Gingrich "Gripping & Grinning"

As much as I've always liked Newt Gingrich, there was a time - 2008, for example - when even I realized that he was perhaps too toxic to be a candidate for president. Still saddled unfairly with the false stigma of wanting to "kill Medicare", it seemed that Newt would have been a drag on the Republican party's chances of succeeding George W. Bush.

At the time, I never imagined that John McCain would win the nomination, but even then it seemed more unimaginable that Barack Whatshisname had a prayer of becoming president at all. With a past shrouded in mystery, what little we did know about Obama suggested no acumen or experience that would guide him to the Oval Office. Well, look at us now.

The man running our country seems hell-bent on our demise - barely concealing the contempt that half us knew was there prior to his election - and yet enjoying adulation in lieu of scrutiny from the press. The few organizations and individuals that actually sound the alarm bells are cast as dangerous heathens, the serious message dismissed out of hand.

Thankfully the ranks of the dismayed have expanded well beyond talk radio hosts and Internet news outlets, spawning the Tea Party movement and, now, emboldening potential 2012 contenders to speak up. Heaven knows our current Republican representatives have been more than timid in their opposition to the Obama, Reid and Pelosi agenda.

With Obama spearheading the radical transformation of America, he immediately set out to create the impression that this nation is just like any other, no better and no worse, which is undoubtedly how he and his wife have viewed it. His early Forgive Us Our Trespasses tour, in which he winged around the world in order to apologize and bow to foreign leaders, was the beginning.

He then accelerated an insane spending spree, the likes of which are unprecedented, and perpetrated a government takeover of private businesses. His economic policies have stifled job growth, he has raised taxes, broken promises, and quarterbacked a hurry-up offense in legislation, all the while claiming to be doing "the peoples' work" despite the fact that more than half of the people kept shouting "NO!" and "STOP!".

He has coddled our enemies while alienating our allies, ignoring the taunts of North Korea and Iran while chastising and ostracizing Israel and Great Britain. His treatment of his counterparts has been an embarrassment, to put it mildly, and would be laughable if they weren't so sad.

Now he has ordered the term "Islamic jihad" removed from threat assessments, telegraphed our intent to remain passive when attacked, and cavalierly announced that we'll be severely reducing our defense capabilities. Apparently he sees no threats from without, but seems more than eager to attack as potentially dangerous the Tea Parties and Fox News, Rush Limbaugh or Glenn Beck. History has shown that tyrants typically engage their critics on such a personal and intimate level.

So it is with pleasure that I now see Newt Gingrich dipping his toes in the campaign waters in New Orleans. If ever the time was right for a serious contender in 2012, it is now. Perhaps Newt knew this in 2008 as well, although I'd wager he never expected the need now to be as crucial as it is.

There is already speculation of a Gingrich/Palin ticket emerging in the near future. Sarah would need some heavy exposure as a competent leader as governor of Alaska, and it's doubtful the New York Times or Newsweek would offer any help; or truth.

But Gingrich, along with whomever should be his running mate, is emerging as the right man at the right time. Whatever toxicity there may have been has dissipated. Combined with the obvious disaster that has been inflicted upon us, the triad of Obama, Reid and Pelosi has infuriated so many people that whatever attacks they may level at Gingrich leading up to 2012 will likely be largely ineffective.

There is also the great possibility that Obama will be damaged beyond repair when forced to deal with a hostile Congress for the last two years of his reign. Newt, I hope you hear us. We need you desperately.

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A Belated Apology To Grandpa

I read something today that is not a new concept to me but rather a reminder of what we used to be, a reverie of a society nearly forgotten in the span of just a few generations. It was a stern admonition not only to the president, but to all of us who have squandered the sacrifices of our elders, and we are all guilty to one degree or another.

What I read was a letter to President Obama from a 95-year-old man who joined the Navy in 1934 and retired a Master Chief Bos'n Mate after serving through WWII. In the letter the author tells the president, "Take a little advice from a very old geezer, young man.
Shape up and start acting like an American." Those two sentences set me about the task of writing this mea culpa.

I will have the memory of the United States Hockey Team beating the USSR team in the 1980 Olympics - despite the overwhelming odds - with me for the rest of my life. While a sporting event might sound a bit superficial, one would have to have experienced the event to understand. This was an accomplishment achieved before the concept of victory was stripped from our souls, before "equality" became something bestowed by government and not by God. For while it is true that all men are created equal, what we do with our lives from birth inherently involves a divergence from that bar. We do not ever remain equal.

There is the segment of society who - for whatever inexplicable reason - have deliberately and perhaps permanently altered our trajectory in history, and have smashed the gifts bestowed upon us by our predecessors like petulant children on Christmas morning who did not get exactly what we wanted. Perhaps just as painful a realization is that we did so without regard to our benefactors who - seeing what we have done to such a thoughtful gift - must be conflicted between righteous anger and bewildered pain.

But it is the rest of us who complain today of the damage we have witnessed who may bear most the burden of guilt, for it was we who allowed it to happen. To be certain it was not by deliberate cooperation but more so by acquiescence. Just as the mightiest cliff is eventually worn to sand by even the most gentle of waves, it is the unwavering persistence of the water that ultimately wins, and our societal composition has paid the ultimate price.

Our moral structure was slowly and steadily eroded via the patient redefinition by the left who have succeeded in convincing us all that discrimination is wrong. We capitulated, eager to be seen as culturally sophisticated beings, and the door was unlocked, when all we had to do was to point out that every simple choice is literally an exercise in discrimination. But we obediently fell aside.

From there, we allowed ourselves to be overcome like a sinking island, the shoreline creeping further inland so slowly that we barely noticed. We accepted behavior that once evoked in us utter revulsion because we wanted to avoid being cast as intolerant. What has happened, however, is that we conceived our own victimization, as our views have now become the target of a more insidious intolerance.

The very mindset we once considered detrimental to our nation has built for itself first a movement and developed into full-scale revolution, and we never coalesced in defense of the nation, perhaps because the enemy was so stealthy. Now, however, stealth is no longer necessary; the enemy has captured the Queen.

We have as our leader a man who may attempt to conceal his contempt for America, but it is a threadbare cloak he wears. As the gentleman responsible for this post pointed out, our president should never apologize to the world for America's very existence, and yet, he does. Our president also claims that America is "no longer a Christian nation" and declares that we are "arrogant". He bows to leaders of nations who should be grateful for our benevolence throughout our long period of ability to take whatever we wanted from the world, a time when we let the world be.

And we have as our leader a man who had the magnificent opportunity to bask in the historical moment of his election as leader of the greatest nation ever known to Mankind, a man who took that precious gift and smashed it to the ground once again. Ironically, his overtness may have been the blessing we sought from God.

As the Tea Party movement signals an unprecedented chain of events in America, it may be the vindication of all of us who have so disappointed men such as Harold B. Estes, the man who composed the letter I mentioned. Another statement in his letter was, "I am amazed, angry and determined not to see my country die before I do, but you seem hell bent not to grant me that wish." I hope that our awakening prevents this good man from outliving the country he helped to build and protect. I also pray his longevity continues sufficiently to witness the salvation I so desperately wish for. I think it is a gift he richly deserves.

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