You know Newt -- the candidate who preaches the benefits of personal responsibility; who thinks nine year old kids should mop the floors of their grade schools to teach them job skills; who thinks Occupy protesters should just take a bath and get a job (as if it were that easy to get a job these days); who thinks, because of his supposed enormous brain power, he can skip all those mundane rules lesser candidates must obey.
No, it was because he could not find 10,000 people, including at least 400 from each of the state's eleven congressional districts, who were willing to sign his petitions. This is pretty basic stuff. I've worked on a lot of political campaigns over the years, including ballot petition drives. It's not rocket science, but it does require you to organize a cadre of people at shopping malls and other places where people gather and actually ask fellow citizens to sign up.
So, when the Republican Party of Virginia released its finding the other day that Gingrich failed to qualify for the primary ballot, you might expect the candidate of personal responsibility, who so often talks of his own competence and, indeed, brilliance, to admit he had screwed up. But you would be wrong.
No, this wasn't Newt's fault. It was the fault of a "failed system," as his campaign announced. The candidate who is so much smarter than the rest of us -- ask him, he'll tell you -- couldn't possibly be so incompetent as to fail at such a simple task. That's the kind of thing an ordinary, simple person might get wrong. Certainly a brilliant man, a man so often compared (at least by Gingrich himself) to Washington, Lincoln, and Churchill couldn't be this inept.
No worries, they'll organize a write-in campaign to get on the ballot. After all, according to the Gingrich campaign, "Voters deserve the right to vote for any top contender, especially leading candidates." But wait, that's against the rules, too. Virginia election law states, "No write-in shall be permitted on ballots in primary elections." You might think a genius running for the highest office in the land would know that.
Life is so unfair. If only those Virginia election officials could see it's Newt's destiny to lead the free world, they would ignore petty requirements designed for lesser individuals. This setback was, in the words of the Gingrich campaign, equivalent to the attack on Pearl Harbor. Seriously.
Of course, when you're talking about a candidate who plans to arrest judges who dare to disagree with him, this is really pretty small stuff. When you campaign on a platform of throwing the Constitution in the toilet, ignoring a few election laws is hardly even worth the mention. Until, of course, those little laws keep you from your self-inflated destiny.
Life's a bitch, isn't it, Newt?
My problem with Newt isn't his innate intelligence, but rather, his tenure in government. He is, IMO, pure establishment.
ReplyDeleteIn short, he's part of the problem.
Sadly, the offerings for the next presidential election are really, pitifully, meager.