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Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich (visit his site, Gingrich Productions) stops by to discuss disruptive technology, rail against big government, celebrate the rise of the states, examine the future of education, and suggest how to get Congress to promote entrepreneurs. And, of course, he also has a few thoughts on where the party goes from here. Then, National Review’s Bob Costa on the Ted Cruz contretemps and why he (Cruz, not Bob) is probably running for president, along with a whole host of other inside info from Capitol Hill. Also, Peter Robinson’s tattoo and James Lileks’ spell checker. Or lack of one.
Music from this week’s show:
Modern Man by Arcade Fire
The Ricochet Podcast opening theme was composed and produced by James Lileks.
It’s cool, EJHill.
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Solid.
Peter preaching TRUTH on the U.S. Postal Service. I don’t know about you guys, I’ve gotten more and more packages through FedEx “Smartpost” lately when ordering off Amazon. This is where FedEx does the long distance shipping and drops the package off with USPS for the USPS to deliver the package. It basically adds two days to any shipment, and I’m guessing it saves FedEx money and gets the USPS more business. Since it’s all through SuperSaver shipping, the savings aren’t passed directly to me. I’ve heard that USPS package shipping is revenue-neutral, but given that they deliver packages during the same trips as mail, I find it hard to believe that we aren’t in some way subsidizing delivery. One more small, hidden, corporate subsidy.
I always find Gingrich interesting, but he always strikes me as bombastic in his prognostications. If genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration, he needs to sweat more.
On the other hand, I must say that he is one of the VERY few Republicans who is not intimidated by the press. I have never seen anyone more adroit in coming back at the media and attacking their premises.
The Speaker’s ability at self-promotion is unparalleled in American history.
(not a criticism, just a comment)
He is also 100,000,000,000,000,000% right about the “consultant culture” and the problem with 2012.
Peter, I couldn’t agree more. That the Speaker has brains everyone knows. What so few realize is that he’s also tough, adroit, and utterly fearless.
Thanks Peter. Great name by the way.
I’m not sure whether to be captivated or infuriated by Gingrich.
Over the last few years, his answer to any challenge is to come up with a completely unexpected “third way.” Rob asks whether the GOP should go more left or right, and Gingrich answers, “into the future!”
A great response….but does it actually solve anything, or is it just intellectually seductive hand waving?
A couple of thoughts on the first half of the podcast (I had to pause it when Bob Costa came on):
I think the reason Newt is a bad candidate and not suited for gov’t work anymore is that he’s like those young guys that Peter mentions in the podcast. They see too many possibilities and enjoy the opportunities that await them to go work for the gov’t in a stale, backwater environment that is oblivious to the outside world. I was talking to a friend at the California GOP convention who’s in the startup world and we were discussing what things were coming in the next 10-15 years. My friend would then say that the political world just isn’t capable of moving at a pace fast enough to anticipate sweeping changes. They suffer from paradigm paralysis.
I’ve always felt Gingrich’s problem was his focus. You present a problem to him and he will then expound on thirty ways to tackle it.
In baseball terms, that’s a guy who’s a great bench coach. But a great manager will pick one and make the call.
It’s an “intellectual” thing. The professorial types (Carter and Obama on the left, Gingrich and on the right) want to dance around everything, show their mastery of the complex and “nuance” a subject to death.
Reagan, who knew his own mind after decades of preparation, could put it simply and straightforward. “We win, they lose” and then go out and get it done.
Let me get this straight, Rubio and staff think this immigration business will gain him some benefit from the national press? BWAAAA HaHA If he cured cancer the headline would be ‘Rubio destroys chemotherapy industry. Women minorities hardest hit’ along with a picture of a weeping nurse.
Also I’ve heard Priebus on a few radio interviews recently. He not only doesn’t have clue, he doesn’t even know where they’re kept.
We are sceee-rewed
I have to agree re Reince Priebus. He seems clueless to me and find him unconvincing.
I’ve always felt Gingrich’s problem was his focus. You present a problem to him and he will then expound on thirty ways to tackle it.
It’s an “intellectual” thing. The professorial types (Carter and Obama on the left, Gingrich and on the right) want to dance around everything, show their mastery of the complex and “nuance” a subject to death.
