If Mr. Gingrich does indeed choose to compete in the free-for-all to select the next White House resident, I hope that his world-view can get the fullest possible exposure and receive a serious, in-depth critique by experts. I, for one, am tired of having the most responsible position in the world decided on the basis of cronyism, platitutes, a folksy manner, and a firm handshake. The debates do, in part, expose candidate strengths and weaknesses, provided the auditory canal is first examined and cleared of electronic implants.

In addition, I propose that each candidate be obligated to take the high school Advanced Placement tests, or their equivalents, in history, economics, geography, cultural anthropology, and biology, and not only that their scores be published, but their correct and incorrect answers be made a part of the public record. We need leaders that are demonstrably and independently knowledgable, not the intellectual prisoners of their sychophantic courtiers. We need to have confidence in their ability to use this knowledge base as a means of making wise choices.

The ignorant proponents of half-baked, unsubstantiated theories must be distinguished from those having substantial learning and intellectual accomplishments. Let us never again select a bumbling, dithering, witless semi-moron as our president. Too much is at stake.

Forstchen's "Lost Regiment" novels are a pretty good read, but this stuff sounds execrable. I'm going to stick to Harry Turtledove.

If this Congress had been in session during WWII, 1) they would have been awful young, 2) they would have had a commander in chief with an IQ over 80, and 3) they would have been fighting a WAR against a NATION, not a tactic. Hell, if Bushie were in charge on 12/7/41, he'd have declared a Global War on Aerial Bombardment...and then what would that have done to the development of the great US military-industrial complex?

"In the annals of alternative history, nothing could match the inspiring what-if story of how America won the Iraq war."

Newt is the most insightful and strategic thinker in the Republican party. We should hope that he's on the ticket in 2008, because it will raise the level of debate and, thus, public discourse.

He is probably too controversial to be at the top of the ticket, but he is certainly capable of showing Cheney what an effective VP should look like! Even if his ticket loses (a reasonable expectation), the newly elected President and VP will probably have acquired some creative ideas they can use ... in their own way, of course.

Poor Newt...he can gussy up his far-fringe ideas in serious sounding phrases, but the core of the matter is he is a deeply flawed man, damaged goods...they run him for President and whoever the Dem nominee is would thrash him.

Yamamoto was actually Nagumo's superior and as such, Yamamoto was supposed to stay in Japan and guide the overall naval strategy of Japan. This is the same 'Monday morning quarter backing' that says that Hitler should not have attacked Russia or any of the other boneheaded things he did.

"If we'd had today's Congress during Guadalcanal, the number of people who had said, 'Beating the Japanese is too hard, let's find a negotiated peace,' would have been amazing."

This is utter bullshit. World War Two and today's conflict are totally different and Gingrich knows it. His use of such jingoistic talking points only reinforces the fact that he's not that different from the rest of the Republican candidates and that his place as "the most intellectually intriguing figure on the Republican right" is firmly established primarily in his own mind.

It's a freakin novel. Only the truly unmedicated or the blogging class would try to project a secret conspiracy into it.

Don't let his freshman earnestness and big "ideas" fool you, as Mr. Shapiro evidently was. Newt is a spectacularly gifted writer of comedy. (In all characteristic modesty, he would deny this, of course, and insist that he's a "historian.")

I actually had an opportunity to meet Newt at an American Medical Association conference in Tampa http://kdpaine.blogs.com/kdpaines_pr_m/2007/04/stop_the_presse.html

and I was fully prepared to dislike him. However, I was very impressed with both his candor and his brains. My fantasy is that he and John Edwards would go off on a retreat for awhile and come back with a health care solution.. They have equally great ideas and somewhere in there is a solution.

Harry Turtledove seems to have run the genre into the ground with his mass-production approach to every pivotal point of history, and now Newt Gingrich is hammering down the coffin lid.

Perhaps if Newt had actually accepted doing military service, had put on fatigues and boots and been yelled at by drill instructors just a bit, told to get his fat butt moving and move out, he wouldn't need to compensate by playing at "war" by having friends from Washington think tanks help him write imaginary war stories. But at the time he, like so many other baby boomers, thought that was just too degrading.

Now, Newt, as for your claim that a Democratic Congress would have said fighting World War II would be too hard: First, we had a Democratic Congress at that time. Secondly, in the 72 hours after the Pearl Harbor attack, Republicans were saying "Forget about Germany, just fight Japan!" This became moot on December 10th when Adolf Hitler declared war on the United States.

Let's consider a few quotations from the time that Newt writes of and talks of:

"No one I know has produced the slightest credible evidence that this country is in real danger of attack" -- Republican Congressman Joshua Johns, Wisconsin, in October 1941

"We are faced with an acute danger. But it is from within rather than from without. I refer to the minority war group!" Republican Congressman Anton Johnson, Illinois, August 1941

"This hysteria about national defense is hooey and I am ready to stake my political future on that proposition" -- Republican Congressam William Lambertson of Kansas, September, 1940

I have not read Pearl Harbor but I have read the Civil War trilogy that Newt Gingrich & William Forstchen wrote, and can highly recommend them. They are also alternate history novels, they start with a branch point imagining a different outcome to Gettysburg (essentially the battle is mostly fought elsewhere) and following it to a conclusion. While I do not have any time for Newt's politics, I do for his knowledge of military history. In those novels I would often recognise lines of dialogue as actual quotes from the real people, though not always in the identical circumstances. The melodramatic quote that "...Japanese will only be spoken in hell" from Adm. Halsey is a real quote by the way, as a moments googling showed.

There is also very little sex in those Civil War novels either. I had not realised it was mandatory in war novels. Is this new rule similar to the way Hollywood always tried to shoehorn a usually pointless, romantic sub-plot into war movies?