Election Result 2008

Last Wednesday Hillary Clinton and Newt Gingrich stood side by side and did a photo op together while proposing a new federal health care plan. Some stories are describing this as “The Beginning of the End” because Gingrich and Hillary were at such odds not too many years ago. He lead the charge to get her husband impeached and she accused him of being part of a ‘vast, right-wing conspiracy’.

Yet they met together, agreed on health care, and promoted a plan together. Coincidentally this doesn’t just give them each a useful boost toward appearing bi-partisan in preparation for the 2008 run - it also makes for healthy politics. A plan backed by someone on the far right and someone on the near left is better than a comletely partisan one.

Hillary is not attempting to hide her desire for the 2008 presidency. Newt has not ruled it out and there’s good reason to believe that he’s starting his own groundwork for the election. It’s odd that during the preparation for a primary election a Democrat’s best friend will be someone that she’s not going to be competing with. Well, I’ll enjoy the healthy politics as long as they last.

Sources: The Houston Chronicle
Concord Monitor

Newt Gingrich has publicly announced he’ll try for a bid at the presidency in 2008.

Having spent a few years out of the spotlight may have removed some of his celebrity status but it has also protected him from being involved in the santioning of torture, the whole Iraq war, and the controversial restructuring of Social Security.

Newt is a strong supporter of small government and would return the Republican party to discussions about reducing federeal involvement (discussions which have not been active for years). For this reason many Republicans would support him well. As he is against both abortion and gay marriage he can platform on the basis of family values and would see some support there. However, his chances of winning on the family values ticket would be slim as he admitted to an affair with a congressional aid and had divorced two wives while they were terribly ill.