I hate it when people like Newt say something that I agree with

[thewayne]

"I will bet you, for most of you, you go home in the next two weeks when your members of Congress are home, and you look them in the eye and you say, 'What is your positive replacement for Obamacare?' They will have zero answer."
—Newt Gingrich to Republican National Committee meeting

We were going to attend a town hall meeting in Las Cruces next week that surely would have devolved to this topic, but my list of things changed and now it's not possible. Newt is not an idiot, he's a very savvy operator, it was kinda sad to see him reduce himself to the lowest common Teabagger denominator for the last election cycle.

Comments

[silveradept]

I wonder what the context of that remark was, whether he thought it was a good or a bad idea for those Republicans to not have an answer to what they would replace the Affordable Care Act with. I can see Newer arguing for either side of that question, and possibly both, depending on who he wants to get money from.

The Republican Party has staked their electoral victory plan on obstructing federally and then using state governments to change the rules so that they can't elect anybody but Republicans. With enough stars, they can effectively jam up the government until they get Republicans elected out of frustration, and then the snowballing begins again.

[thewayne.livejournal.com]

I don't have the full excerpt, but what is said via ABC News is pretty interesting: "“We are caught up right now in a culture – and you see it every single day – where as long as we are negative, as long as we are vicious, as long as we can tear down our opponent, we don’t have to worry, so we don’t. “This is a very deep problem,” he added. “I’m being totally candid with you.”

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2013/08/newt-gingrich-republicans-rip-obamacare-but-have-zero-answer-for-alternatives/

It's certainly a defining characteristic of how the Congressional GOP are behaving right now. It's going to be an interesting mid-term election season next year.

[silveradept]

It will be very interesting, as I'm not sure the Dems can successfully paint the Republicans as the problem.

[moiraj.livejournal.com]

I'm confused. Is he saying he approves of Obamacare?

[thewayne.livejournal.com]

I think he's phrasing it like Churchill: Obamacare is the worst form of health insurance, except for all the others.

[moiraj.livejournal.com]

I feel that while Obama is kinda sorta going in the right direction, he's going the wrong way about it.

Things I remember about Gingrich: Proposing the States build a colony on the moon by 2020. Telling Canada not to sell oil to China because he would sign a pipeline deal the day he became president. Promising to go to the UN to force all of the other countries to give their citizens the right to bear arms. So to hear something sensible from him is a shock.