Is it the professorial type or the ADHD type? Or could it be the “TED” factor, in which there’s a desire to always present the most exotic ideas in the conversation, a la space colonies? I do agree, though, that there’s a lack of focus.
I wonder how much this is shared with Obama. They’re both academics. Their political careers have been legislative although Newt has had some leadership experience but he wasn’t solely responsible for making decisions.
Newt’s fundamental(!) flaw is he thinks it’s his or the government’s job to identify and promote areas of technology or modernity, rather than just allowing it to happen organically by giving people freedom and taking away less of their money.
https://www.outboxmail.com sounded pretty cool at first, but the need for “unpostmen” seems like a drag.
http://help.outboxmail.com/customer/portal/articles/984657-can-i-just-use-your-address-
We also use the “caller ID” where we don’t answer the phone and see who it is. For some reason most telemarketers or people calling from some business don’t realize that the answering message is just a recording and so they leave a message in which they keep saying, “Hello? Anyone there? Hello?” Then there’s the automated calls that are set to trigger when you answer the phone but they can’t tell the difference between an answering machine and a real person answering.
Two things struck me about this episode:
1) Judging from their usage of the term, neither the podcasters nor Gingrich apparently have any idea what “modernity” means. It has nothing to do with modern vs. “Progressives”, as I believe I heard Lileks say. Progressives are a subgroup of moderns. As I understand it, modernity refers to the secularization of time and man, and the adoption of the scientific method (to define it broadly). These days it’s not about one’s ideas being more “modern” than another’s. (For example, being for a single-payer health care does not make Obama not modern; the single-payer plan is very modern: it’s just that it’s also very bad. Being for or against single payer has nothing to do with modernity.) We are all modern men now (somebody famous said).
2) Gingrich sounds like an MSNBC “Forward” advertiser with his “modernity” mumbo-jumbo. I’m all for using technology for bettering our lives and ending outdated social ideas and institutions (e.g., the decadent university system), but Gingrich just comes off as a smart, articulate…pompous bore . He’s better as an idea man, not a candidate.
It is hard for me to listen to Gingrich critique the last presidential election when he had a chance to defeat Romney and he chose to go after him from the left with an anti-capitalist screed. And Gavin Newsome is a fraud; his modernity jag is just his attempt to find his own third-way. But he is all big government lefty under his nice new modernity paint job. Adam Carolla, a political rank amateur, took him apart on his podcast.
I listened to an Adam Carolla podcast wherein he hosted Newsome plugging his new book. I assume it was a different episode from the one you describe because Carolla was pretty polite toward Newsome in the one I heard.
Also, about Gingrich: 1) He still seems to harbor some bitterness and came off a bit small in his shots at Romney 2) Maybe its my pessimism but a lot of what comes out of Gingrich’s mouth smacks of him trying to dazzle everyone with, um…horsehockey.
Forget the Daniels interview. You can’t just watch it, it is instead a come-on to register for his mailing list that then gets you pelted with pitches to buy books and donate, etc.
If he really wanted to get a message out about new ways to do things, he’d push it out, not use it as a promotional tool.
Sorry, I can’t accept a guy who preaches about the need for new ways and creative destruction at the same time as he places ads calling those who actually created things “vulture capitalists”.
The 1994 election was a combination of the House bank scandal, shifting demographics (we retired the Blue Dog Dems in the South), and a poll-driven- not “New Thinking!”- campaign theme. That was some earth-shattering creativity.
I listened to an Adam Carolla podcast wherein he hosted Newsome plugging his new book. I assume it was a different episode from the one you describe because Carolla was pretty polite toward Newsome in the one I heard.
Carolla was polite as an interviewer, but every politically correct argument Gavin made about the lack of fathers in the black community or chain migration was slapped back at him by Carolla with plain common sense. By the end of the interview Adam was practically mocking him in a semi-polite jokey sort of way.
Completely agree! “But he’ really smart so slurp it up lesser beings.”
My dear citizens living in the twilight of the West,
At this point in space-time, we would already be entering the American renaissance had we nominated Newt Gingrich last year.
What a missed opportunity to change the course of civilizational history and embark on another American century… this one being even bigger than the last. We’ve only got one more shot at this in 2016… otherwise the Democrats will run out the demographic clock and ride a permanent majority into the post-western epoch.
