Gingrich reckless, little to offer

Each one of the seemingly endless line of Republican debates makes it increasingly clear that Newt Gingrich is little more than a reckless egomaniac who'd sacrifice everything and everyone around him if it served his insatiable appetite for self-aggrandizement. He may be a specialist in zingers, but there will come a point when people will tire of his caustic wiseguy remarks and come to understand that's about all he has to offer and see him as a political pygmy toting a nasty verbal blowgun.

A lot of Gingrich's supporters seem to relish the thought of Gingrich parading his smart-aleck comments in debates with Obama and embarrassing and wounding and eventually destroying Obama with verbal darts. That's a shortsighted and misguided objective - absolutely stupid, wishful thinking.

Obama's no pussycat when it comes to debating. It's more than likely that Obama will readily overcome Gingrich's insults, fire back some winning zingers of his own at the highly flawed and vulnerable Gingrich, and ultimately make Gingrich out to look like the egocentric, unprincipled and uncontrollable chameleon that he really is.

All of Gingrich's cute and clever gibes - if they do earn him the Republican nomination - aren't going to get Republicans and conservatives anywhere but down the drain. Oh, there might be some titillating and even explosive verbal exchanges to open up the Gingrich-Obama debates. But after these short-lived and entertaining debate fireworks are over, there will be nothing left but a lot of foul-smelling smoke and four more years of Obama.

Larry Blades

Iowa City