Game, set and match to the gentleman from Wisconsin:
U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan said Monday that Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich does not fully understand a GOP proposal to turn Medicare into a voucher system, dismissing criticism from the former House speaker that the plan would be a radical change.
"I just think he's missing the mark on what our plan actually does," Ryan, chairman of the powerful House Budget Committee, told reporters after a speech to the Economic Club of Chicago. "Our plan is one of the most gradual things one could do," because it would not affect people over age 55 and would not kick in for 10 years.
That's gotta hurt -- someone who considers himself the leader of the intellectual wing of the GOP having to hear that he "does not fully understand" something. And then there was the incident in Iowa in which he was heckled by a faithful Republican conservative:
As he was getting ready to leave a speaking engagement Dubuque resident Russell Fuhrman approached him in the lobby of the Holiday Inn:
“Get out now before you make a bigger fool of yourself,” Fuhrman said directly to Gingrich.
Gingrich, visibly stunned, quickly moved forward to talk with other guests.
This could be the shortest presidential run of the political season. The problem is not the beliefs and opinions expressed by Gingrich, or the fact that he so often seems to shift views or contradict himself. The problems is that we begin to suspect Gingrich may not really have any core beliefs at all. He just says stuff to get attention.
That may be the college professor in him. Being provocative is a standard practice of the dialectic method used to prod uninquisitive minds into the thinking mode. It might be a good way to advance and critique ideas, but it's not quite the approach that works on the presidential camopaign trail.
