Citizens in Action

The weekend brought a bit more information about and insights into the qualifications and philosophies of the GOP presidential candidates. My choice I arrived at quite a long time ago, actually when he first announced, the real brain among them, with some other highly qualified candidates. But Newt Gingrich stands heads taller than the rest. Without a moment’s hesitation, he answers the questions asked and one can get a glimpse of his mental faculty. Not only does he give the correct answer, but he can add all the footnotes anyone might desire. From the beginning, I felt people would gradually pay attention to his knowledge of history and government and his common sense. I saw the figures climb till now he is ahead of the others.

One thing I heard Newt say days ago was that Rick Santorum would make an excellent Attorney General, that he is a scholar on the Constitution. Indeed, last night, during a debate on the Huckabee show, Santorum pulled a copy of the Constitution from his pocket. He’s my pick too for the Attorney General.

Last shopping day I bought Newt’s latest book, co-authored with William R. Forstchen. It is the best-seller The Battle of the Crater, a novel about the heroic black troops that fought in it, a battle most of us have likely never heard of before. But Newt’s knowledge of history is unusual, and I imagine Forstchen’s is too. I looked over the book, read the Acknowledgments and learned that no memorial exists in honor of these warriors. I’m sure these two authors will see to that, for there should be such a memorial. As I’m still reading John Grisham’s Litigators, I will finish it first, and then this Battle will be next.

Back to Newt now. Watching C-SPAN, I joined a big square-table discussion of a Professor Hart talking about the candidates with about 12 ordinary citizens. In the beginning, their choice of candidates ranged wide and diverse. At the end, Newt was the almost unanimous choice, but only one, I think, said another name, though with a hint of apology, and almost in a cover of silence. He was definitely for the two Mormons running in the race, and they didn’t get anywhere. But the sad tale erupts that these dozen citizens were not up with the news. They didn’t begin to know what I know about this, and I don’t know much. After these people left the room, another set rushed in. This was a group of journalists, and whatever, there to discuss the other set of people who had been there. This discussion was extremely dull. Professor Hart was great and the first bunch interesting. But if these first twelve were a cross section of voters, no wonder we get the wrong people into office sometimes. ♥