The Psychology of Newt

Gingrich is the type person who loves power too much -- he's addicted to power. On one hand, Gingrich made his name as a conservative revolutionary, but Gingrich is not a limited government/free market true believer. I'm sure Gingrich has a general predisposition to "small" government, which means efficient and not too much meddling, but he is not a true believer as in the Old Right. Gingrich saw a political path to power which entailed promoting certain ideas which opposed Tax and Spend Liberals who placed more importance on socialistic, political solutions than economic, private sector solutions. The grand ideas espoused during the Reagan era struck a public chord, and Gingrich borrowed the rhetoric in order to enhance his political rise.

Gingrich believed he was oppressed by powerful, liberal elites, mostly envy on Newt's part regarding the elites positions of power. Gingrich could never compete in that closed circle, so he fought as an under-dog, champion of the people, defender of liberty. Gingrich happened to be in the right political place at the right political time and he achieved a position of power. Once in power, a need was temporarily fulfilled, and then the desire to fight as the defender of liberty was extinguished. Gingrich could then enjoy the benfits of power, prestige and position. Gingrich had no principled long-term vision to start with, just a vision of how to do what was necessary to attain power. Then, because Gingrich is a smart guy, intellectually restless and ambitious, he started working with anyone who could help him see his ideas come to fruition, even if the ideas entailed statist implementation and collaboration with liberals. Gingrich knew what would solve problems and he didn't care how his solutions became reality -- he had power and he was going to excercise his power. The concept of limits to power didn't occur to Gingrich, so he over-reached and was rejected by his party.

Now that Newt has decided to run for President -- The Real Power Prize -- he's gone back to his old playbook, even portraying Mitt Romney as an enemy of his "small" government conservative, underdog strategy. Newt has convinced himself that Romney represents the elite who're trying to keep him out of the circle of power. Gingrich is a power addict, and until he hets help, it will only get worse.