http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/newt-chance-blew-gingrich-won-t-earn-2012-gop-presidential-nomination-article-1.981433

Newt had his chance, but he blew it: Why Gingrich won’t earn the 2012 GOP presidential nomination 

Too many mistakes hound his past

 

 

 

 Newt Gingrich is smart, but he’s not viable, writes S.E. Cupp.

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I was only 15 in 1994, when Newt Gingrichexperienced his last great moment. (Well, before this one, where he’s surging in the polls, with his campaign having figured out how to run for President.) So I don’t really remember Newt’s glory days.

I have interviewed him on many occasions, however, as far back as 2006 and as recently as last month, and every time we talk, I’m struck by how smart he is. Despite that, I can’t get past the nagging voice in my head telling me that no matter how good he would be at running the country, he doesn’t deserve to.

Call me a square, but Newt’s past mistakes occupy both columns: character and politics. From his ugly romantic entanglements to his flirtation with environmentalism to his questionable relationship with Freddie Mac, bad decisions and lapses in judgment have been too frequent for a man of such obvious intelligence.

And yet, for all his mistakes, Newt remains startlingly unembarrassed, which makes those mistakes even less palatable. Though arrogance and a lack of shame characterize Capitol Hill, I’m suspicious of a guy who’s had so many public errors, and is so untroubled by them.

When most of us mess up, we’re humbled and seek atonement. But Newt seems brazenly unaware that he needs atoning of any kind. When it came out that he had taken in some $1.6 million from the troubled housing agency Freddie Mac, Gingrich simply blasted his critics for having a “socialist bias.”