
Newt Gingrich's politics are not my own, but there have been flashes of brilliance, and generally I have always considered him to be one of the most intelligent "thinkers" within the Republican Party. Even my friend former President Bill Clinton said as much in recent public comments, and Mr. Clinton has good reason to be more than a little hesitant about Mr. Gingrich.
You could agree with him, or passionately disagree with him, and maybe even question intent with respect to some of his actions while in public office. This said, generally speaking I cannot remember ever saying he sounded just plain dumb. Comments by Mr. Gingrich two weeks ago, unfortunately, changed that for me.
Recently the former Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich, took a pretty smart public policy idea -- that of encouraging the economic energy of all of America's young people -- and turned it into a pretty dumb political stunt. Worse, it was a political stunt that spoke down, and into the dark well of some of the worse aspects of human prejudice. That unspoken bias and belief that '... there's nothing wrong in limiting the aspirations of little black and brown kids to being say... a janitor in America.'