When Newt Gingrich says that a campaign has gotten “unnecessarily personal and nasty,” I think we should believe him.
I’m just afraid, with all the clearly true things that Mitt Romney is now saying about Gingrich, that some low-information voters might be fooled into thinking that Romney makes a habit of telling the truth.
Author: Mark Kleiman
Professor of Public Policy at the NYU Marron Institute for Urban Management and editor of the Journal of Drug Policy Analysis. Teaches about the methods of policy analysis about drug abuse control and crime control policy, working out the implications of two principles: that swift and certain sanctions don't have to be severe to be effective, and that well-designed threats usually don't have to be carried out.
Books:
Drugs and Drug Policy: What Everyone Needs to Know (with Jonathan Caulkins and Angela Hawken)
When Brute Force Fails: How to Have Less Crime and Less Punishment (Princeton, 2009; named one of the "books of the year" by The Economist
Against Excess: Drug Policy for Results (Basic, 1993)
Marijuana: Costs of Abuse, Costs of Control (Greenwood, 1989)
UCLA Homepage
Curriculum Vitae
Contact: Markarkleiman-at-gmail.com
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What’s interesting is conservatives’ reflexive turn to whinese. Not an ounce of true character in any o’ them bones, Gingrich, Romney, Paul, Cain, Perry, Bachmann, maybe excepting Santorum (in which case I would argue a fragile simulacrum of rectitude). I deeply, sincerely hope they keep up their middle school antics and tantrums. This country - the world - desperately needs the implosion of modern American conservatism.
I deeply, sincerely hope they keep up their middle school antics and tantrums. This country – the world – desperately needs the implosion of modern American conservatism.
Yes, no doubt they will, but unfortunately the former is unlikely to lead to the latter.
I live in a Red State. The vast majority of the adult-aged population here is stuck in a middle school level emotional and intellectual developmental state. That is, those who somehow made it that far. The current Republican Party is a reasonably faithful representation of these people, sad as that is.
I’m reminded of a lyric from Frank Zappa’s “Dumb All Over (and a little ugly on the side)”: People, we is not wrapped tight!
I’ve gotta agree. If anyone in the universe knows “personal and nasty” campaigning it would be Newton Leroy Gingrich. I suppose Saxby Chambliss ought to get dishonorable mention in that sweepstakes.