Rabid Right nips at Gingrich; Obama's gutsy faceoff with Israel

     Newt Gingrich has a well-deserved reputation as a loose-lipped agitator, which he probably thought should play well in today's political atmosphere. Problem is, he got candid about one of the icons of the Right's movement to deconstruct government -- Rep. Paul Ryan's budget plan.
     Gingrich forgot that centrist, moderate arguments are for the general election, not the primary. The primary campaign is where the most extreme, radical, over-the-top ideals are put forth to attract the worker bees for the partisans. So when Gingrich says that Ryan's plan is too radical, well, it makes the worker bees buzz angrily, and sting.
      The same effect is what set the dogs to barking when President Obama made candid comments about what needs to be done if we are ever going to have any chance of peace in the Middle East. He said Israel may have to control the radicals in their country who think they have a right to whatever land beckons for settlement. That's true, but it's not what the radicals on the Israeli Right want to hear. It offends American Jews who have tied their own identity to Israel as much as they have to The United States. Many of those American Jews -- 31 percent in the last election -- voted for Obama.
     Now, there are those who would not vote for him or donate to his campaign if he parted the Red Sea. There's that doubt about the Muslim-sounding name, tool.
     The President is opposed by Republicans for -- well, whatever.
     Whatever you think of Gingrich, or Obama, each spoke candidly -- perhaps even told the truth -- and each are paying for it.
     Also this week, the man considered a solid leader with skills and experience you seek in a president said he will not run for the Republican nomination. Mitch Daniels, the governor of Indiana, is respected by moderate Republicans and Democrats, but he will not subject his family to the muck that would fly in a primary campaign.
    That tells you something about politics, which is, of course, that truth and ability are not valued as much as rhetoric by the absolutists who are most involved in the selection and support of candidates. And with the primary systems we have in this country, the only choices that more reasonable folks among us have are what's left after all the shouting and lying is over..