Clearly Newt Gingrich has been preparing and rehearsing endlessly for this question,
“You adamantly oppose gay rights… but you’ve also been married three times and admitted to having an affair with your current wife while you were still married to your second. As a successful politician who’s considering running for president, who would set the bar for moral conduct and be the voice of the American people, how do you reconcile this hypocritical interpretation of the religious values that you so vigorously defend?”
This question was asked, eloquently and with "due respect," by a college student, Isabel Friedman, who is President of the College Democrats at The University of Pennsylvania.
I assume she framed the question carefully so as not to give Newt ammunition against her. For instance, she did not bring up that this extramarital affair with now-wife Callista Gingrich lasted over six years, and overlapped with the time he was pushing for the impeachment of Bill Clinton with a lot of pro-family values talk. She did not bring up a host of other skeletons in the Gingrich closet, or the fact that he resigned his office as House Speaker on ethics grounds. No one in the mainstream media EVER brings THAT up.
Newt's answer, nevertheless, is extremely rehearsed.
“I’ve had a life which, on occasion, has had problems. I believe in a forgiving God, and the American people will have to decide whether that’s their primary concern. If the primary concern of the American people is my past, my candidacy would be irrelevant, if the primary concern of the American people is the future . . . that’s a debate I’ll be happy to have.”
On the other hand, "The American People" can't decide about the personal life of a candidate if David Gregory continues to have Newt on his show and never brings it up. And really, we're all to the point with Gingrich (and his blatant and not occasional hypocrisy about sex) that his permanent seat on Meet the Gregory (h/t Daily Show) says more about David Gregory than it does about Newt Gingrich, the end.
