Almost certainly, if Newt wins the nomination, I will remain in my default anarchist state, and actively abstain from the complicity that is voting. However, the election will be SO much more entertaining with Newt as the candidate that IF you like spectacle, it would be insane not to endorse him.
If I had to vote...I'd probably vote Obama over Newt...for the best of the reasons that Borepatch gives for not supporting Romney...I don't want the Rethuglicans to pass their agenda either, and with Newt, they might.
OTOH...the positive case for Newt is that
- FOUR of the supreme court justices are over 70...Ginsburg, Breyer, Kennedy, Scalia...something like a 4% chance of death on average per year per justice, over the next 8 years, given their ages.
- the party that gets us out of this recession will have their economic ideas gain traction.
- Newt is the only (non-zero probability) candidate standing that might do something actually crazy. Repeal the executive order allowing unionized federal employees. Unilaterally leave Iraq. Change the drug laws, or the FDA...push for an HSA-based Medical plan.
Interesting, related: Mead points out that the early-Abortion and gay-marriage debates are all but settled, in favor of the leftists...with (roughly) ALL young people in favor of early abortions and gay marriage. This leaves the leftists almost completely free of bogeymen with which to scare libertarian-leaners...like most of the youth in the country.
Orson Scott Card self-identifies as a conservative Mormon democrat, and endorses Newt (in the second half of the long article).
Jehu's article on Newt is also good.
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He wants the drug war to be far more strict, than any good liberal or libertarian would appreciate. This is actually one of Obama's biggest disappointments to me. And Newt would be worse.
Also, he's repulsive.
To be fair, I don't like any of the Republican nominees. They are bleh.
Yes, Yes. As before...I might well vote for Obama, who I dislike strongly, than Newt. But the next 6 months of politics would be so much more fun to watch.
If you think politics is mostly a circus...why not have a good circus. Can you imagine how boring Obama vs. Romney would be?
Obama picking another person for the supreme court is simply too dangerous to allow. Newt has the best chance of beating Obama, thus I endorsed Newt a while ago.
Mark,
I am just not convinced that a big-government republican like Bush or Gingrich is a better picker of supreme court justices than Obama.
IF anyone on either side of the aisle made some sort of credible commitment to nominating libertarian-leaning judges: Kozinski, Volokhs, Barnett, etc...they'd get my actual endorsement.
As is...Newt will "improve" all of the wars on stuff (Drugs, Terror, Learning, Poverty)...and because he'll have a republican congress, he'll face fewer obstacles than Obama...and He'll likely appoint a big-government conservative justice...which is every bit as problematic as a big-government leftist justice.
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