'Nutty Newt' vs. 'No Drama Obama?' Yesssss!

With Newt Gingrich surging in the polls and kicking butt in debates, Maureen Dowd is dreaming of a Gingrich/Obama match-up: "The Drama Queen versus No Drama Obama," she writes in the New York Times. "The apocalyptic prophet versus the ambiguous president." The conflict would be "fascinating," especially because President Obama "usually faded away on stage during his primary debates" and Gingrich revived his campaign with "confident debate performances against pitiful foes."

Make that doubly fascinating, because "Nutty Newt" is "always veering out of control" while Obama is "too tightly controlled." For proof of Newt's nuttiness, O'Dowd quotes "dazed" Republicans like Peggy Noonan, who calls Gingrich “a human hand grenade who walks around with his hand on the pin, saying, 'Watch this!'" Dowd isn't disagreeing, and maybe that's why she loves the Rise of Newt. Her closing advice to Obama: "Make him get a crush on you," like Bill Clinton did. "Then crush him." (More Maureen Dowd stories.)