Newt Is Clearly Debater-in-Chief, But President? Please....

OK, let's stipulate the obvious: Newt is everything he said he was. He's a superb debater. He really could take on Barack Obama in a "Lincoln-Douglas debate," and he might even win. Gingrich's preemptive assault last night on John King, CNN and the media in general over his ex-wife Marianne's salacious allegations was nothing short of brilliant. It was a classic Gingrichian descent into rhetorical overreach -- King's decision to make Newt's second marriage the first question in the 17th GOP debate was "as close to despicable as anything I can imagine," Newt declared (Anything? Really, Newt?) -- but, man, was it effective.

"I think the destructive, vicious, negative nature of much of the news media makes it harder to govern this country harder to attract decent people to run for office," Gingrich said to cheers from the rabidly right crowd. "I'm appalled you would begin a presidential debate on a topic like that."

His attack neutralized the issue as effectively as could be done--at least for the night. We'll find out Saturday whether South Carolina Republican voters hate the news media even more than than they do Newt's infidelities, and his surge in the polls continues.

But let's face it: the ex-wife allegations are just another addition to a mountain of "baggage" that Gingrich brings with him (as that  Romney Super PAC ad  in Iowa put it).  Debating skills may keep you in the game (or disqualify you if you lack them, like Rick Perry), but they have little to do with the requirements of character and temperament  in a president.   There is a reason why the people who are most fearful of a Gingrich presidency are not just an ex-wife like Marianne, who says he lacks the moral character to be in the White House, but some of his closest aides and Republican confederates from the past, who whisper that he is capable of doing or saying almost anything, and shifting position without a moment's self-doubt.

At the debate last night, Gingrich's former colleague in the Republican caucus, Rick Santorum, was not whispering this stuff. Santorum, desperate to catch up with conservative voters, was suggesting out loud what those who know Newt best say behind his back: he's just not stable. With Gingrich, said Santorum, you never know when you're going to reach "that worrisome moment" when "something's going to pop."  "I don't want a nominee that I have to worry about going out and looking at the paper the next day and figuring out what is he -- worrying about what he's going to say next," Santorum said.

Almost no one noticed when Gingrich closed the debate by calling Obama "the most dangerous president of our lifetime." It was just so typically Newtonian, completely over the top. Again, one must say, "Really, Newt?"