Maggie's Farm

I don't condone Newt's philandering - during the Clinton administration or any time - but to equate what he did to what Clinton did is more than a stretch. Did Newt lie to a grand jury? Did he try to get others to officers of the court for him? Did he risk and eventually put the government through an impeachment partially to try to fix a lawsuit with Paula Jones? They were both philanderers but only one broke the law because of it and it wasn't Newt.

Your point about any difference between the way Newt talks and how he would govern is well taken.

I'm not clear on exactly what he did for Freddie Mac. If he anything to do with lending money to people who couldn't afford to pay it back, that would put him in a similar camp to Barnie Frank, but if what he did was not related to the disastrous policies they followed, then you are painting him and all the other honest employees and contractors that worked there with the same brush as Barnie Frank deserves. I'm not sure what your problem about his personal gain is...

Who is more immature - Clinton for refusing to have him sit with him or Newt for complaining about it?

For the record, I have been a big fan of Newty in the past, but I admit to some trepidations about his running for president. Also for the record, I do not subscribe to the line of thought that Obummer is likely to win again. To the contrary, I think he is likely to be beaten by almost any of the Pubbie field. The issue is what kind of president are we going to end up with after Jan. 2012.

I remember feeling pretty much the same way in 1980. Reagan seemed way out there. Carter was a disaster. Anderson seemed to stand for the middle ground and at the time, I wished we had better choices (to be honest, I don't remember who I voted for). I feel somewhat the same now.

Of course, the problem with Newty isn't his positions as much as his way latching on to the latest fad sometimes (e.g. Global Warming) and he's not as conservative as I'd like. I think it is possible that he could be a great president but it is also possible he could be much less than great. I think it's unlikely that he'll be worse than Obummer.

Our form of government - in fact all democratic forms of government - doesn't insure you get to vote for the best guy but for the better guy.

I like Ron Paul for his domestic/economic policies, but his foreign policies scare me. He says we are to blame for the Islamists being mad at us because we put bases in Saudi Arabia. My first question is what would Paul have done about Iraq's invasion of Kuwait? As Iraq massed troops on the Saudi border? That is the reason for our bases in Saudi Arabia in the first place. Second, does he actually believe that those Islamist nut cases who are hell bent on a global Caliphate care what we do (other than convert to Islam/Sharia)?

And who are these "experts".

Islamist dreams of a global Caliphate are not new and they are well documented. These experts would still have to decide what to do about Iraq vis a vis Kuwait. I suppose allowing Saddam to take over Saudi Arabia and Kuwait would be acceptable so that we didn't piss off some jihadist loons.