George Will: ‘Wisdom Is One Thing Newt Gingrich Doesn’t Have’

audio

by James Crugnale | 2:52 pm, December 2nd, 2011

» 35 comments

Conservative columnist George Will appeared on The Laura Ingraham Show Friday to express his qualms about GOP frontrunner Newt Gingrich. “Mr. Gingrich said it’s not enough that he is the smartest guy in the room, he also has to be wise,” explained Will. “Now you can associate many things with Mr. Gingrich, but wisdom isn’t one of them. Surely the Republican nominating electorate should understand the fact that people have patterns. Don’t expect the patterns to go away. Expect the patterns to manifest themselves again. If Newt Gingrich has any pattern at all — and he does — it is a pattern of getting himself into trouble because he thinks he is the smartest guy in the room.”

“Ask yourself this: Suppose Gingrich or Romney become president and gets re-elected – suppose you had eight years of this,” Will hypothesized. “What would the conservative movement be? How would it understand itself after eight years? I think what would have gone away, perhaps forever, is the sense of limited government, the Tenth Amendment, Madisonian government of limited, delegated and enumerated powers — the sense conservatism is indeed tied to limitations on federal authority and the police power wielded by Congress — that would all be gone. It’s hard to know what would be left.”

Will’s hand-wringing made Hot Air‘s Tina Korbe nervous:

These comments from one of the columnists who converted my theretofore Democratic mom to conservatism scare me…

I can study his past patterns — but I didn’t personally observe them. I’m still young enough and naive enough to believe that people’s patterns can and do change — and to think the image Gingrich portrays today is a sincere one. But I also tend to think Romney’s present conservative positions are the product of his own personal growth, rather than the product of his deep-seated and evident desire to be elected to the presidency. Which is wiser: To believe the best of our candidates and be disappointed or to believe the worst of them and be pleasantly surprised?

In the meantime, if conservatives are so disenchanted with Romney and Gingrich, why aren’t Rick Perry and Michele Bachmann (especially Michele Bachmann!) still in the mix of contenders?

Listen to Will’s discontent with Newt Gingrich below via The Laura Ingraham Show:

(h/t Jeff Poor @ The Daily Caller)

George Will, Laura Ingraham, newt gingrich, The Laura Ingraham Show

Anonymous

A bad hairpiece, a rodent face, and Mr. Peepers specs are three things Newt doesn’t have; but George Will has all three.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Laurence-Glavin/100000568386394 Laurence Glavin

Gingrich = Gen. DeGaulle? Not quite http://www.nhgazette.com/display/?id=39
http://www.facebook.com/people/Mark-Williams/100000431800956 Mark Williams

Gosh another angry conservative! Who would have thought it! You guys infest this site like rodents.
Anonymous

Ethics is another thing Newt doesn’t have.
Anonymous

HILARIOUS
Henry Wood

Wisdom, ethics, dignity, humility, honesty…
Anonymous

Bad mouthing George Will makes republicans look stupid. Just stupid. This man is a true conservative who has for years grounded his beliefs in the Constitution and explains his positions in light of history and an deft understanding of the documents and philosophy that founded this country. You can disagree with the man if you are a democrat/liberal based on a fundamentally different understanding of the Constitution but conservatives have no reason to except he speaks truth and it makes your flavor of the month look bad. I challenge anyone to point out how anything he said in the clip is incorrect.

So many of you Mediate posters are so freaking stupid and anti-thought it makes me sick. Liberals and Conservatives. Read a freaking book and stop bickering like little kids.
Anonymous

If you’re even half as ugly as most of your comments, I think you’d be happy to have a bad hairpiece, a rodent face and Mr. Peepers specs.
Anonymous

I won’t quibble with the rest, but I have sat next to Will on a plane for two hours; his hair is real, FYI.
Anonymous

Good Lord!
What in the hell is that thing running around on top of George’s head???
Set some traps George, and take it far, far out into the forest and release it unharmed.
Anonymous

That was an obvious attempt at Name-Dropping!!
Hey look at me, I SET NEXT TO GEORGE WILL!
I am impressed, for sure. lol
david r

Sure would be nice to have some moderate candidate come in and rescue the GOP, but NOOO ! ! ! George Will has to take a big steamy piss on him.
Rex derWunderGott

ex, surprised u didn’t raise this: a Mediaite piece about a Fuppet “interview” with the Great Denier of Non-conservationist Con-hood, relying on a critique at Hot Air.

