reporting from this afternoon, i have talked to a prominent midwestern conservative, somebody who knows gingrich well, and the question i was posing had to do with whether the lobbying ties were going to be a disqualifier for him. this source brought up, in fact, they were character issues that he thought were going to be the biggest problem for gingrich. and this was not necessarily someone endorsing him, but certainly an ally who thought that was going to be the biggest issue. so if you can see other conservatives launching on this in terms of paid advertising and the like, it could be difficult. a projection here, howard, and you re as good at this as anybody, suppose this does crumble, this personal life issue, the the ethics issue, the character issues. throw it all together with his lobbying establishment past and his total inconsistencies about the issues they care about, like the individual mandate and death panels, so-called, who else is the alternative? if they re forced to
his thinking that he can go and negotiate because of his great debating skills anyplace in the world. well, we ve seen a number of examples of that, where it s just been an abject failure. and as a matter of fact, his thinking that he s the smartest guy in the room has hurt america around the world, particularly when it comes to foreign policy. what do you make of that? you first, david? my follow-up question would be, give me three examples. because it s all this generalization. he s smart, we should be scared of that, that he s smart? was he was he too smart to save the out companies? was he too smart to get osama bin laden? i mean, that s not the issue. if you have a candidate out there, i mean, ron just put it pretty well. if you re a president, you ve got to be smart. you ve got to have intellectual curiosity, as you talk about often. you ve got to be able to absorb information. so you don t think there s a reason somewhere a kernel of truth in the charge that
it s the basics. libya has been in the headlines for six months. doesn t he have a gut sense of that issue? your thoughts, ron? chris, here s one that you and i are absolutely in agreement on this. i heard that clip and i said, are you serious? are you seriously going to sit there and say that you need to get folks to surround you, that you don t need to read all that stuff? you ve worked in the white house, chris. i ve worked in the white house for the president. the president is always taking in information, always sifting. always trying to figure out, how can i best lead the country? and if you re saying this now, you re not ready for prime-time. this guy is not ready for prime-time. i wish the republicans would say, look, herman, you ve had a great successful run in business, good for you. if you want to run in politics, run for city council or congress. but you re going to say those sorts of things and think you should be the next president of the united states with two wars goi