I admit to being rather stunned that Newt — clearly trying so hard to not give a clip usable for the “he’s mean!” lobby against him (yes, after that Mr. Nice performance I have no doubt he is running) — not only allowed,but, as Iain notes, invited a guy to run roughshod over his own time, without rebuke, through interruptions that Newt could have quite civilly admonished–and mostly in rambling discourse that demonstrated an inability or unwillingness to finish a thought, and typically not even a sentence. He just kept throwing out every possible buzzword and catchphrase with no apparent plan to complete any particular train of thought.
And that’s not thoughtless ad hominem; my challenge to you is wait for the transcript then try to make heads or tails of this gushing flow of ice caps and whales and corals and these entire systems and and and…when unaccompanied by all of the gesticulation. Assuming I can get one, I will note my favorites.
On at least five occasions I was sure that Newt was poised to note that, not only are all mandates not created equal, but this list of success stories in the US was a litany of promises made, period, that no one has successfully used cap-and-trade to reduce emissions, and indeed Europe’s emissions have increased faster than the US beginning the year they abandoned “voluntaryism” (gee, could Bush or Newt get away with that one?) in favor of Kerry’s Wirtschaftswunder of a rationing scheme, a performance gap that is widening. Europe publishes their own charts for heaven’s sake! It shuts down Kerry’s entire, um…it’s hard to say argument…approach.
Newt also let go the horns of low-hanging fruit about the wonders and glories and salvation found in corporate rent-seeking. Exposing that wouldn’t mesh with the “nice” theme I suppose. In short, that was not Newt’s moment. Hopefully, he will rethink the appeasement approach to debating.