I can feel Mediaite wanting more and more to go this route. Next: a guest piece by Ace of Ace of Spades HQ – “8th in a Series: How To Make Sure Your Spade Is Really Truly Aced”, live from the annual preXmas NRA Turkey (& Syria & Afghanistan) Shoot.
Rex derWunderGott

Hey, what can we say? The guy is a complete whore to the denier crowd.
Anonymous

What the hell does his hair have to do with anything that he said? Is this Styleite?
Steven Berry

Is it true that one can easily identify wimp-ass Demon-crats….First..they are what they are because of brain damage gone full tilt..they are limp in the wrist..They all look like Rosanne..and they all wear kerosene soaked garters to keep the piss ant’s away from their candy shaved asses..if you see them..you will have smelled them first..approach them asawaif type woman..gain their attention ..and call the extermination nation to rid us of these nasty pests
Anonymous

What have you got against rodents to compare them to conservative trolls?
Anonymous

CLASSIC George Will always speaks his mind.
Anonymous

thank you for keeping the trend going on this site, showing just how juvenile and low IQ the rightwingers are who hang out around here.
Anonymous

he didn’t set , he sit
http://twitter.com/THov845 Tim Hovious

sat
Anonymous

huh
jones.barry

who died and made george will boss?
Anonymous

All rancid butter, all half-rotten meat, all soggy vegetable, all dried out baked goods, all things that are perishable at the super market, have a “BEST BEFORE” label on them.

Too bad, politicians and know-it-all pundits don’t.

Creeps like any Senator “serving” more than two terms, any representative “serving” more than three terms, any pundit spewing nonsense for more than a dozen years should have the appropriate “BEST BEFORE” label on their forehead burned with a hot branding iron, forever!

George Will, when and what did you ever DO for Americans? Just curious, because your high and mighty crap serves no purpose and appeals to only to those who don’t have to work for a living.

Get a “BEST BEFORE” label with a date “January 1980″ burned on your forehead and wear it with pride for one weekend on ABC. Then fade into obscurity.
Anonymous

Newt is ego-maniac and labels himself as a an intellectual. He maybe the tallest person in the land of the pigmys. This suggests to me that he actually has low self-esteem and is trying to prove especially to himself (and, of course, others) how smart he is.

He seems to be quite self destructive and selfish. Did I mention evil and would be a danger to our nation should he become president?

Don’t worry: it will be Obama vs. Mitt and Obama will win.
Anonymous

A brain is one thing that George Will doesn’t have.
Anonymous

Note to George Will: since when was a lack of wisdom EVER a negative for a Republican candidate for president? It wasn’t one in 2000, 2004 or 2008. Why is it suddenly a concern of yours now? The lack of wisdom in the Republican candidate in the last 3 presidential elections didn’t prevent you from enthusiastically supporting them over the Democratic candidate. What prompted the sudden change of heart? The realization that the results of 2000 and 2004 were disastrous for the country? I don’t recall hearing that one from George Will, so it must be something else.
Anonymous

was seated
Anonymous

…and then you woke up and found the whole season was a dream episode. Bobby never left Southfork and Obama was defeated in a landslide.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_U7T5LVIQK7AMIBM5WI765VDVDQ smald4lib

Newt claims he’s an intellectual giant, but what is he talking about? How to get kids to clean up the school……Of all the problems we have and that’s it, and notice who’s clapping? I rest my case. The Republican party is no where to be found but exists in la, la land of libertarianism.
Anonymous

“Moderate” Republicans do not advance/protect the conservative cause; they obfuscate conservatism; usurp ti’s principles.
Anonymous

Is Mr. Will exhibiting penis envy?
Anonymous

I guess that makes his take in your man invalid. Do us all a favor and don’t reproduce.
Douglas W. Rodrigues

Newt has often demonstrated that he has none of what you mentioned. Newt is for Newt, and will slant his vocalizings to go along with whatever is popular for any particular day.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Reasonable-Views/100002798439588 Reasonable Views

More evidence that there is a pathway for Jon Huntsman, if he would just take it. He needs to look at the old videos of himself in Utah and be THAT Jon Huntsman, not the one whining about a “trust deficit” with no concrete points to make and no time to appear in front of conservatives (like Huckabee’s audience). http://bit.ly/sZ9v7V