{"id":10838,"date":"2007-05-18T12:35:43","date_gmt":"2007-05-18T16:35:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/10838.html"},"modified":"2007-05-18T12:35:43","modified_gmt":"2007-05-18T16:35:43","slug":"gingrichs-ironic-assessment-of-08","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/gingrichs-ironic-assessment-of-08\/","title":{"rendered":"Gingrich’s ironic assessment of ’08"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, as usual, is disgusted. This time, he’s blasting the field of 2008 presidential candidates who, Gingrich believes<\/a>, are “demeaning the presidency” by jumping through pointless hoops.<\/p>\n

“We have shrunk our political process to this pathetic dance in which people spend an entire year raising money in order to offer non-answers, so they can memorize what their consultants and focus groups said would work,” Gingrich said.<\/p>\n

In a speech to the John Locke Foundation, a conservative think tank, the prospective Republican candidate said he will not consider running until he has created a wave of reform. […]<\/p>\n

“This idea of demeaning the presidency by reducing it to being a game show contest … is wrong for America, and I would never participate in it,” he said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In principle, I don’t entirely disagree. The process can be silly at times, and watching 10 candidates offer sound-bite answers — when they’re not raising their hands to yes\/no questions — can start to appear a little demeaning.<\/p>\n

But for Newt Gingrich to complain about politicians offering “non-answers,” crafted by “consultants and focus groups,” is rich. Good ol’ Newt practically invented<\/i> this style of politicking; it’s too late for him to complain about it now.
\n
\nGo back and take a look at this 2004 interview<\/a> with GOP pollster Frank Luntz. He and Gingrich put the “Contract with America” together thanks to the clever work of “consultants and focus groups,” who determined it would be successful. The whole point was to find rhetoric — not policies, mind you, just words that sounded good — that would propel Republican candidates.<\/p>\n

Indeed, as James Joyner noted<\/a> today, Gingrich circulated a memo called “Language: A Key Mechanism of Control” to incoming GOP freshmen, shortly after the Republican take-over in 1994. Gingrich told his army:<\/p>\n

Often we search hard for words to define our opponents. Sometimes we are hesitant to use contrast. Remember that creating a difference helps you. These are powerful words that can create a clear and easily understood contrast. Apply these to the opponent, their record, proposals and their party.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

You can go take a look at the whole list<\/a>, but the point of the memo isn’t subtle: Gingrich wanted his team to memorize the words GOP consultants and focus groups said would work.<\/p>\n

Did it work? Like a charm. As Joyner explained, Gingrich’s style contributed to creating “the current atmosphere of extreme polarization that characterizes the American political landscape.”<\/p>\n

And now Gingrich is complaining about it. The irony is rich.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, as usual, is disgusted. This time, he’s blasting the field of 2008 presidential candidates who, Gingrich believes, are “demeaning the presidency” by jumping through pointless hoops. “We have shrunk our political process to this pathetic dance in which people spend an entire year raising money in order to offer non-answers, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10838","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10838","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10838"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10838\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10838"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10838"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10838"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}