Gingrich: Obama is 'most radical president ever

[TomCADem]

Source: Associated Press

NEW ORLEANS — Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, a potential presidential candidate in 2012, called Barack Obama on Thursday "the most radical president in American history" who oversees a "secular, socialist machine."

Gingrich reminded conservative activists why he was one of the nation's most polarizing leaders in the 1990s, opening the Southern Republican Leadership Conference with a biting assessment of Obama's policies.

"The most radical president in American history has now thrown down the gauntlet to the American people: 'I run a machine. I own Washington and there's nothing you can do about it,'" Gingrich said. He urged his fellow Republicans to stop what he called Obama's "secular, socialist machine."

Highly charged words, for sure. But that's standard fare at the three-day GOP gathering that is drawing several presidential hopefuls. Friday's headliner is former Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin.

Read more: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jTW8-bu3ZPEA5eXBoY7DjjXDI1lwD9EV8IDO0

---

The Republicans continue to try to out-crazy each other. Sadly, the corporate media has been doing its best to sell this hardline right wing rhetoric as mainstream, and has been doing its best to generate momentum for Republicans. Indeed, the crazier you sound, the more media coverage and momentum you generate. The party that brought you "America First," is going to win with candidates who advocate secession.

[EFerrari]

1. Dogwhistling. Our president is a Christian centrist

and Newt knows exactly what he's doing here.

[TomCADem]

2. Or, Is Crazy The New Normal? Some Of The Crazies On The Right...

...are the most viable Republican candidates in races where a Republican is expected to be competitive if not favored. Look at Florida where Crist is losing because he is too moderate.

When center-left politicians who were considered moderates in years past are now perceived as the second coming of Che by large segment of the population, you have to ask where is our corporate media taking us?

[EFerrari]

5. Leaders like Newt seem crazy like a fox to me.

If they present as a little out of control, that's just a cushion for them as they push their followers over the cliff.

And yeah, the right wing media in this country is fully operational. It makes me wonder sometimes, as I did about Dick Cheney, if they think their own families will be rescued by the Mother Ship when all hell breaks loose.

[No Elephants]

27. Crazy like a fox bc the left can't reply " Obama is anything but liberal, let alone Socialist."

[paparush]

42. Exactly..they keep moving the center to the right, a little at a time.

[Enthusiast]

49. Seems to me they moved

a whole bunch at a time since the election.

[paparush]

69. Crazy- Radical Right Wing makes Radical Right wing feel more acceptable.

The right just keeps moving the standard to lower and lower extremes, and the middle that the sheeple fill keeps moving right.

[Bitwit1234]

7. The problem is...the Democrats do not have a media that

gives their side of any issue. All the MSM does is pound the people in this country with republican sayings and views. And I hate to say this but the Democrats are so mealy mouthed they let them do it. There are a few Democrats who have the guts to take on the republicans, but other than those the Democrats are like a bunch of two year olds, afraid to say anything at all about the republicans. FIGHT BACK YOU WIMPS.

[nxylas]

24. The President has a bully pulpit, but seems reluctant to use it

The moments when he does chide the wingnuts on national TV have been magnificent, but sadly few and far between.

[Enthusiast]

51. He simply won't use it.

Does he imagine Newt will think of even more egregious things to say about him if he does?

[TomCADem]

57. Disagree - Heck, The RW Media Talking Point Is That He Is "Over Exposed"

...and that he is relentlessly pushing liberal propaganda.

For example, remember the HCR summit, which had CNN and Fox News talkng over the President, while broadcasting the comments made by Republicans? Folks on DU who watched it were incensed with how CNN was handling the broadcast. Likewise, "liberal" websites like Huffington Post have chided the President for calling out the right wing media for the slanted coverage.

[nxylas]

62. Yes, I'd forgotten about that

And CNN is supposed to be the "neutral" network.

[No Elephants]

28. Republicans got their friends to buy up the media; Democrats didn't.

But I'm not sure how even a Democratic media (if one existed) could respond effectively to this canard, without alienating part of the Democrat base in the process. Please see Reply # 27.

Oh, who am I kidding? No one gives a rat's tail about alienating the Democratic base.

[Enthusiast]

50. The problem is leadership.

Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid are the very picture of weakness. Why do we allow such a weak representation of our party? And President Obama only seeks agreement and bi-partisanship. WTF is going on here?

Has there been some behind the scene agreement that the Democratic Party will only act as though they hold the reins of power while the Republicans and their allies actually pull the strings?

