Sowell: “Dwelling on the former speaker’s “baggage” won’t help the nation’s future.”

Wow, this is a must read. It’s hard to even grab excerpts from Sowells piece since it’s so well stated.

But how much weight should we give to this stuff when we are talking about the future of the nation? This is not just another election, and Barack Obama is not just another president whose policies we may not like. With all of President Obama’s broken promises, glib demagoguery, and cynical political moves, one promise he has kept all too well. That was his boast on the eve of the 2008 election: “We are going to change the United States of America.”

Sowell, like Rush, has the rare gift of seeing the forest through the trees. Having perspective, able to see the big picture.

Many Americans are already saying that they can hardly recognize the country they grew up in. We have already started down the path that has led Western European nations to the brink of financial disaster.

Internationally, it is worse. A president who has pulled the rug out from under our allies, whether in Eastern Europe or the Middle East, tried to cozy up to our enemies, and bowed low from the waist to foreign leaders certainly has not represented either the values or the interests of America. If he continues to do nothing that is likely to stop terrorist-sponsoring Iran from getting nuclear weapons, the consequences may be beyond our worst imagining.

Against this background, how much does Newt Gingrich’s personal life matter,

Yet we are falling all over ourselves floundering in the tabloid media trap of comparing our candidates to perfection, rather than to the danger Obama represents to our country.

While the televised debates are what gave Newt Gingrich’s candidacy a big boost, concrete accomplishments when in office are the real test. Gingrich engineered the first Republican takeover of the House of Representatives in 40 years — followed by the first balanced budget in 40 years. The media called it “the Clinton surplus” but all spending bills start in the House of Representatives, and Gingrich was speaker of the House.

Speaker Gingrich also produced some long-overdue welfare reforms, despite howls from liberals that the poor would be devastated. But nobody now claims that they were.

There are nearly zero mentions of Gingrich’s accomplishments in office. If Bill Clinton can claim all the glory, why not give credit to Gingrich? Don’t these type of accomplishments start w/ the speaker in the house?

Did Gingrich ruffle some feathers when he was speaker of the House? Yes, enough for it to cost him that position. But he also showed that he could produce results….When you don’t accomplish much, you don’t ruffle many feathers. But is that what we want?

Coburn and the rest of the namby pamby GOP DC elites who came out after Gingrich basically calling him mean, should be ashamed of themselves. They made themselves look foolish. Meanwhile Coburn was boasting how nice Pelosi was. I haven’t heard Coburn apologize and admit his mistake for that.

Show me a leader who aspires to be liked and I’ll show you a LOSER. She me a leader who aspires to be respected and I’ll show you President Gingrich.

Those who want to concentrate on the baggage in Newt Gingrich’s past, rather than on the nation’s future, should remember what Winston Churchill said: “If the past sits in judgment on the present, the future will be lost.” If that means a second term for Barack Obama, then it means we’ve lost, big time.

A voice of reason, Sowell, like Rush, sees the big picture. Exactly as Gingrich does, after he put in the time to learn the lessons of history and able to take it to the most dangerous president we have had. A rare combination of knowledge, ability, and cohones.

http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/286226/gingrich-s-past-our-future-thomas-sowell?pg=1