Newt, I have grown very tiresome of the act.  Every debate you attack the moderators with or without cause.  Much to my surprise this election cycle, you have become the keeper of the conservative flame.  Last week you declared that you would be the nominee.  You stated that while you once thought the race would be between Romney and the “anti-Romney”, you now thought the race would be Newt vs. the “anti-Newt.”  In elections, confidence plays well, overt arrogance does not.

Newt, please dismount your high horse immediately, you are going to turn independents off from the entire party.  When did you begin defining what conservatism is?  When did you achieve any executive experience qualifying you to run this country?  I had always thought that you represented one district in Georgia, that you hadn’t even won a statewide campaign.

After House Republicans were swept into office in 2010 through the tea party revolution, House republicans were the only thing standing between Obama and the country.  Instead of supporting them, you, attacked the Ryan plan.  This is a plan some democrats were acknowledging was  a serious republican proposal, but instead of giving your colleagues support, you attempted to be a media darling.  You gave democrats cover after Republicans were given a mandate to stop Obama.  As a supporter of what House Republicans have been doing, I didn’t appreciate that.  If you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all.

You constantly convey an arrogance that is sickening to independent voters.  You seem to constantly be trying to prove that you’re the smartest and the best, and it is working on some primary voters.  Many registered republicans can’t wait to see you debate Obama because John McCain was so incompetent and essentially committed political malpractice during the last cycle.  But let’s be serious.  Obama is no intellectual lightweight.  No republican is going to wipe the floor with Obama.  He is a Harvard educated attorney and president of Law Review.  He is a very smart person with very misguided ideals.  Just because you have good ideas doesn’t mean you are going to beat him over the head with your intellectualism.  Sure his vision is wrong, but what makes you better able to articulate conservatism than the governors and senators on stage that have actually pushed through conservative ideas in the last fifteen years.  You haven’t really been relevant to the political discourse for a long time.  Rick Perry has led a state to prosperity, Jon Huntsman has done the same and served as ambassador to China,  Michele Bachmann has been on the front lines in the House and Rick Santorum is currently articulating conservatism as well as anyone.  We don’t all love you as much as you love yourself.

I am so tired of you lying to me.  You are like Mitt Romney Jr.  You were a lobbyist for years in D.C. and you made a lot of money.  I don’t begrudge you that.  But to try and say you were a “historian” is laughable and shows that you may not be as smart as you think you are if you thing I will believe that.  Sure you weren’t a registered lobbyist, but are you telling me that you lectured CEO’s on history, while never making phone calls to politicians, why never giving strategic advice to the people that paid your paycheck?  Come on Newt, I won’t hold it against you, but come clean.  We need to know what you did.  This election is too important for Obama to define you as a lobbyist in August.  We need to know what you did now.  Put the country ahead of ambition.

Newt, I know who you are.  You aren’t that conservative but you aren’t that liberal.  At times your lofty ideals impede your judgment.  You supported global warming legislation with Nancy Pelosi and you advocated an individual healthcare mandate.  Civil liberties didn’t seem like an issue to you.  More recently you said that we need to strengthen the Patriot Act although you haven’t shown that is isn’t achieving its objectives as is.

Newt, you worry me and I am having a hard time trusting you.  But if you want my vote, please stop defining what conservatism is to me.  I already know.  I am consistent.  Drop the arrogance and try a leader’s humility.  Until then, it will be hard for me to give you much of a chance to show me otherwise.  Right now, you aren’t personable and people tend to vote for the guy they like the most.  At this point, I don’t see how independents are going to like you more than they like Obama.  If you want me to believe in you, give me something to believe in.  Until then, I can’t vote for you.