[Solly Mack]

20. yep

[No Elephants]

26. It's not often the first post on the thread says it all. Kudos!

[srf Rantz]

39. exactly. allow me to translate

Conservative (esp. Southern) Dog Whistles:

big government = a system which takes our money and gives it to poor lazy bums

socialism = political ideology which takes our money and gives it to poor lazy bums

Liberals = people who take our money and give it to poor lazy bums, they also want to take our guns away

Democrat = liberal

secular = liberal

radical = liberal

socialist = liberal

freedom = 1. not giving any of my money to poor lazy bums 2.being allowed to treat poor lazy bums any way I want

liberty = see freedom

poor lazy bums = 1. N*GGERS! 2. why we need our guns

[The Wizard]

44. And in Republican code

Patriots = hateful frightened bigots who will vote against their own best interests.

[DRoseDARs]

3. I know, right? He's like totally bodacious! Kowabunga, dude!

...

What's that, you say? He's talking about the other kind of radical? Oh, well fuck him then. That's bogus and harshing my mello.

[EFerrari]

6. Thank you for the correct spelling of "kowabunga".

:rofl:

[DRoseDARs]

17. Let it not be said that the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon wasn't educational.

And I'm talking 'bout the 80's Ninja Turtles, not any of that poser shit that came afterwards.

[Chulanowa]

23. The turtles spelled it with a C

I prefer "Qauoabungha" myself. Makes it look like an Elder God or something.

[handmade34]

25. Newt is a joke

and TMNT were awesome...

[merwin]

21. First thing that came to my mind as well!

hah!

[Mojorabbit]

4. I find the

ratcheting up of the rhetoric very worrisome. I have never seen anything like this in my 5o something years.

[chollybocker]

8. This up-coming KKK conference is gonna be a gold mine of stupidity.

I... can't... not... look....

[countmyvote4real]

9. NG is a lying liar.

There, I've said it. Please don't bore me anymore. As if that is enough to derail his propaganda.

They are lying.

[Mopar151]

14. But he's a buzzword-spewin' mo-sheen! n/t

[dencol]

10. Radical = Black in this case.

Obama is the blackest president ever, and that is their problem

[No Elephants]

29. No, I think Newt would say the same about any Democrat currently in the Oval Office.

He's an equal opportunity partisan bullshitting rabble rouser.

[dencol]

74. Fair enough.

But being black is certainly part of the general discontent among the right wing.

[Gormy Cuss]

64. Agreed. The most "radical" thing about Obama is his heritage.

His record so far is less radical than FDR, Kennedy, Johnson, Reagan or Dubya, to list a few examples.

[Turborama]

75. Yep, that's how a guest on AC360 put it: "The only 'radical' thing about Obama is that he's black"

[krispos42]

11. Newt Gingrich is an oathbreaking ass.

He's joined the former members of the Bush cabinet, the Teabaggers, and Glen Beck in The Reality-Invulnerable Bubble.

[No Elephants]

30. Give credit where it's due: Newt was in the bubble well before all of those morans.

[opihimoimoi]

12. His Record when in Power??? SUCKS BIG BTIME>>>> He ain't going nowhere

[Robbie88]

13. "Secular socialist machine"?!?

It's almost like the Republican Party is trying to become a parody of itself...

I would love for Newt to explain which of the policies that have been either proposed or implemented by the Obama Administration are socialist...

[No Elephants]

31. He has done that. He cites things like the bailout and General Motors.

One thing about Newt: he ain't reticent. He only makes you wish he were.

[Robbie88]

65. Ah OK, thank you.

Huh. Never knew that the state bailing out large corporations in an effort to save global capitalism qualified as socialism, but I guess it does in Newt's world.

Also, I'm sure Newt must remember who the president was during those initial big bank bailouts. It's disturbing how so many right wing leaders are already trying to rewrite history; it's even more disturbing that so many of the rank-and-file conservatives seem to be falling for it...

[Art_from_Ark]

15. This is coming from the man who launched

The Contract On America

[No Elephants]

32. He couldn't have done it without the American voter.

That's my biggest beef with their bullshit: It works much more often than I'd like.

[Name removed]

16. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[area51]

22. +1

Gingrich is a wuss who's jealous that Obama & congress instituted his health care plan of forcing people to buy insurance from private, for-profit companies.

[BlueMTexpat]

18. Newt is now following the SP script slavishly.

He's scrambling to catch up with the craziest of the crazies.

"Secular, socialist machine ...": WTF is THAT other than a compilation of charged buzzwords?