– Flossy
Peter,
There are basically 3 pivotal figures since the post war era who advanced the conservative movement to what it is today: William F Buckley Jr, Ronald Reagan & Newt.
After helping Reagan get elected in a historic landslide, Newt founded the Project for a Republican Majority in the early 80’s and 12 years later he designed n led the national movement that resulted in the largest landslide sweep of congress in history in the ’94 Republican revolution, which wiped out the Democrat’s 40 year politburo. He then led the first reelected GOP majority since 1928 (that’s 68 years). As Speaker, he pushed through the most dynamic legislative reform session in modern times with the Contract, which resulted in the first and only balanced budgets since the 60’s and the largest reform of welfare in nearly two generations.
There are several things one could complain about regarding Newt… but a lack of dedication and accomplishments aren’t ones.
Sorry, I can’t accept a guy who preaches about the need for new ways and creative destruction at the same time as he places ads calling those who actually created things “vulture capitalists”. ·May 4, 2013 at 11:00pm
But Duane, you’re still missing the big point:
The whole reason for bringing up Romney’s ‘vulture capitalist’ vulnerability was to show to the primary electorate what the Obama Machine would be pummeling Mitt with by the tens of millions in the general election campaign… and they certainly did… much to our detriment.
It was also an opportunity to show how the Liberal media were insulating Romney in the primaries, knowing how weak he would be in the general election. The media quickly rushed to insulate Mitt from the ‘vulture capitalist’ attack while they viciously went after ‘anti-capitalist’ Newt… even a bunch of Republican and conservative commentators fell for it as well. The media were desperately trying to get Romney to the nomination… knowing full well that Newt would steamroll Obama by Reagan-sized proportions.
Over the last few years, his answer to any challenge is to come up with a completely unexpected “third way.” Rob asks whether the GOP should go more left or right, and Gingrich answers, “into the future!”
A great response….but does it actually solve anything, or is it just intellectually seductive hand waving? ·May 3, 2013 at 1:43am
Well, Mendel… go look at his track record in pushing through historic pro-growth, balanced budgets and reform legislation in the 90’s… which fueled a period of unprecedented growth and technological advancements… that some may consider was a moment when America went “into the future!”.
Also, look into his career-long work learning about the dysfunctions in government and the economy which led to generating the ideas, solutions and implementing the policies to resolve them.
Upon further investigation, I’d argue that you’ll be more captivated… and infuriated that he’s not president right now kicking off the American renaissance.
I’ve always felt Gingrich’s problem was his focus. You present a problem to him and he will then expound on thirty ways to tackle it. ·May 3, 2013 at 3:01am
You guys are funny. So you’re saying the guy who pushed through the most significant and sweeping legislative reform session in modern times… somehow lacks focus?
He’s the only person who successfully forced Washington to balance the budget for the first and only times since the 1960’s… and pushed through the largest reform of Washington’s dysfunctional dependency program… which put 2 out of 3 on welfare back to work.
Guys, he was run out of town by the establishments of both parties because he was too effective at reining in their power and spending playtime. I dunno where you’re getting this notion that he ‘lacks focus’ or discipline. Here in reality there are very few, if any, political figures over the last century who have accomplished more historic legislative and electoral achievements in such a short period of time than Newt.
Not quite. Go youtube/C-Span his speeches discussing government’s role in promoting technological advancements through prizes… not corporate welfare.
Sorry, I can’t accept a guy who preaches about the need for new ways and creative destruction at the same time as he places ads calling those who actually created things “vulture capitalists”. ·May 4, 2013 at 11:00pm
….. you’re still missing the big point:
The whole reason for bringing up Romney’s ‘vulture capitalist’ vulnerability was to show to the primary electorate what the Obama Machine would be pummeling Mitt with by the tens of millions …..
………….
It was also an opportunity to show how the Liberal media were ……. knowing full well that Newt would steamroll Obama by Reagan-sized proportions.
Edited 21 hours ago
Nope- this stuff gets legs and teeth when it comes from the protective cover of your own side, especially when it is flat out untrue and comprises standard left-wing anti-markets sloganeering from one whose prior claim was to be in favor of free markets and “creative destruction.”
Another example of this campaign phenomenon was Al Gore’s Willie Horton ad that prevented any successful race-mongering by the Left in the 1988 general election.
But, we get it. This is a “bit”, not serious commentary.