ThinkProgress busts the former House Speaker in–barring some explanation I can’t imagine–a rather shameless act of flip-floppery, shifting within days from “[e]xercise a no-fly zone this evening” to “I would not have intervened.”
To me this is Gingrich’s great strength also proving to be a great liability. Gingrich has had political staying power in large measure because he’s extremely deft at crafting sound bites that hit like exploding bullets. (You’ll find a bunch in my recent Newt story, here.) Part of that comes from Newt’s knack for making his every position sound authoritative and definitive. The problem is that such certitude rarely stands up to complex facts and changing events. Still, when asked the same question under different circumstances–in this case, with Obama acting versus Obama not acting–Gingrich’s impulse is to sound as certain in his new position as he was in his old, now outdated one.