Republican presidential candidate, Newt Gingrich, is not the ideal husband. Affairs litter his past and who would be surprised if new revelations appeared in the tabloids news? But does this invalidate Gingrich for the presidency?
From a purely objective standpoint, it does not. In my opinion, there have been many great leaders of men who were horrible husbands of wives. They were unable to correlate their leadership abilities with their marriage responsibilities. It’s a sad and unfortunate fact – an issue worthy of study to be sure. Yet, I do not believe personal mistakes or the lack thereof are predictors of presidential accomplishments.
Having said that, Gingrich is in a slightly different situation. He was the one who led the charge against former President Bill Clinton and talked ad nauseum about family values. In instances where a politician stands for X publicly and seems to do Y privately, that definitely matters. It matters because it speaks to the honesty of the man running for president and how honest they will be with the American people. Are they able to rally the family values troops all the while conducting an illicit affair? That’s different than having the same affair while asking North Korea to halt their nuclear weapons program.
Catch the difference?
So as Gingrich’s ex-wife talks about his indiscretions, Gingrich needs to take care in his response. Because in this case his lovelife does matter.
