Newt Gingrich Is Making a Comeback

in all senses of the word. He has made a comeback on the national stage, and he has made a comeback into being one of the most reviled people in the country.

However, the issue in this campaign will be Obama, not Gingrich. Obama isn't LBJ; he is one lameassed excuse for a president. He is vulnerable to being the target of demogoguery.

A little bit of populism like what Gingrich is peddling, has gone a long way.

Gingrich is a deeply unpopular figure, dating back to his role as the leader of the Republican-controlled House of Representatives in the 1990s, which twice forced the partial shutdown of the federal government in an effort to push through drastic cuts in Medicare and other social programs, and then impeached President Clinton in a scandal engineered by Clinton’s ultra-right opponents.

According to recent polls, Gingrich is viewed unfavorably by 60 percent of the American public, compared to only 26 percent that view him favorably.

That such an individual could seriously challenge for the presidency underscores the dangers confronting working people from the monopoly on US politics exercised by the two right-wing big business parties. The Obama administration has carried out the bidding of Wall Street interests throughout its three years in office, beginning with the extension and expansion of the bailout of the banks begun under George W. Bush. The White House exudes indifference to the plight of the unemployed and poor, thus lending a shred of credibility to Gingrich’s demagogy about Obama as a “food-stamp president”, and not a “jobs president”.