Give It Up, Newt, You’ll Never be POTUS

Former House Speaker and American(-Israeli?) Likudnik Newt Gingrich is apparently using the crisis with North Korea to launch his 2012 presidential campaign.

In a recent discussion with Politico readers via a live reader chat on the news site’s forum, Gingrich – also known as The Grinch to his fervent admirers on the Left – blasted President Obama, saying his response to the recent North Korean missile launch was a “vivid demonstration of weakness in foreign policy.” He went on to describe the commander-in-chief’s call for nuclear arms reduction as, “a dangerous fantasy that runs an enormous risk. ... Not since Jimmy Carter have we had an administration this out of touch with reality.”

During the online conversation, Gingrich also backed former Vice President Dick Cheney’s recent claim that the Obama administration’s terrorism policies were making Americans less safe. “Dick Cheney is clearly right in saying that between the court decisions about terrorists and the administration actions, the United States is running greater risks of getting attacked than we were under President Bush,” said the former Republican congressman.

“Now we no longer have a ‘global war on terror. We have ‘overseas contingency operations’ Now we will no longer have ‘terrorist attacks.’ We will have ‘man-made disasters.’ None of our enemies seem to have learned this new language.

“There was amazing symbolism in North Korea deciding to launch a missile the very day President Obama was speaking to Europeans about his fantasy of nuclear disarmament. The West has talked with North Korea for over 15 years and they just keep building nuclear weapons and missiles. We have been talking with the Iranians for a decade and they continue to build nuclear capability and missiles.

“Pakistan has a lot of nuclear weapons. Russia, India and China have nuclear weapons. Hamas in Gaza fires missiles into Israel virtually every day. In this reality, our president proposes we have a big meeting in Washington to discuss nuclear disarmament.”

When one reader pointed out that former president and conservative icon Ronald Reagan also proposed mutual reductions in nuclear weapons, Gingrich responded by saying, ”Ronald Reagan believed we had to have a missile defense system to stop any country from breaking free and blackmailing other countries. Reagan was also talking at a time when there were only five nuclear powers (the Soviet Union, China, France, Britain, the United States).

“Reagan would have been much more skeptical about a plan in an age of North Korean, Iranian and Pakistani nuclear developments. How do you apply his slogan of ‘trust but verify’ in dictatorships you can't trust and can't verify?

"Reagan felt that keeping a defensive shield alive was more important than a paper deal. The Obama administration is rapidly undermining our missile defense system while describing a fantasy world of trust and cooperation.”

Gingrich also took shots at Obama’s handling of the auto industry crisis, saying, “The concept of the president of the United States or the Secretary of the Treasury dictating the firing of the head of General Motors is an extraordinary extension of government power. ... The directed rewriting of the Justice Department career lawyers' opinion that the District of Columbia representation bill was unconstitutional is another example of the rule of politicians replacing the rule of law. There is a lot to be concerned about.”

Okay, I’ve had enough of this malarkey. Give it up, lizard. Obama may be no Abraham Lincoln, but there is no way in hell the American people will elect you as their commander-in-chief.

If conservatives make this philandering hypocrite their standard-bearer in ’12, then they have absolutely no principles or integrity. Not that it matters. Newt has always struck me as one of those people who may run for the big job one or more times, but never makes it. And Thank Dumblefore for that, because, more than anyone else, The Grinch would make this country less safe.