Roger L. Simon makes the case for Newt.

Newt Gingrich was never my first choice.  That would have been Sarah Palin.

Without her, I would prefer Rick Perry, as he has been an excellent and successful Governor, and I truly believe would be a fine President.  But, debating just ain't his thing (although I've yet to see a correlation between debating skill and the ability to actually do the job) and at the moment it appears less and less likely that he will succeed to the nomination (although it's still early yet;  the election is eleven months away).

Roger L. Simon is doing a pretty good job of making me take a longer and harder look at Newt (in Explaining Newt), noting (emphasis mine) ...

What attracts me about the man is the very thing that Romney criticized, the part that wants to explore the moon and stars, maybe even mine them.

Sure Gingrich has an idea a minute, many of which are bad, but at least he has ideas. At least he is thinking. And — guess what — he says what he thinks. Politicians aren’t supposed to do that.

But Gingrich reminds me more of a Steve Jobs or a Richard Branson than he does of a politician, and that is a good thing because politicians these days are the kind of people that make me want to bang my forehead against the desk.

For my part, one thing I like about Newt is that he is a fighter (and not a doormat to anyone taking a cheap shot at him), responding "Bring it on!" to Nancy Pelosi's threat to release a lot of dirt about him from House investigations (she backed off when it was pointed out to her that such action would result in an investigation of her conduct), and responding in one debate to Mitt Romney's characterization of him as a "career politician", "Let's be honest; the only reason that you're not a career politician is that you lost to Ted Kennedy in 1994."

I'm quite aware that, a few months back, I said similar things about Perry (and still hope that he will try fighting again;  if you're going to run, then RUN!!!).

But, where Newt's concerned; I truly believe that he will campaign as if he's actually trying to win the office, and not just going through the motions.

And if that last part sounds like a slap at someone, then so be it!

In 2008, Sarah Palin seemed to be the only one on the GOP side actually running.  If McCain had made that kind of effort, our country would likely be a hell of a lot better off now.

If only...

-