Regardless of whether you were pleased or unhappy with last night’s results, I think one thing is clear now: Newt Gingrich should not be President of the United States.
Being President requires a lot of skills. You need to be a tireless campaigner. You need management ability. You need discipline. You need to be able to articulate your positions and you need the policy chops to center your team. You need a good team of folks around you. And you also need the ability to absorb criticism – fair and unfair – without turning into a crybaby.
That’s why Newt Gingrich’s behavior yesterday, both in the press and at his speech after his 4th place finish, demonstrates he’s not fit to be President.
Yes, Newt has been subjected to some pretty harsh ads in Iowa over the last few weeks, since he flirted with frontrunner status for a week or two before Christmas. I thought this one, done by Ron Paul, was especially damaging.
That’s to be expected in a race of this caliber, isn’t it? Don’t we expect candidates to have thick skin? When you look at the kinds of things that were being said about George W. Bush or Bill Clinton at their lowest points, what Newt was subjected to was a paltry shadow of what they got on an average day.
But unlike Bush, Clinton, Obama or the other candidates up there, Newt handled it about as well as your average Jersey Shore cast member. On TV yesterday, he called Mitt Romney “a liar,” and then proceeded in his thank you speech to bash Romney. Today, at a press conference, when asked why he only congratulated Rick Santorum, Newt responded by staring at the reporter in silence, raising his eyebrows and then saying “Because I know you would be a man of great professionalism, I know that’s a rhetorical question. And a good one.”
Yes, it is a good one. Why didn’t you congratulate him, Newt? Is your skin that thin that you can’t take having your record exposed? Why throw a temper tantrum when you should be staying on message? Even the no-talent hacks on MSNBC thought his statement was odd.
To paraphrase the Godfather, this is politics, Newt. It’s not personal.
The last thing we need in the Oval Office is a man who can’t handle being attacked by his opponents. That’s part and parcel of what it means to be President. Every day millions of Americans are going to say you are doing a horrible job. Washington, Lincoln, both Roosevelts, Reagan – all the greatest presidents had people who thought they were running the country into the ground. That’s part of the job. And you can bet your bottom dollar that whatever Romney’s Super-PAC or Ron Paul is saying about Newt would be child’s play compared to what President Obama will say.
If your personality can’t take that, you’re in the wrong line of business. Newt should have taken the high road, congratulated Romney on his win, and focused on New Hampshire. But, as we’ve seen in the past, he has a tendency to whine when he doesn’t get his way.
For some folks, the results in Iowa have still not resolved the question of who should be our Republican nominee this November. But it definitely proved who it shouldn’t be: Newt Gingrich.
