Gingrich's Plight to Appease his Base

Presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich hopes that singing sweet nothings into the ears of an angry base will be enough to earn him the GOP nomination.

Washington Post reports:

Gingrich sought to lay blame for the recession, as well as the economic and social upheaval in Detroit, on Obama and his policies. “President Obama is the most successful food stamp president in American history,” Gingrich said. “I would like to be the most successful paycheck president in American history."

First, he's just plain wrong. Income inequality and social support from the lower Socioeconomic class have been issues where Obama has alienated his base.

However, this type of political rhetoric is common during campaign season, especially during the primaries where the candidates (or pseudo-candidates in some cases) run races and take extremists positions in order to grab the nomination. The GOP race will be a fascinating exchange, but it will most likely result in a battle-weary candidate whose soundsbites from the primary will kill an opportunities at winning the independent swing vote.

And ultimately, the primaries have more to do with gossip and slander than popular policies. With Gingrich's tarnished past, he'll be fighting an uphill battle to win the social values vote. However, his publicist and political strategist concocted a brilliant explanation as to why he cheat on his wives: because he loved America too much.

“There’s no question at times of my life, partially driven by how passionately I felt about this country, that I worked far too hard and things happened in my life that were not appropriate. And what I can tell you is that when I did things that were wrong, I wasn’t trapped in situation ethics, I was doing things that were wrong, and yet, I was doing them. I found that I felt compelled to seek God’s forgiveness. Not God’s understanding, but God’s forgiveness. I do believe in a forgiving God. And I think most people, deep down in their hearts hope there’s a forgiving God. Somebody once said that when we’re young, we seek justice, but as we get older, we seek mercy. There’s something to that, I think. I feel that I’m now 67 I’m a grandfather. I have two wonderful grandchildren. I have two wonderful daughters and two great sons in law. Callista and I have a great marriage. I think that I’ve learned an immense amount. And I do feel, in that sense, that God has given me, has blessed me with an opportunity as a person. Forget about all this political stuff. As a person, I’ve had the opportunity to have a wonderful life, to find myself now, truly enjoying the depths of my life in ways that I never dreamed it was possible to have a life that was that nice.”

Only time will tell whether his base will forgive his transgressions, and if prodigal son story will pass as sincere and satisfactory for the Bible Belt.