been in politics long before the rise of Fox News so he used it as a vehicle unlike Mr. Huckabee or Mrs. Palin as she has not declared yet either way who both used it as an ends.
By far, Mr. Gingrich is the best orator in the Republican field so far. He started the interview saying that we're at a crossroads in American History and the 2012 election will define the next half century. There is some truth to that statement but keep in mind that Mr. Gingrich, if you know him at all, has a flare for the dramatic. However, if Barack Obama does win reelection and if the Affordable Health Care act, which takes full effect in 2014 is liked by the majority of Americans, then there is no going back from it. That's a legitimate fear for Republican ideologues, of which Mr. Gingrich is one.
However, for Mr. Gingrich to be the Republican nominee, he relies on the collective, selective memory of the American people, and it's a two-fold bet. In one instance, he's asking social conservatives to forget that he's married to his third wife and that he was having an affair while advocating impeachment of President Clinton for having an affair - that's on the personal side. He asked for people to look at him for who he is today, and that is of an image of a married, devout Catholic man, by his own explanation adding that he had matured. Mr. Gregory sometimes take flak for jabs that he throws out there, but that's a strength that we like. In commenting on 'maturing,' he pointed out that when Mr. Gingrich was involved in the indiscretions, he was 55 years old. Sometimes interviews need to be pugilistic and having a good jab always helps.
From a more national perspective when talking about spending, he gave the example of the kids running up the credit card and you're just going to bail them out? Republicans, and in this case Mr. Gingrich, are hoping that Americans will forget that it was under the Bush Administration that the Treasury Secretary went to the White House and asked for $780 billion for the banks. And what did the Administration do? They bailed them out. For the record, it's not the decision to bail them out that is at issue - it was something that absolutely had to be done. It's the not owning up to the responsibility of the decision that is disingenuous on behalf of some Republicans now.
Wall Street Journal columnist, Peggy Noonan had more praise-worthy comments for Mr. Gingrich saying that when he was being interviewed, the green room was silent - he's a man that makes people listen. She also said that 19 and 20 year-olds don't know Mr. Gingrich's past so in that way he's somewhat new. This is more of an example, one in a long line, of how Ms. Noonan doesn't understand younger voters and what their attitudes are, the majority of which have more progressive attitudes.
New York Times White House Correspondent, Helene Cooper, did note that Mr. Gingrich was more disciplined in his comments, but it's whether he can maintain it that is in question. With that in mind, Mr. Gingrich has framed Mr. Obama as the food stamp President, and explained that statement on the program. Instead of food stamps, Mr. Gingrich is advocating for pay checks. We think it's great the Mr. Gingrich is taking about jobs and getting pay checks in more people's hands, but he also explained that to get there we need less regulation and lower taxes to create jobs. However, the fact remains that 25 years into this line of thinking hasn't produced the prosperity that Republicans describing. Trickle-down Economics, safe to say, hasn't worked.
What we also found downright funny, and this should give you great insight into Mr. Gingrich's character is that when Mr. Gregory said to him that economists on both sides of the aisle say that some sort of tax revenue is needed, to which he said that they don't know what they're talking about because they're working within the Washington DC dynamic, hence not seeing the larger picture. Frankly, the statement was so stupid and basically said nothing so why would it be challenged?
And then there are the 'Obama, Ant-American' comments, and 'Kenyan Anti-Colonial,' conversations, to which Mr. Gingrich said that he was discussing a book that someone had written and those comments were in that context. So what he is asking of us is that we should disqualify those comments because they were taken out of context. We're getting tired of that excuse, and in this case, whether in that context or not, those interpretations were his. He also said that Mr. Obama doesn't believe in American 'Exceptionalism.' What does that even mean? And even if you believe in the notion of exceptionalism - to be exceptional is to act exceptional, which this country has, but lately - i.e. the last decade - it was called into question.
It's like you have to cut through all that bullsh*t (our apologies but there's no other way to phrase it) first and we haven't even really gotten to the issues - that's a problem for his candidacy. For example, he said that he was against [employment] legislation that threaten right to work states. He mentioned it almost in passing but it's significant because what he is saying is that he would side with legislation that can break up union employment. For laymen, that means he's on the side of Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, so you can make the decision from there.
Also, his positions are health care seem to be a little muddy. On Meet The Press in 1993, Mr. Gingrich told Tim Russert that he was for the individual mandate and voucher system, but that what he was advocating then, which he still backs, is different from the individual mandate in the Affordable Health Care Act now. Ms. Cooper reminded us that the Tea Party Republican movement was partially founded on opposition of the individual mandate. And while opposing 'Obamacare,' as he framed it, he said that Congressman Paul Ryan's plan was 'too big of a jump.' Mr. Gingrich knows that seniors vote, but then said that a range of choices should be designed by the economy, which could be interpreted in a number of ways, but it would seem to say that health care would be predominantly privatized if it's relying on market factors. That's one way of looking at it.
Mark Halperin, from Time Magazine, thought that Mr. Gingrich shouldn't be underestimated. However, later during the round table, Mr. Gregory was showing odds on Republican candidates that Mr. Halperin himself constructed, and verbally noted that Mitt Romney was at 3 to 1 while Mr. Gingrich was at 40 to 1. The Washington Post's E.J. Dionne summed it up by saying that this is the most unsettled Republican field since 1940. Well, we'll take his word for it because what we do know is that FDR was President and we don't know who lost to him in the election, nor do we care.
For now, we'll leave it there.
Round Table: Columnist for the Washington Post, EJ Dionne; columnist for the Wall Street Journal, Peggy Noonan; senior political analyst for Time Magazine, Mark Halperin; White House Correspondent for the New York Times, Helene Cooper; and chief political writer for the New York Times Magazine, Matt Bai.
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