Prof Newt Gingrich 1973

I have no real issue with this article per say. A presidential candidate should be vetted and looking at what he did as a professor is open for discussion. The first few paragraphs sets the tone:


All legit questions. Now has Ms Williamson done similar reporting on the law classes hosted by Professor Obama at the University of Chicago Law School. Hell, have she even demanded to see his college records or his taxes. Or those of the Professor Bill Clinton at the University of Arkansas Law School?

Rhetorical questions, I know. And we all know the WSJ, it's right wing reputation aside wants Romney as the president and is working to defeat any anti-Romney out there. But guys how about some fairness out on this. If you have demanded to see Romney's tax and employment records I must have missed it. Or God forbid how about vetting the current occupant of the White House.

By ELIZABETH WILLIAMSON

A year into his first full-time teaching job, Newt Gingrich applied to be college president, submitting with his application a paper titled "Some Projections on West Georgia College's Next Thirty Years."

Mel Steely, a history professor who played a role in Mr. Gingrich's hiring in 1970, said the bid drew "a chuckle" from administrators. The following year, Mr. Gingrich applied to be chairman of the history department. That wasn't greeted so kindly, Mr. Steely said, with some favoring a longtime professor and World War II veteran.

"We weren't going to make Newt our chairman, but he liked the idea of competing for almost anything," said Mr. Steely, who later wrote a complimentary biography of Mr. Gingrich titled "The Gentleman From Georgia." "He figured 'I'm capable of doing this,' and it didn't bother him so much that it offended anybody."

Mr. Gingrich often says his experience as a historian would make him a superior president. During Monday's GOP debate, he lectured "as a historian" on "a fact-based model" for revamping Social Security, citing the success of programs in Galveston, Texas, and Chile.

So what was Professor Gingrich actually like? A clutch of little-known records from what is now the University of West Georgia in Carrollton suggests the ambition and intellectual grandeur of Newt 2012 aren't a long way from the 1970s vintage. In addition to seeking the college presidency, Mr. Gingrich was often absent as he pursued political goals. He embarked on an effort to moonlight as a paid consultant. And, it turns out, he spent little time teaching history...