Newt Gingrich Quotes
I'm going to be the nominee. It's very hard not to look at the recent polls and think that the odds are very high I'm going to be the nominee.
Gingrich, Newt. Interview by Jake Tapper. Good Morning America, ABC, 1 Dec. 2011.
At that time the Presidential nominee had influence but could not unilaterally determine who his running mate would be as the Party Conventions—especially the Democratic Party Convention—was wide open. The candidate joked in this quotation, but the party leaders were very unhappy with such an open convention and after the 1972 election which they lost handily, the rules were changed to give party leaders more influence. By the 21st century, the primary elections had all but made the party conventions a quaint celebration and no serious decisions were made by the party leaders or the party delegates.
Harriman was the senior Democratic leader of the era. Every aspiring Democratic politician would make it his business to get to meet Harriman and try and get his endorsement. However, Carter was not a typical politician and when he decided to run for the Presidency, he had not even met many of the leading Democratic Party leaders. Harriman, a man of the old school, could not believe that anyone in the party who he did not know could possibly have the connections and the sophistication to win the presidency. However, Watergate had seared the American political soul and voters were not looking for a veteran, sophisticated politician. Nixon had been that.
His opponent was Al Gore Sr. whose wife came up with the idea of placing signs underneath the McKeller signs saying, “Think Some More and Vote For Gore!”
Newton Leroy Gingrich is an American politician and author who served as the 50th Speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 1995 to 1999. A member of the Republican Party, he was the U.S. Representative for Georgia's 6th congressional district serving north Atlanta and nearby areas from 1979 until his resignation in 1999. In 2012, Gingrich unsuccessfully ran for the Republican nomination for President of the United States.
