Gingrich Sort Of Vaguely Makes Sense; Nation Terrified

That Newt Gingrich, always with the contrariness! The other day he unleashed a blistering attack on the way American campaigns are run, calling it "stunningly dangerous", saying that the current endless round of debates that involve seventeen people giving thirty-second sound-bites "aren't debates" and are "almost unendurable." He also says that expecting someone to not change opinions based on new knowledge or developments (aka "flip-flopping") during a two-year campaign is ludicrous and counterproductive. This, combined with his telling a bunch of Young Republicans, while they were on a break from forcibly fellating one another, that the War on Terror was phony , might lead you to believe that Newt has some good ideas!

But, no, as it turns out, he's still bonkers. Gingrich thinks the problem with fundraising is the limit on individual donations. Why, if a candidate could just fund his campaign with, say, a single $2 billion donation from Northrop Grumman, he'd be spared the degrading, tiresome business of hitting people up for money! Also, instead of the awful debates we have now, candidates should hold 90-minute "dialogs", once a week, for the nine weeks before the election. "After nine 90-minute conversations in their living rooms, the American people would have a remarkable sense of the two personalities and which person had the right ideas, the right character, the right capacity to be a leader," he said. Then they'd slit their wrists, obviously.

Oh, also, Newt's going to start running for president in October. Surprise! You thought all this whining was his excuse for not doing it, didn't you! So, yeah, totally insane.

 Modern road to White House 'verges on insane,' says Gingrich [CNN]