In the Repub playbook, it's only required to call oneself "Christian," even, and especially, if one's actions are most unchristian. Newt himself is now receiving Social Security, Medicare, with health care extras and a lifelong pension from his government "service," so he doesn't seem to have a problem with those "socialist" benefits. If he did, he'd refuse them all. He just doesn't want anyone else to have ANY benefits provided, managed or regulated by the same government.

And "machine" is one thing that the Democratic party is absolutely not, at least not on a national level. Will Rogers summed it up when he said "... no organized party ...." We're just too diverse and progressives - anyone even remotely sane for that matter - unfortunately have nowhere else to go.

The media keeps hyping the craziness principally because it "sells."

[Enthusiast]

52. Newt once said

the he would allow Medicare to whither and die on the vine. I heard him say it.

[tinrobot]

19. Actually, the most radical president was probably Lincoln.

And Lincoln was also our greatest president, precisely because he had radical ideas.

FDR and Teddy Roosevelt were probably next on the radical list, and were also great presidents for the same reasons.

[No Elephants]

35. I's add some:

George Washington, for having fought the Revolutionary War, presided over the Constitutional Convention, rejecting the concept of a Presidency for life, and creating the duties and conduct of the President, almost out of thin air.

Jefferson, for a number of reasons, including the Louisiana Purchase.

Harry Truman, for having, and acting on, the notion that having African Americans fighting our wars while discriminating against them was unjust.

JFK, for the notion that the Executive could use the Commerce Clause to desegregate. Also for the first appointment of any non-white to the SCOTUS.

LBJ for the Great Society (though some of the credit for that goes to JFK) and other reasons. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Society

But yeah, using an Executive Order to outlaw slavery in advance of adoption of the Thirteenth Amendment and while the Constitution pretty clearly implied slaves were less than human was a real biggie, especially for this country.

It's like potato chips, though. Just one is so hard.

[Enthusiast]

54. +1, No Elephants!

After reading your post it is even more clear that Newt's statement is utterly ridiculous.

The only thing radical about Obama is his skin color.

[Enthusiast]

53. Excellent point, tinrobot.

They called Lincoln every name in the book but socialist had not yet been invented.

[saltpoint]

33. Newt is trying to wow the crazies en route to making a

run at the White House in 2012.

Elsewise why is the egomaniac even in New Orleans for this shindig?

(On a tangential note, the DU spellcheck doesn't care for 'elsewise' at all.)

Gingrich has always played the surrealist kook card. "Look how outrageous I can be!" he says, manipulating the media.

His time has come and gone, IMO. His recent conversion to Catholicism seems to blur his electability even more than his being increasingly obsolete. Gingrich is nuts on our scale but not nearly nuts enough for the nutbag true believers. A goodly chunk of the Puke primary base is comprised of hyper-Protestant nutbags.

And he does not tap into the American mythos. Reagan and Dubya were both "cowboys." They weren't cowboys at all, of course, but they tapped into that myth. The Old West lived again in the Gipper.

Gingrich isn't suggestive or representative of anything voters like or respect or admire or have experienced. He's not a soldier, not a cowboy, not a blue collar champion, and so forth. He isn't much of anything, actually. He's CheezWhiz on styrofoam. His one issue, such as it is, appears to be that anything connected to the government is intrinsically evil. He enjoys (way too much) telling audiences that this is the country's problem.

But his eagerness to be the one who warns others of government evil is not a potent enough rationale to elect him president, or even win him the Pukes' nom.

[CBHagman]

34. "Going to win"?

The party that brought you "America First," is going to win with candidates who advocate secession.

That's assuming a lot, both on the media's part and on the electorate's. I'm not advocating complacency, but what the 'cans are doing isn't new (Remember where Gingrich has been, what he said and did, and where it all eventually got him).

Also too, remember where this event is taking place. This isn't Newt Gingrich basking in praise from coast to coast. In fact he's an annoying son of a guy with a condescending tone that won't play well with the broader electorate. Of course he's putting on a show for the base.

The problem is, the batshit crazy contingent can't govern and can't get a plurality, let alone a majority. They can, however, mess with the political process, and do.

Sarah Palin doesn't have broad appeal, and neither does Gingrich. Meanwhile former moderate types like Romney and Giuliani pander to this crowd. Don't think it's going to work on the rest of the electorate.

[No Elephants]

36. Erosion. First, it's a pleasant walk to the ocean. Before you know it (geologically speaking),

it's lapping at your front door.

Gingrich today says Obama, who is center right, is a socialist. (Republicans have been saying from Day One that Obama is governing "hard left.")

