It ain’t gonna happen. But it would represent a huge opportunity. Can you imagine if any Democratic candidate called into question the level of information and knowledge possessed by his or her opponent, and the same lack in the punditocracy? Newt has been scoring points by sneering that the media mis-reports the economy and that no one who disagrees with him knows history. Basically, he’s surging in the polls since Cain was revealed as a cad and he has wrapped himself in what Jon Stewart has called “dickishness.” In doing so, Newt puts facts on the table.
Can you imagine Obama unleashed to confront his sneers about facts with arguments? It’s a vertiable invitation to be professorial and the context would defuse accusations of arrogance and condescension. Newt wants to repeat the canard that regulation is impeding our economic recovery? Obama can refute it with actual analysis. Newt wants to spin his…well…spin about how Reaganism is responsible for all late 20th-century economic growth? Obama can lay out a significantly more convincing counter-narrative. In the process, Republican sacred cow ideological talking points will be laid on the altar. We can actually argue them. Newt opens the questions, Obama leads us in the refutations. My money is on Obama winning those debates. Maybe this is the opportunity we’ve been waiting for to cut through GOP obfuscations.
It won’t happen. But if it did, Newt would be exposed as the big fat ideologically over-determined pus…oh well, as they say, a picture is worth a thousand words:
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