Newt-wit

Interesting question, posed by David Corn in Mother Jones: "Will Gingrich lead the GOP out of the wilderness?" I know one person who definitely thinks so--Newt himself. For the past couple years Newt's been setting himself up as a the GOP's "idea guy." Sure, his supporters say, some of his ideas might seem a little crazy, but at least he's thinking. That's more than can be said for most other GOP bigwigs.

I'm skeptical that Newt is The One, though. First of all, let's not kid ourselves. He's not presidential timber. Is it unfair to say he doesn't look presidential? Forget fairness, then--he just doesn't look the part. Then there's the reality that the name "Gingrich" stirs up unpleasant memories for most Americans. Vague memories, but unpleasant ones nonetheless. To bring back Gingrich would be to take a dip in one of the sleazier eras of American politics; do we really want to put Bill Clinton and Monica back on center stage? Like it or not, Newt, but that's what you're associated with.

Then there's the ideas themselves. Judging from Corn's pieces, Newt is trying to remake himself as our first Web 2.0 Politician. Take a listen to some of his proposals:

Case in point: American Solutions. Its myriad projects include good-government initiatives, such as an effort to identify and connect all 513,000 elected officials in the United States so they can share best practices; its Solutions Academy features a video lecture by Elaine Kamarck, a one-time Al Gore aide, on how to modernize the federal bureaucracy. Last year, Gingrich sent American Solutions' director of Internet strategy, David Kralik, to Silicon Valley to set up an office and start mining the tech world for ideas. "There's an awful lot we can learn from the people who brought us Google," Kralik says. Referring to the explosion of user-review sites, he asks, "What if we could Yelp the federal government or local dmvs?"

The man wants to make government a mix of the best parts of Google, YouTube, and Facebook. Minus, hopefully, the hateful comment forums.

Is this the way to go? Undoubtedly, the government is going to grow more technocratic in the years to come. I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of Newt's ideas came to pass, albeit in a slightly changed form.

Maybe we won't have a forum connecting "all 513,000 elected officials" in the country. That plan seems a little too cumbersome, and a little too cute, to be real. What sort of benefit would we get from, say, a Senator from Iowa being able to communicate instantly with a San Diego city councilman? The advantages of inter-connectedness aren't unlimited. On a smaller scale, though, I think it would be a great idea.

The problem is that these are matters of process, not policy. And voters just don't care about process. Remember how much traction McCain got in 2008 by complaining about media bias? Things like electoral reform, government transparency, and legislative ethics just don't stir the blood the way economic, social, and foreign issues do.

So while Newt is going to be an invaluable resource to the GOP, we shouldn't stake all our hopes on some brilliant technocratic solution. The party is going to have to either go back to its core issues, or recreate itself a la the British Tory Party. We won't win by creating a national Twitter service.