Maybe no one buys it off the bat. But, the seed of the idea has been planted. And it grows and grows. Especially when Democrats start acting like being a leftie is an abomination and start defending themselves against that charge and tacking further and further right.

Atwater was a master at planting the idea that patriotism and being Republican were linked--and linked exclusively and forever. (Also a master at which ideas to plant.)

Maybe no one totally bought on day one that only Republicans are patriotic. However, by the time Obama ran, a lot of the country was up in arms about something as cynical as a politician wearing a flag pin (while voting against Veterans' benefits). And it didn't matter what Obama said or did. He had to resume wearing the flag pin before people quieted down about it--and, even then, some in this country will sincerely never forgive him for not wearing one. So, at a minimum, Democrats have to prove and defend their patriotism, while the patriotism of Republicans is never questioned.

I fear, long term, things like "socialist Democrats" are effective. Maybe not 100%. but enough to put us on the defensive and keep us tacking right. For a Republican like Newt, that's a huge win: our two choices for government get to be, not right or left, but right righter. So, no matter who wins an election, Newt's going to be relatiely happy with what goes on in Washington (and elsewhere).

[droidamus2]

37. Typical

This is just Gingrich speech. Remember his whole idea of political rhetoric is you always use negative terms about your opponent and the more extreme 'most radical', 'most liberal' the better. I am sure they test different words to see how they play with their base a la 'liberal', 'socialist' and then use them whenever they can even if it doesn't make sense and has no connection to reality.

[daggahead]

38. And the conservabots fall right into line with this rhetoric. n/t

[The_Commonist]

40. Anybody can say anything.

Just say whatever the fuck you want, and somebody will believe it.

[CLANG]

41. Oh shut the fuck up, Salamander

[CBGLuthier]

43. I will take a radical over a wimp and a chimp any day.

[Odin2005]

45. Newt is lying through is teeth and he knows it.

[Enthusiast]

56. Zactly. nt

[scarface2004]

46. stfu you pervert!!!!

mail it in asshole!!!

[Enthusiast]

47. These remarks by Gingrich

are outright lies and he knows it. What disgusting liar.

[Javaman]

48. newt puts the "e" in idiot. nt

[DemoTex]

55. Ratcheting up the rhetoric.

The elections are a mere seven months away. It's going to get a whole lot worse.

[kestrel91316]

58. FAIL. Obama will quite possibly displace Clinton as the BEST REPUBLICAN PRESIDENT EVER, lol.

JMHO.

He's a centrist. But that beaats hell out of being a christofascist, which is what we would have had if McCain won and Palin moved him "aside".

[L. Coyote]

59. Bush is the most radical President ever

Felony theft of the Executive branch is VERY radical!

[n.michigan]

66. Prosecute the Bush Administration Now- show the difference between the parties..Hah.

[mvd]

67. Yep, easily the most radical ever

Even Reagan can't come close. I'll ignore Gingrich; it's so obvious that he's grandstanding.

[bamacrat]

60. Radical? Really?

Radical would mean single payer healthcare, legalized pot, legal gay marriage, ending both wars immediately, cap and trade, a bail out of the people not the banks and free college education. So radical no "radical" would be good. He is moderate, oh but he is black so therefore he is radical. If the president were white even if he were a democrat we wouldn't see all these things that people are saying.

[City Lights]

61. Oh the drama!

:eyes:

[USA_1]

63. Naturally, The Dems Are Too Afraid to Swing Back

The Swift Boating of President Obama continues unabated.

[Yavin4]

68. The Whole Point of All of This Is To Ensure...

that America does not develop the same kind of strong social safety net systems that exist in Europe. The media in America represents corporate interests, and they promote right wing ideologues to guarantee the right of corporations to lord over us. In Europe, the people are protected from corporate abusers.

The major problem is that they have built up the radical right wing so much that they may no longer be able to control it. Bottom line, the Teabag movement is a White racist movement, and if they win at the polls, then the Republicans and the mainstream media may be unable to control them.

[Book Lover]

70. Two words: If. Only. (nm)

[and-justice-for-all]

71. Oh pleeeeeeeze!!!!!!

and Shrub Co was as close as this country has came to a Hitler like dictatorship.

[Heywood J]

72. Yes, Newt. That's why his health plan is to the right of Nixon's. (NT)

[treestar]

73. Gringich is the biggest idiot ever

[niceypoo]

76. He is a pathological liar

Pretty much every statement he makes is a bald faced lie. He knows that the low information voters who listen to him believe every word of it.

