When this story broke yesterday I rolled my eyes and laughed like pretty much everyone else in the country. It was one of those moments… I like Newt, he’s a fascinating, and occasionally brilliant, political thinker, but for whatever reason he just doesn’t seem to know when to shut-up:
There’s no question at times of my life, partially driven by how passionately I felt about this country, that I worked far too hard and things happened in my life that were not appropriate. And what I can tell you is that when I did things that were wrong, I wasn’t trapped in situation ethics, I was doing things that were wrong, and yet, I was doing them. I found that I felt compelled to seek God’s forgiveness. Not God’s understanding, but God’s forgiveness. I do believe in a forgiving God. And I think most people, deep down in their hearts hope there’s a forgiving God.
Somebody once said that when we’re young, we seek justice, but as we get older, we seek mercy. There’s something to that, I think. I feel that I’m now 67 I’m a grandfather. I have two wonderful grandchildren. I have two wonderful daughters and two great sons-in-law. Callista and I have a great marriage. I think that I’ve learned an immense amount.
And I do feel, in that sense, that God has given me, has blessed me with an opportunity as a person. Forget about all this political stuff. As a person, I’ve had the opportunity to have a wonderful life, to find myself now, truly enjoying the depths of my life in ways that I never dreamed it was possible to have a life that was that nice.
It’s a fascinating and frightening glimpse in to the mind of the man… At the same time he is admitting that he did wrong, he’s trying to justify his behavior by aggrandizing himself, which is why I’m convinced he should not run for president.
Morality aside, from a political perspective if this is the best argument he can make as why voters should separate his personal indiscretions from his performance in office he’s doomed.