Department of "Huh?"

From a bizarre posting from the New York Times' Matt Bai about "presidential candidate" Newt Gingrich:

In particular, Mr. Gingrich is a devotee of the historian Arnold J. Toynbee, who meditated on the concept of "departure and return" — the idea that great leaders have to leave (or be banished from) their kingdoms before they can better themselves and return as conquering heroes.

Uh, Matt, have you been paying any attention to what Gingrich has been doing in recent years -- making tacky, low-rent anti-Muslim hate informericial-style videos with his adoring 9th (or whatever) wife standing by his side. In what sense of the concept has he been bettering himself?

Meanwhile, it seems that the handful of people who actually watched last week's GOP partial debate in South Carolina declared little-known upstart Herman Cain the winner. Cain's claim to fame is that he was briefly the CEO of Godfather's Pizza. There was a Godfather's Pizza near me when I llved in Birmingham a long time ago -- based on the food there I think I'd vote instead for Papa John, or maybe the Peace a Pizza guy on the Green Party ticket.