Gingrich/Kerry Debate

I'm somewhat embarrassed to say that I watched quite a bit of this two hour debate between John Kerry and Newt last night. It was striking, however, in a number of ways. First and foremost, the quality of the two debaters stands in shocking contrast to the idiot dauphin that inhabits the oval office. Big John never showed the side of himself that he displayed in this debate when he was on the campaign trail in 2004. If he had, he would have won, I'd guess. He was extremely well informed, spoke forcefully and made excellent points. As I remember his campaign, it was a typical Bob Shrum affair, bland beyond belief, reserved in order to spare offense to any constituency, the result of which became milquetoast.

Newt is an enigma. He, like Kerry, is very well informed and knows these issues inside and out. He fashions himself a bit of a polymath, of course, and at times comes across as pedantic. Again, though, as a prospective republican candidate, his intellect stands in stark relief to W's. That said, he's a hypocrite who shouldn't be elected dog catcher.

The one thing that makes Newt different from the pack, I think, is his willingness to reveal the cryptography of the conservative code. He translates the dog whistles and lets everyone know what so many leave unsaid. I've always been a bit confused by the Limbaugh/Hannity/WSJ position on global warming and the bare antipathy to Gore on this issue. Newt comes right out and says it.

Last night, he said that the conservative case against global climate change is completely unscientific (no big surprise for most of us on that), but is based upon fundamental tenets that trump all demonstrable fact. Conservatives find any discussion of global warming challenging because to them, the word "environment" is equated with bigger government and higher taxes. He allows that the association is Pavlovian and really supersedes any rational discussion of the science. I suppose it all goes back to the hippie notion of earth day and the green "E" stickers that defined the 70s environmental movement as well, but until Newt made the explicit connection between the Nordquist Club For Growth dogma and global climate change, I had been confused.