Pssst, Newt… For Public Officials, Private Life Does Matter

Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich might insist that his private life doesn’t matter but it does.  Here’s why.

Whether they believe it or not, a U.S. president is the nation’s moral leader.  How can a president like Reagan stare down the Soviet Union and call them the “Evil Empire” if they themselves are corrupted by financial or personal vice?  Where would the moral authority be if a leader tells the American people to trust them to find the answers when they told their wives the same thing as they betrayed that trust?

It is not only personal failings that count but, more importantly, the excuses used to justify them which matter.   Here’s one thing Newt Gingrich recently said to “explain” his cheating ways:

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.

He’s laid the ground work for not being responsible for his actions.

Then it’s time to move beyond all that:

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.

The classic “God forgives me” line.  The upshot?  I’ve moved beyond this… I’ve “repented” so you should forgive me, too.

Then onto closure:

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.

These types of rationalizations could have come from a coke addict, a thief, murderer, alcoholic, or a wife beater.  Instead, they came from a presidential candidate.

Do we want someone in the nation’s highest office rationalizing his failures as a human in this way?  Would he accept responsibility if a terrorist attack happened on his watch or just blame Congress?

People will go to the ends of the Earth for someone in whom they Believe.  Key word being: Believe.  How could anyone Believe in someone like Newt..?

A U.S. president is not a Congressman from Podunk serving a two year term in the state legislature.  They aren’t a Senator in the U.S. Capitol being 1 voice among 100.  A U.S. president is the public representative of the most powerful nation which ever has existed with over 310 million people living within its borders.  A U.S. president could literally destroy all human life on this planet with only a few words.

That is a special person.

Humans are fallible and we as a species are often slaves to our desires whether they be food, power, money, sex, or liquor.  It is unrealistic to expect someone who is perfect to run for president (indeed nobody could rise to that level and still retain 100% of their ethics) but must we choose someone who pledged “Till death do us part” to three different women but cheated on two of them with women he would later marry?

What does virtually every child want to be when they grow up?

An astronaut or a president.

Those positions are considered, to the young, naive, and inexperienced (isn’t that a sad statement) to be the most noble, exciting, and best things one could do with their lives.

What would Little Johnny say if you told him all the unethical things a candidate has done up until the time they ran for president?  Little Johnny would most likely think a lot less of those people and the job they were seeking.

We can’t go through our lives pretending to view things the way an 8 year old does but we can’t pretend in a moment of “adult sophistication” to ignore why an 8 year old might see things they way they do (they’re uncorrupted by the “nuances” of maturity).

In short, Newton Gingrich has too many personal failings and is temperamentally unsuited to be president of the United States.

Trading Barack Obama for Newton Gingrich would be going from the frying pan into the fryer.

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