SorenDayton.com

Monday night, I am going to the book Launch for the latest Newt Gingrich book. A Contract with the Earth. I think this is a big deal. Once Newt takes a position, it becomes part of the mainstream in the GOP. Not in the sense that people will start to agree with you. But instead [...]

Ralph Hallow’s Washington Times article from yesterday talked about the possibility of a Newt Gingrich candidacy.  There was an interesting paragraph:
"If this election is about money and structure, then we already know who our nominee is," said Mr. Evans, alluding to the well-organized and financed Giuliani and Romney campaigns. "If it’s about ideas and a [...]

For some good straw poll blogging, I recommend Marc Ambinder, The Fix, and Cyclone Conservative.
Well, first Newt started by pandering to the anti-immigration forces. Wasn’t he an open borders guy back in the day? Wasn’t he a hero of guest worker programs?
Mitt Romney started by confusing green beans and soybeans. Romney understands that we need [...]

Open Left’s Matt Stoller  argues here and here that there is an operative "conservative majority" in Congress right now. His basic thesis is summarized here:
In particular, this comment by Paul Rosenberg is I think accurate, as he argues that we are facing a conservative but not right-wing Blue Dog/DLC bloc combined with an anti-progressive [...]

First, he puts out an ad. Second, someone drops oppo on him in South Carolina. Basically, he used to be sensible before he started pandering. Does anyone think he is running? Why is this happening?
Ryan Sager points out how misleading the ad is:
It’s worth noting just how misleading this ad is: 15 of the 19 [...]

Dick Morris in The Hill (good upgrade…. BTW, the unpublished RSS feeds have all the articles) argues that Romney and Gingrich, both "politically dead", are blocking the rise of a conservative:
Right-wingers who would pass the litmus test … face the need to climb over the political corpses of former Speaker New Gingrich (Ga.) and ex-Massachusetts [...]

How else do you explain Newt Gingrich’s radio appearance with Dobson yesterday. He, in essence, asked for absolution from America’s Protestant Pope. Conserviatves, especially conservative Christians, like a redemption story. I still contend that George W. Bush’s alcoholism is a fundamental part of his narrative for the Christian community. Jesus saved Bush. That’s why Newt [...]

Newt Gingrich just blasted out an email, reprinted here, and several things jumped out at me:
First, Newt is wrapping himself in the banner of a conservative movement based on ideas by invoking both Reagan and Goldwater. He says, "This may be the most important CPAC since Ronald Reagan helped launch the annual gathering in 1975", [...]

This is from Draft Newt, where they have excerpts of a recent Gingrich speech on healthcare policy:
Calling himself a pro-regulation, "Theodore Roosevelt Republican," he outlined his plan for tackling child obesity: Annual school weigh-ins to identify "fat and lazy" kids. "This is very politically incorrect," he said, "but you’ve gotta get back to the moral [...]

On Friday, Rudy Giulaini and Newt Gingrich published an op-ed on Iraq in the Wall Street Journal. This was very interesting from several perspectives.
First, Rudy misplayed the Iraq issue. He came out with a statement on the President’s surge proposal relatively late. And he has not demonstrated any particular opinions on the subject. Has he [...]