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Newt Gingrich: Long on Ideas, Short on Solutions

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While I’ve always been impressed with the former House Speaker Newt Gingrich’s intellect, I see him more as a philosopher than a president.

In his post yesterday which I highly (***HIGHLY***) recommend, Rick Moran offers a similar view, calling the Georgian, “one of the most brilliant conceptualists in the conservative movement.” Despite his appreciation for Gingrich’s understanding of the sweep of history and the mechanics of politics, Moran identifies Newt’s principal flaw:

Gingrich never concerns himself with solutions, believing that identifying the problems clearly and concisely is enough — at least for him. But if he wants to be a force in presidential politics, he is going to have to get used to the idea that most people prefer a candidate who can both articulate what’s wrong and propose common sense solutions to fix it. To date, Newt is more enamored with that “next mountaintop” rather than slogging along, doing the grunt work of pushing solutions forward.

In that way, the former Republican Speaker is a lot like the incumbent Democratic president.

My only quibble with Moran’s conclusion is that sometimes Newt does come up with solutions, to wit, the Contract with America. That quibble aside, Moran provides an excellent analysis of a brilliant (but flawed) man. Don’t take my word for it. Just read the whole thing!

Comments

  2. Having worked in the Congress when he was speaker, you are absolutely correct. He has great ideas, and then hands them off to others to solve. My boss was his whip in 1994, Contract with America, and he was the one given the task of beginning to implement it. Newt’s problems came when Tom DeLay stole the leadsership position.

  3. I will never forget the moment when Newt decided to cuddle with President Clinton. He immediately morphed from conservative watch dog into piddling puppy.

    Bright as he is, he has a bag of jumbled instincts which he reaches into at odd moments and chooses something labeled “stoopid.”

  6. Dan, I think Rick Moran’s labeling of Newt is off by more than a tad, it’s a bum rap and (with respect) BarryO is no Newt (or even a Jack Kemp for that matter). No way –the guy doesn’t think… he just reads a teleprompter well and can say 1000 words about any subject and sound like he knows what it’s all about.

    That ain’t Newt.

    I’ve heard Newt say, for instance, that in order to lessen foreign oil dependence we need to pursue domestic drilling and oil shale extraction, nuke, the cost-effective enviro-PC alternatives, conservation, etc. In that case, one of solutions is standing in favor of domestic drilling –he doesn’t have to bring a map to the debate with the layout for the new pipeline on it. Newt shouldn’t have to compose a 750 word essay on why nuke power is good for us. He only need point out that France gets upwards of 70% of her daily electricity from nukes and we’ve come a long way from safeless days of NH-TMI days under Prez Carter.

    I think the Newt “big thinking” is more about redirection or refocusing of the debate than on the gritty little details and he does provide solutions. Unless you’re an office holder, gritty details ain’t your province anymore but that doesn’t mean you don’t promote solutions. Newt redirects the debate toward solid solutions -as exampled above.

    I’m glad that Newt is still trying to redirect or refocus the debate toward good public policy and good solutions. Do we hear anything like that from Jim Wright? DennyHastert? TomFoley? BobDole? TrentLott? BillFrist? HowardBaker? TomDaschle? RobertByrd? GeorgeMitchell?

    Moran writes: Newt “…never concerns himself with solutions…”? It’s my experience that people who argue what the problems are usually have the solutions and answers awaiting in the other hand. Newt’s no different speaking about politics or policy; the solutions are usually just a soundbite away.