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raise 30 MILLION dollars in three weeks - which had been his stated criterion for throwing his hat in the ring.
There's no way ANY republi-CON will rake in any 30-million dollars in three weeks, unless it's cheney shaking his buddies down at PNAC-related gatherings and other closed, hush-hush meetings of CON big shots in obscure woodland resorts. And cheney wouldn't be giving it to newty.
newt gangrene is one of the least-popular republi-CONS out there - at least among the general electorate. He has his devoted disciples alright, but they're a very small group. By themselves they MIGHT be able to drum up several million. Even 10 or so million maybe. But it takes a far larger and broader support base than that to have any viability as a campaign. And they know it. They could only put up the front for just so long before their pylons collapse underneath them. Mr. gingivitis knows he does NOT have a large support base among the greater masses of voters. THEY'RE already taken by the bigger names who've remained in the foreground and have the machinery in place already and are already working for it. newt is so very yesterday. He's been out of the spotlight for awhile and while it is possible to get back in, I think you'd have to be a bigger marquee name at THIS point (or some stunning rehabilitative event like maybe personally locating bin Laden or suddenly producing enough charity money to bail out all the sub-prime bankruptcies in the current housing crisis). Moreover, we ALREADY HAVE plenty of marquee names running around all over the place, and a couple of them are a lot fresher and newer. AND you couldn't afford to have the baggage he has.
For "the base," he failed to engineer a complete eradication of Bill Clinton because his best efforts at impeachment stalled in the Senate - which did not convict. The GOP al Qaeda did not appreciate that. They only like winners. He blew it on his biggest and most critically-important mission: voter nullification of not one but TWO Clinton electoral victories - for those knuckledraggers (and there are A LOT of them) who believe in The World's Biggest Entitlement Program = the republi-CON entitlement to the White House and all the power positions throughout the rest of Washington. Many of them felt Bill Clinton had no right to deny old george his second term. I mean, how DARE he?!!!??!?? gingrich did not take these hardliners all the way to their "promised land" (of removing Bill Clinton and thus avenging both bush 1 AND the pathetic bob dole) and they do NOT suffer losers. Consider, for example, how much use they continued to make of Nixon and bush-1 after their spectacular political embarrassments. Such non-successes become non-persons with this crowd.
Furthermore, with the OTHER "base," the mullah/ayatolla contingent, he is SERIOUSLY damaged goods in the "family values" department. Don't forget the cancer-patient wife he threw over for a younger, prettier, healthier bimbette, the WAY he did that in particular, AND the fact that this wasn't his only extra-marital cheating. It would be a very difficult sell and WE on the other side would be busily making HUGE hay out of it in the media and in ads and everywhere else.
Besides, ol' newty has waited too long. frederick of Hollywood is stalling already, and he finally stopped flirting and did jump in. fred thompson already is losing points on the perception of laziness and probably a little arrogance. Voters can compare him to the likes of romney, rudy, and especially john mccain (who's basically been running for more than seven years already) who have been out there for months working-working-working and looking a lot more deserving. newt would be even more of a Johnnie-come-lately than fred is.
And remember, the momentum for fundraising for republi-CONS is DOWN, ACROSS-THE-BOARD. They're having problems at the Senate campaign level, they're having problems at the Congressional campaign level, their candidates aren't bringing in what ours are, and what big money there is has already been staked out by rudy and to a lesser extent romney (particularly as he shows strength in the early states because of all the time and money he's already invested there). huckabee could surprise a few people, but he's the only lower-tier candidate who's moving the needle at all. It won't be newt.
Plus: our friend gangrene has already had more than his share of spectacularly public, self-inflicted embarrassments. He can't afford ANY more. So it's FAR better, cosmetically, for him to snuff this one early when he's getting hardly any press and nobody's paying much attention. It won't be another black mark on his bed post now, as opposed to his going ahead and joining the race, going some distance and then having to swallow a full-fledged campaign fizzle and yet another very public defeat. After all, he's got a two-face to save and an ego the size of the Milky Way galaxy. And somehow, he still would like to remain a player. Even though, as a "player", he's basically DOA.
He's back up at the far end of the pond - where it's too shallow and the algae's built up and there's no moving water. And he's most likely going to stay there for the rest of his miserable days. His time has passed. His glory days are long over.
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