I admit that I'm a little, but only a little, surprised that the airing of Newt's serial adultery failed to hurt him in the polls. Newt even managed to win among married women in South Carolina. Among neurotypical women, an adaptation of a common Scriptural adage might as well apply:
Blessed be the alpha male, for women shall not impute his sins against him.
Were the (completely true) accusations against, say, Romney or Santorum, they would almost certainly be fatal, as they were against Cain and a host of other politicians. But Newt deftly deploys a reframe and shames the questioner, and probably gains support rather than loses it. The fact that he's consistently talked a 'family values' line that he manifestly fails to live up with is irrelevant. Only non-alphas get held to standards of hypocrisy by the neurotypical woman who is on the same side of the red/blue tribal boundaries. Perhaps the easiest way to describe Newt is a lesser Bill Clinton, an appetite in a suit. They've got nearly all the same markers, but Clinton is (IMO) slightly smarter---I view Clinton as likely @3 sigma and Newt between 2 and 3--and somewhat more charismatic. Neither lacks the ability to seduce though, and they have nearly exactly the same vices. I suppose some of the delta between their respective approval ratings can be explained by their median media coverage (Clinton, fawning vs Newt, hostile).
My gut tells me that neither Clinton nor Gingrich is neurotypical---that both of them are just running emulation. Emulation that good should be viewed with extreme scrutiny, as it indicates truly exceptional capacity for deception, without even the need to believe one's own bullshit like a more neurotypical liar would need to. What do you call someone with no intrinsic sense of gratitude? Neurotypical. What do you call someone who doesn't run away from being called selfish? Non-neurotypical. What do you call someone with neither a gratitude heart OR at inclination towards unselfishness?
Apparently you call him a candidate for the presidency of the United States.
The Modern Shofar and Western Steel
18 hours ago
4 comments:
Where do you find that Gingrich won married women?
The exit poll data as published by CNN does not reports only married vs unmarried, and does not distinguish male vs female among the married.
Vote By Gender
Gingrich
42% Men
38% Women
Romney
26% Men
29% Women
I have my suspicions that a fair share of South Carolina voters rejected Romney solely because he is seen as a New-England Yankee, a "Massachussetts Moderate" as 'Southerner' Newt Gingrich called him again and again before the SC crowds.
Primary Schedule
Jan 31st: Florida [stripped of half of delegates]
Feb 4th: Nevada, Maine
Feb 7th: Missouri
Feb 28th: Michigan, Arizona
Romney should easily win Nevada (on Mormon strength) and Maine. Let's wait till Feb 7th, once Missouri votes before judging Newt the inevitable nominee...*shudder*.
Hail,
Fox reported that he took @40% of married women.
Google search for "married women" and the South Carolina primary.
I agree that nobody is inevitable at this point---even Ron Paul is down in the low single digit percentages.
Florida will be the big question mark. If things turn out really close, look to see Florida aggressively demanding back their half of their delegates.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/can-newt-gingrich-capitalize-on-sc-momentum-in-florida-primary/2012/01/23/gIQAG3ugLQ_story.html
This isn't the article I used, but it contains much the same information.
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