# So If Gingrich Wins The Presidency... **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [January 27, 2012, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-if-gingrich-wins-the-presidency/610910 "2012-01-27T21:24:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Quasimodem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e274bd/32.png) [@Quasimodem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quasimodem)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2012, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-if-gingrich-wins-the-presidency/610910/1 "2012-01-27T21:24:30Z")
… I will know him up close and (somewhat) personal, since he taught me History at West Georgia College (now the University of West Georgia) and I’ve had him in my broadcast studio when I interviewed him during his run for Congress. Have any of you known a president? Thanks Q ---
**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2012, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-if-gingrich-wins-the-presidency/610910/2 "2012-01-27T21:41:48Z")
You must be so…horrified ---
**Author:** ![DigitalC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ebca7d/32.png) [@DigitalC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DigitalC)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2012, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-if-gingrich-wins-the-presidency/610910/3 "2012-01-27T21:42:07Z")
I was good friends with the grandson of former Peruvian president Belaunde Terry and saw him around the house a few times. I was very young though and don’t remember much. ---
**Author:** ![joebuck20](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/74df32/32.png) [@joebuck20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joebuck20)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2012, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-if-gingrich-wins-the-presidency/610910/4 "2012-01-28T04:09:43Z")
How was he as a professor? ---
**Author:** ![Quasimodem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e274bd/32.png) [@Quasimodem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quasimodem)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2012, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-if-gingrich-wins-the-presidency/610910/5 "2012-01-28T04:29:07Z")
Very likeable. He made the course fun, and I never knew he had political aspirations until he ran for the Georgia House, **joe**. But he screwed up big time when he got a little “taste” of power. He divorced his first wife after she was diagnosed with cancer (there may have been other reasons, but that’s the one that got the locals upset). He was fronted some money to write a book, and he really dragged his heels on that one. Window of Opportunity was finally released and all was fine for a while. Well, we all know the rest, right? I have to be honest with you, though, **joe** : I got stars in my eyes, and when I no longer worked as news director for the radio station, I joined his “team”, and I stayed with it until he started fuckin’ up. Now I don’t know, my friend. “Strange bedfellows, pretty mama. Strange bedfellows, indeed” (That’s not directed at you, **joebuck20** , okay? Just fracturing a John Lennon quote. :)) (Or was it Jerry Garcia? I can never tell those 2 apart!) Thanks! Quasi ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2012, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-if-gingrich-wins-the-presidency/610910/6 "2012-01-28T05:17:08Z")
I met Helen Clark when she was Prime Minister of New Zealand once. Does that count for anything? ---
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2012, 5:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-if-gingrich-wins-the-presidency/610910/7 "2012-01-28T05:39:43Z")
Paul Keating said hello to me before he was Prime Minister of Australia. ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2012, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-if-gingrich-wins-the-presidency/610910/8 "2012-01-28T13:30:04Z")
Well, if we’re counting Presidential hopefuls my dad worked on some stuff with Howard Dean (they were both Docs in the same town) and so I had a few conversations with him over the years. Seemed like a nice guy, or at least nice enough to chat with a to young to vote teenager while we were standing around. (I was hoping Dean would win and my dad could talk his way into a ambassadorship to Fiji or something, but alas) ---
**Author:** ![CheeseDonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ecae2f/32.png) [@CheeseDonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CheeseDonkey)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2012, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-if-gingrich-wins-the-presidency/610910/9 "2012-01-28T13:42:12Z")
I knew the president of the local auto dealers’ association. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2012, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-if-gingrich-wins-the-presidency/610910/10 "2012-01-29T01:36:24Z")
> [@Quasimodem](#): > > … I will know him up close and (somewhat) personal, since he taught me History at West Georgia College (now the University of West Georgia) and I’ve had him in my broadcast studio when I interviewed him during his run for Congress. So, you could get close to him with a weapon? ---
**Author:** ![E-Sabbath](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e19adc/32.png) [@E-Sabbath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-Sabbath)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2012, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-if-gingrich-wins-the-presidency/610910/11 "2012-01-29T01:38:11Z")
When my grandpa was travelling on his scrap metal work, he used to stop at a greek diner that was owned by Ralph Nader’s folks. They brought their kid to work, and so my Grandpa knew him reasonable well. Grandpa called him the most poisonous kid he ever met. ---
**Author:** ![Quasimodem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e274bd/32.png) [@Quasimodem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quasimodem)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2012, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-if-gingrich-wins-the-presidency/610910/12 "2012-01-29T01:46:13Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > So, you could get close to him with a weapon? 🙂 Don’t think so, these days. Last time I was in touch with him was when I found out I was sick, and contacted him as an Alzheimer’s Advocate (me, not him), but he never answered. He paid some “lip service” to us, but nothing really useful. Q ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2012, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-if-gingrich-wins-the-presidency/610910/13 "2012-01-29T01:48:29Z")
I have been part of a large pool interviewing Clinton. I was WAY to junior to do more than take notes. I’ve met Gingrich in the 90s as part of a group of three he pontificated at. Smart guy. But I found him rambling and unfocused. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2012, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-if-gingrich-wins-the-presidency/610910/14 "2012-01-29T02:44:48Z")
> [@Jonathan\_Chance](#): > > I have been part of a large pool interviewing Clinton. I was WAY to junior to do more than take notes. > > I’ve met Gingrich in the 90s as part of a group of three he pontificated at. Smart guy. But I found him rambling and unfocused. If that’s what we want, we shoulda picked Jerry Brown when we had the chance.