Newt Gingrich announced today that he would not be running for President in the next election.  He cited an incompatibility that arose from McCain-Feingold campaign laws.  It would be illegal, apparently, even to investigate a Presidential bid, if he still wished to stay as chairman of his brainchild organization, American Solutions.  

He believes that leading American Solutions in its infancy is a more important role for him now than the Presidency.

I've been a huge fan of Newt for several years and am bitterly disappointed by the news.  There's many a saddened visitor at newt.org tonight.

So why are supporters unhappy?  Because many feel he picked the wrong fork of the road, and some such as myself feel it leads to a dead end.

I hope American Solutions works, I hope it lasts, and I hope it changes the country for the better.  But I know that Newt as President would have.  Guaranteed.

There are some culpable vagueries about this decision earlier today.  First, how can you go for years both creating American Solutions and also positioning yourself for a Presidential bid, and not find out ahead of time that they would be mutually exclusive?  A deceitful excuse at worst, but more than likely just poorly-executed due diligence.

Second, why the rush to judgment?  Within hours after a phone call with his attorney that he couldn't do both, he had a press statement saying that he wasn't running, no way, no how.  Surely when you are running you want to get the word out, but can there ever be any reason to announce immediately that you are NOT running? 

Third, he should have looked for other possibilities.  Certainly there's more collective brain-power in the world audience than just one attorney's opinion.  Newt was already scheduled to be on ABC's talk show on Sunday morning.  He could easily have explained there that he was going to be forced not to run because of those McCain-Feingold issues.  Maybe there'd be a suggestion or a savior, maybe he really could have done both or had someone step in to run American Solutions.

But even if there was no workaround, he still should have chosen to run for President, and resigned from American Solutions.  Even if it meant the death of his new organization.

Newt had a lot more chance of effecting change from the office of the President, rather than from what's looking to me like an organization that simply puts on seminars.

I was excited about American Solutions when I first heard about it.  A grass roots effort, where ideas would be assimilated from the rank and file, packaged, and presented to the important decision makers within government.  I signed up right away, and I got emails every so often that it was coming soon, in just so-and-so many days.  I wrote down any ideas I had for new ways to change the status quo.

But from the beginning, I never knew how or even what I was really supposed to contribute.  I kept waiting for an email to explain my role, and it never came.  I looked for web pages with some information, and couldn't find any.  It reeked of the stench of poor organizing.

Then I figured out that there really was no role for me.  I could try to find a workshop in my area, from a small list of first names and no addresses.  I didn't know if they were in town or in another state.  Not appealing, and still no idea what I would be doing.

It came down to watching seminars on the internet.  The moderators/speakers could give me action points I could do later.  It hardly sounded like a bottom-up organization.  In fact, the notion was so uninteresting, that American Solutions Day came and went and I had forgotten to participate.

My experience may be unique, but I have the hunch that there are many others like me who could have contributed to some ideal organization, and could not find a way to express their voices.  Still, it didn't matter to me, so long as Newt could be President and get his ideas enacted.

Grass roots efforts are hard simply to will into being; they have to emerge from emotions and luck.  Ross Perot's United We Stand did not have a name for a long time.  It had already happened before it was even christened.

Assuming they do materialize, there's not much history of them being effective.  With the exception of the civil rights movement, all the others I can think of ended miserably and unsuccessfully (the Populists, United We Stand, Howard Dean's campaign).

Another facet of American Solutions was to provide non-partisan reports to politicians at all levels and branches of government.  The hope was probably to have the spirit of acceptance that the 9-11 Commission report and the Iraq Study Group received.  They provided much cover to politicians so they did not have to think for themselves or be held accountable.

This raison-d'etat will never occur through American Solutions.  First, it is almost entirely a conservative base, because conservativism appeals to solution-oriented thinkers.  Second, as long as Newt Gingrich is the leader of it, it will never be accepted as non-partisan. 

Third, most politicians do want to be seen as having their own mind, not parroting whatever an outside organization says.  It's okay for a single report on an extremely sensitive topic, but not for issue after issue. 

Lastly, if the organization ever does achieve true non-partisanship, the results will be as milquetoast as those of the other bi-partisan commissions I mentioned.  Effective leadership comes from initiative, not by committee.

So to throw away a golden opportunity for his late entry into the Presidential race, in lieu of a small sickly organization with no future, is by far the wrong choice as I see it.  I'm sorry Newt saw it so differently.

I believe you have to grab the bully pulpit outright, only then you can stand up and start preaching.

What Newt should have done, and still can frankly, is become the Republican Party's candidate and then evoke the exact same grass roots inclinations behind American Solutions, but with the full power of the party backing him.  

Make the Republican Party the party of ideas and solutions, and make these workshops paid for and sponsored by the party.  To get back to Reagan principles, the Republicans need to embrace their ideals and conclusions anyway, not run from them in favor of blander bi-partisan acceptance.

If Newt were President, he could command that from his party.  And maybe both parties would start coming up with ideas and solutions, rather than repackaging style over substance.  We'd all be better off.

But we'll never end up knowing.  Newt's made his choice it seems.  And it's not to be President.

Deep down I still hope it proves to be the right one.  But I have my doubts.