Matthew Dowd is a Fundamentally Ridiculous Person

As i just said on @msnbc @11thHour "Newt Gingrich dumped toxins in the lake (of America) and now he's complaining about a three-eyed fish like Matt Gaetz."

— Matthew Dowd (@matthewjdowd) October 3, 2023

Remind me. What was Matthew Dowd doing during those many decades when Gingrich was poisoning our politics?

Here's a hint:

Zell Miller, Newt Gingrich, Matt Dowd, Oh My!

By Carl Hulse

Aug. 2, 2004

The Bush campaign on Sunday stepped-up its efforts to change the subject from the Democratic National Convention's focus on John Kerry's military record to Mr. Kerry's record during 20 years in the Senate.

Senator Zell Miller, the Georgia Democrat who has allied himself with President Bush, stuck to the talking points on "Meet the Press" when he picked up the theme that Democrats are trying to make Mr. Kerry's Senate service disappear.

"If you will look at his record in the Senate, which is something they didn't talk about at all during the Democratic convention, it was as if he has been in a witness protection program somewhere and didn't even exist, incognito somewhere," said Mr. Miller. "He's been on the wrong side of foreign policy issues for the last 20 years."

Bush pollster Matthew Dowd and former House speaker Newt Gingrich tried to make the same case on "Fox News Sunday."...

 

Here's another:

Dowd: Don't Count Gingrich Out So Fast

By Matthew Dowd December 23, 2011

Many times we each get caught up in stories and we keep repeating them, even though they no longer apply to the current reality. We ignore facts along the way that give us opposing evidence because it just seems easier and more comfortable to keep repeating a story or narrative that we have made part of ourselves.

This happens in so many areas of our life including relationships, our families, our work, and in politics. So often in relationships we come up with a story that we just can't let go of, no matter how much the recent evidence tells us of the contrary. We are locked into a story that for our own internal psyche is just hard to break...

Yadda yadda yadda

But let's look at the facts. While Gingrich's support has fallen off a bit nationally from his high, three recent polls have come out showing the race dead even. In ABC, CBS, and CNN polling, the race is way too close to call.  Further, in Gallup's daily tracking on the race for the Republican nomination, Gingrich's lead evaporated quickly, but in the latest track he is now back ahead of Romney.

For every other Republican that rose and fell in this race (Michele Bachmann, Rick Perry, Herman Cain) once their drop started, they never recovered and ended up in single digits. This isn't true for Gingrich, and his staying power (and recovery strength) seems much different.  While we need to see what is going on in Iowa and Gingrich could be in big trouble there, his national standing is still as strong or stronger than Romney's. Gingrich could quote Mark Twain at this point concerning the false news of his demise: "The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated."

So let's all pause for a moment, take a look at things with a new set of eyes and heart, and see if we can allow what is currently true to write our story and not the faded engravings of a narrative which just isn't real any more.  It may cause us to have to make big change in our perspective or our lives, but in the end it is better to be loyal to the evolving truth than the myth of consistency.

Here's another, which includes a long sidebar about how awful "divisiveness" in Washington, and how Both Sides are to blame, but how much worse Obama made it by refusing to be a unifyer. 

Charlie Rose Show:  Matthew Dowd, analyst for ABC News and a former strategist for George W. Bush, looks at Newt Gingrich's campaign and why it poses a threat to Mitt Romney's chances.

Burn The Lifeboats