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Monday, October 01, 2007
Rich Galen :: Townhall.com Columnist
Newt's Non-Run
by Rich Galen
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Des Moines, Iowa - My Newt credentials are pretty well known, but for those who might have come in late here is a brief summary:

* Public Affairs Director of the NRCC - responsibility for working with Newt, 1982.

- Press Secretary to the House Republican Whip, 1989.

- Ran the press operation for election night, 1994.

- Communications Director for the Speaker's Political shop, 1996.

- Executive Director of GOPAC, 1998.

* To name some of the high spots.

* When I signed on with Fred Thompson there were bloggers - and reporters - who claimed that act was evidence that Newt was not going to run for President. I said that was the pundi-cratic equivalent adding 2 and 2 and coming up with Pi because I had never discussed with Newt his plans for running - or not running - for President in 2008.

* There is a huge difference between being a potential candidate for President and an actual candidate for President.

* On Friday, to review the bidding, Newt's office sent out an advisory directing reporters to a Monday briefing with Newt's Lawyer, Randy Evans, in Atlanta who would be laying out the plan for a one-month evaluation into the feasibility of Newt raising $30 million to finance a race for President.

* On Saturday morning, Newt announced he would NOT be running for President.

* Prior to this past weekend's Newtonian weirdness, whenever I was asked about Newt running I said more-or-less the same thing:

Newt has stated he has a continuing interest in "framing the debate" among the Presidential candidates and there is no one (with the possible exception of Bill Clinton) who, by simply making a statement on a Sunday morning news program, can force Republican and Democratic candidates to respond to an idea.

So long as he remained a potential candidate, Newt would be called upon by Russert, Schieffer, Stephanopoulos, et. al. to use his impressive intellectual and analytical skills to talk about large issues. Continued...
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About The Author

Rich Galen has been a press secretary to Dan Quayle and Newt Gingrich. Rich Galen currently works as a journalist and writes at Mullings.com

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Reply # 1
Date: Oct 3, 2007 - 7:00 AM EST
Strategy for a Stronger America
I do not believe anyone here has see this. If it is not the most ridicules or the greatest I you will ever see coming form the Republican Party, I do not know anything. If one-third is true, it will be hard to ignore.

http://www.mittromney.com/strongeramerica

If this is true then nobody has a chance once this gets out.

Just Wondering. He has amazing vision.

18 "Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he."
(Proverbs 29:18)
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Reply # 2
Date: Oct 2, 2007 - 11:36 PM EST
for Eben
Eben asks: "The party is divided. Perhaps the best question is just who can unite it?"

I am supporting Rudy so let me try to answer you this way:

The way you can unite the party is for ALL factions to be willing to accept some compromise and give-and-take.

With Rudy as the front-runner for the GOP nomination, this time we social moderates are NOT going to just passively accept yet another 100% social-conservative platform from the religious-right Christian evangelicals without a fight. With Rudy and his convention delegates, we've got leverage now.

Rudy wants very much to compromise:
Rudy is opposed to partial-birth abortion. Rudy isn't pushing for full gay marriage.

It's the pro-life Christian evangelicals who have rebuffed all attempts at compromise. If they would accept SOME (not all) of the Rudy language on social issues, they and the Rudy forces could start to pull the party together.

The alternative is that you just have to hope that Rudy gets clobbered so much in the primaries that his delegates aren't even a significant force at the GOP convention. Good luck with that.
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