| Newt: 'National Review's Right. Donald Trump's Not a Conservative' "National Review's right. Donald Trump's not a conservative." — Newt Gingrich in February Wow. This leak is going to make any Trump-Gingrich ticket awkward: Newt Gingrich, a leading candidate to be Donald Trump's running mate, told Republicans at a closed-door meeting earlier this year that Trump is not a conservative, speaks to voters "at the lowest level of any candidate in either party," and could lose in a landslide if he didn't significantly change his approach to campaigning. Gingrich suggested Trump's move from campaigning to governing would be challenging: "How we make the transition from, you know, language for fourth graders to real policy, I don't know." Gingrich spoke for just over half an hour to the Republican group's Feb. 29 meeting in Washington, devoting about 10 minutes to Trump. His comments were a mix of pointed criticism and awe at Trump's political skills. He likened Trump's approach to "some weird combination of the Kardashians" soliciting hearty laughs from the audience. "I mean think about it, the whole tweeting, the whole continuous noise." Throughout much of the talk, Gingrich praised Trump's prowess as a politician and negotiator, noting his success on TV, in real estate development and other ventures. He called him a change agent who effectively guts his political rivals: "He's the grizzly bear in the room. He's not normal." At one point, Gingrich suggested he was shocked to hear of a highly educated supporter of Trump's. "I had a very sophisticated medical doctor in Des Moines write me two days ago and say he sent a thousand dollar check to Trump. And I wrote back and said what are you doing?" Gingrich said to laughs. "He said I have finally concluded that we have to kick over the table in Washington." Man, which Newt Gingrich rival has been sitting on this for five or six months? Whoever it is, that person is the Michael Jordan of leak timing. The leak also shows Gingrich didn't think Trump would be sticking to his confrontational, angry, lashing-out tone this far into the year. Gingrich suggested Trump would lose big if he didn't change his style in the general election campaign to follow Ronald Reagan rather than Barry Goldwater. Reagan in his successful 1980 campaign united Republicans around a compelling message of optimism, while Goldwater's 1964 campaign failed when many voters perceived him as a candidate of the extreme right. Gingrich said he thought Trump would make this pivot. "If he and his team understand this," Gingrich said, "I suspect they will evolve rapidly." Was Newt Gingrich the leading candidate to be Trump's running mate heading into last night? Is he still this morning? Will Trump shrug it off? (Give Trump a little credit, he's apparently strongly considering Indiana governor Mike Pence, who endorsed Ted Cruz in the primary, albeit in a wishy-washy way.) It's tough to shake the feeling that Trump has some other candidate, one who hasn't been mentioned, to be unveiled as a giant surprise. A Nice Morning of Polls, If We Can Trust Them It's pleasant and a little surprising to see Trump tied with Hillary Clinton in the CBS News/New York Times poll. As John Podhoretz points out, a shift from 43-37 in favor of Hillary to a 40-40 tie isn't really that big a shift. But there probably has been a shift, and James Comey's assessment of Clinton probably hurt her. Interestingly, adding Libertarian Gary Johnson to the mix keeps it a tie, 36-36, with Johnson getting 12. The Times poll didn't list Green Party nominee Jill Stein as an option. Maybe that's because she isn't on enough state ballots yet . . . but she's on the ballot in 26 states so far. That list includes California, Colorado, Florida, Michigan, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Oregon and Wisconsin. Not all of those states are ones where Trump will be competitive, but they are ones where Stein could get a lot of votes that might otherwise go to Hillary. People argued that the latest batch of Quinnipiac swing state surveys had samples that were a little too heavily-Republican to accurately reflect the turnout on Election Day. With that in mind, these numbers look great for Republicans: Florida: Sen. Marco Rubio over U.S. Rep. Patrick Murphy, 50 - 37 percent, and Rubio leading U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson, another possible Democratic challenger, 50 - 38 percent. Ohio: Sen. Rob Portman over former Gov. Ted Strickland, 47 - 40 percent. Pennsylvania: Sen. Pat Toomey over Democrat Katie McGinty, 49 - 39 percent. Will the RNC Rules Committee Heed a Petition from Thousands of Republicans? Liz Mair, strategist for Make America Awesome, shares a petition being sent to RNC Rules Committee Members, urging them to unbind the delegates and allow the party to pick a nominee with a better chance of winning than Donald Trump and that will make a genuine effort to unite the party. Dear RNC Rules Committee Member: In advance of the opening of the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland, I implore you to do the right and best thing for the Republican Party and the United States of America and support any and all measures presented to you that would enable the Convention to proceed as an open convention, in which each and every delegate is unbound with regard to the presidential nomination. Thanks to a federal court ruling on Monday, July 11, we now know that states cannot bind delegates, and this could affect as many as 20 states. However, in order to have an open, transparent convention that adheres to core national values like freedom of conscience, freedom of expression and freedom of association, more than this court decision is required: You personally need to vote to unbind your fellow delegates. It is imperative that you do so, not just to carry forth and enshrine these values, but also to stop the disaster that awaits the Republican Party— and possibly the nation at-large— should the 2016 Convention nominate Mr. Trump. Throughout his time dabbling in politics, Mr. Trump has exhibited a shocking disregard not just for core principles and values held by the overwhelming majority of Republicans, but a revulsion to the concept of checks and balances in government, fundamental, constitutionally-protected liberties, limitations on the power of the President, and the idea of three co-equal branches of government as opposed to an overwhelmingly powerful executive branch whose bidding is done by a neutered Congress and Judiciary. He has signaled his intent to use the levers of government to target his political and business opponents. He has a disturbing fondness for anti-democratic dictators who want to see America weaker and more divided— an effect, as it happens, of Mr. Trump's presidential campaign, which routinely partakes of "us versus them" rhetoric and advocates "us versus them" policies, with regard to Americans ourselves. ADDENDA: From the newly-unveiled Republican National Convention speaker lineup. Monday: Melania Trump. Tuesday: Tiffany Trump, Donald Trump Jr. Wednesday: Eric Trump. Thursday: Ivanka Trump, Donald Trump. There are others, but this is an, er, family-friendly speaking lineup. | 
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