Newt Has Lost It

I love Newt as a debater, I really do. And I once loved him as speaker. And I can even hold my nose enough to believe he is a changed man. But I cannot forgive either his attacks on Bain Capital and the Ryan Plan. He has lost the Naked Dollar.

Newt was the one running a positive campaign, the happy warrior for for small government conservatism. But no more. Paul Ryan's plan was the best anyone's done to date in terms of solving the entitlement mess. Perfect or not, it took political courage to step on politics' "third rail." You expect to by demonized by Democrats, but other Republicans? As they say, with friends like these...

Then there's Bain. Does Bain Capital ever fire people? Of course they do, but these are ailing companies that they buy. The drill is you nurse them back to health so what's left can prosper and, yes, employ people. Bain and other private equity firms plays a vital in our free enterprise system. Would you rather these companies go under? Or be socialized? Once again, we fully expect Democrats to distort the facts in order to score cheap points with an ill-informed electorate (assist to teachers unions).

But Republicans? Newt? He was supposed to be free enterprise's most ardent defender. Instead, he comes off like a political hack looking for the easy score. Shame on him.

Is the Naked Dollar for Romney, at this point? No, not yet. There's still Santorum, whom people seem to overlook. He is reliably conservative and has blue collar appeal, having won many times in Pennsylvania. What he lacks is charisma and the "look" of a president. Right now, those deficiencies are far surpassed by the deficiencies of others.