[nealmhughes]

77. Guess he forgot about Jefferson and Jackson.

He only has a PhD in US History, so I can see the oversight.

[Posteritatis]

78. Or Washington, for that matter

Shooting your way out of the previous political process isn't a terribly moderate course of action. ;)

[unkachuck]

79. compared....

....to this right-wing fascist neo-nazi prick, nixon was a socialist....

"...a potential presidential candidate in 2012..."

....wait newty, Obama is not your first and foremost problem....you have a palin crisis to deal with first....she's dumb as stump with little history, she much more attractive than your sorry old flea-bitten ass and more importantly, she sucks bagger-cock better than you....

....'slice her throat' first newty, and then come back and bullshit us....

[struggle4progress]

80. They went to sea in a sieve, they did

In a sieve they went to sea:
In spite of all their friends could say,
On a winter's morn, on a stormy day,
In a sieve they went to sea.
And when the sieve turned round and round,
And every one cried, "You'll all be drowned!"
They called aloud, "Our sieve ain't big;
But we don't care a button, we don't care a fig:
In a sieve we'll go to sea!"
Far and few, far and few,
Are the lands where the Jumblies live;
Their heads are green and their hands are blue;
And they went to sea in a sieve.

They sailed away in a sieve, they did,
In a sieve they sailed so fast,
With only a beautiful pea-green veil
Tied with a ribbon by way of a sail,
To a small tobacco-pipe mast.
And every one said who saw them go,
"Oh! won't they soon be upset, you know?
For the sky is dark and the voyage is long,
And, happen what may, it's extremely wrong
In a sieve to sail so fast."
Far and few, far and few,
Are the lands where the Jumblies live;
Their heads are green and their hands are blue;
And they went to sea in a sieve.

The water it soon came in, it did;
The water it soon came in:
So, to keep them dry, they wrapped their feet
In a pinky paper all folded neat;
And they fastened it down with a pin.
And they passed the night in a crockery-jar;
And each of them said, "How wise we are!
Though the sky be dark, and the voyage be long,
Yet we never can think we were rash or wrong,
While round in our sieve we spin."
Far and few, far and few,
Are the lands where the Jumblies live;
Their heads are green and their hands are blue;
And they went to sea in a sieve.

And all night long they sailed away;
And when the sun went down,
They whistled and warbled a moony song
To the echoing sound of a coppery gong,
In the shade of the mountains brown.
"O Timballoo! How happy we are
When we live in a sieve and a crockery-jar!
And all night long, in the moonlight pale,
We sail away with a pea-green sail
In the shade of the mountains brown."
Far and few, far and few,
Are the lands where the Jumblies live;
Their heads are green, and their hands are blue;
And they went to sea in a sieve.

They sailed to the Western Sea, they did,--
To a land all covered with trees;
And they bought an owl and a useful cart,
And a pound of rice, and a cranberry-tart,
And a hive of silvery bees;
And they bought a pig, and some green jackdaws,
And a lovely monkey with lollipop paws,
And forty bottles of ring-bo-ree,
And no end of Stilton cheese.
Far and few, far and few,
Are the lands where the Jumblies live;
Their heads are green, and their hands are blue;
And they went to sea in a sieve.

And in twenty years they all came back,--
In twenty years or more;
And every one said, "How tall they've grown!
For they've been to the Lakes, and the Torrible Zone,
And the hills of the Chankly Bore."
And they drank their health, and gave them a feast
Of dumplings made of beautiful yeast;
And every one said, "If we only live,
We, too, will go to sea in a sieve,
To the hills of the Chankly Bore."
Far and few, far and few,
Are the lands where the Jumblies live;
Their heads are green, and their hands are blue;
And they went to sea in a sieve.

Nonsense Songs, Stories, Botany, and Alphabets
Edward Lear, 1871

[David__77]

81. I don't care what anyone else says, this is a RACIAL codeword campaign.

It always was, since all the hubbub about Rev. Wright. "Radical," in that he's not Euro-American.

[Joseph Tages]

82. Gingrich 's Freudian Slip

He compares Obama's presidency to the America of the 1850's, the decade before Lincoln's election. If Newt were running the country like Franklin Pierce and James Buchanan did back in those days, Rick Perry would have seceded a long time ago. A second Civil War is as much a wet dream for Gingrich as it is for wackos like Palin, Bachmann, and the Tea Baggers.

[BreweryYardRat]

83. Ah heh heh...NO.

I strongly support the President, but by no means is he radical.

Gingrich needs to STFU and go back to writing novels.