The Obama Diary

August, 2010 - Arianna bumps in to Newt & Callista Gingrich and Barbara Walters in Amalfi

This is a comically great find by Politicususa (see here) …. hey, 16 years later she’s got her wish!

Why Newt Must Run

by Arianna Huffington (Nov 27, 2025 in The Weekly Standard)

…Running for president would undoubtedly be the biggest gamble of Gingrich’s political career. And there is absolutely no self-interested reason for him to do it. He has said that he would run only if there were a clear moral imperative for him to do so….

….Precisely because Gingrich is right about the moral crisis the country is facing …. there is a moral imperative for him to fill the leadership vacuum and address the growing devastation.

…the Gingrich of November 1996 could be a far different, far more inspiring public figure. Gingrich may be a lightning rod, but he also embodies the revolution like no one else. He is its most articulate, self-confident, and unapologetic voice, and he burns with conviction that America can and will be a better place because of it …. he can rediscover the youthful realization that drove him to dedicate his life to politics in the first place: that at certain critical moments in history, effective leadership is all that stands between a civilization and its collapse.

There are times in life when risking everything is more prudent than protecting what you have. For Gingrich, this could be one of them. And if Gingrich fails to accept the mission, the mission does not go away. The hole in the heart of the Republican revolution remains, waiting for a leader to fill it.

See the full Weekly Standard article here and the Politicususa post here