Kathleen Parker is the latest to throw in her two cents, with a lovely turn of phrase:
Most Americans would rather embrace a man who has fallen and climbed back to his feet than one who has never stubbed his toe on temptation. The successful protagonist is always flawed. In Romney breaking news: He removes the cheese from his pizza but has a weakness for chocolate milk. Mr. Squeaky not only has no skeletons in the closet; he has no closets.
He's in that uncanny valley. But I suspect Kathleen under-estimates what many readers have argued: that the appeal of Gingrich to many Fox News viewers is that he will finally reveal Obama as that empty-suited, know-nothing, affirmative action dunce that they believe him to be. Gingrich's genius ingredient is this Lincoln-Douglas debate idea, which combines a historical luster with the hint that Obama couldn't handle it.
Of course, when you actually imagine a Gingrich-Obama debate, and you are not living in a cocoon that insists that Obama is both dumb and a commie, you see how fatal a trap this could be for the GOP.
It's not just that Obama is a smart person whereas Gingrich is simply a dumb person's idea of a smart person. It's that Obama has always excelled up against a volatile, angry opponent. He is a master of allowing them to self-destruct. He got that Houdini-like master of political survival, Bill Clinton, to blow up in the primaries. In a matter of days, he got McCain to destroy his bid with his frantic response to the Lehman collapse.
I mean: who's gonna seem like the angry guy in a Newt-Barack match? Who's gonna seem like the old, rather than mature, one? Even when Gingrich was Speaker, he couldn't muster any grace or authority or calm: things we like in a crisis and a president.
I can't believe the GOP is going to fall for this yet another time. But their loathing of Obama seems to trump all reason, prudence, or guile. Once again, the jujitsu Obama model of politics emerges as his strongest weapon. Given the economy, it may not be enough. But man, does Obama get lucky sometimes in his opponents.
(Photo: A Newt Gingrich supporter waits for the Republican presidential hopeful as he enters to a crowd at a Hilton Hotel on November 25, 2011 in Naples, Florida. By Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
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