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"FacebookPinterest\n\n_Everyone knows Newt Gingrich has a PhD in history. Gingrich has never been shy about playing the wise professor to his adversaries' noisy underclassmen. But what ever happened with that academic career? In three interviews, GQ asked some of the former Speaker's old campus colleagues at West Georgia College about Newt 1.0\u2014the brash and opinionated young man who set out to teach history before going on to make it. Meet Ben Kennedy, the history department chairman who in 1970 gave Gingrich his first academic job, and a man who would be happy to see Newt drop a few more primaries before he calls it a campaign.\n\n _\n\nGQ: How did Newt arrive at West Georgia?\n\nBen Kennedy: The college was seeking to build up the history department. We needed a European historian. I talked to him on the phone. He sounded pretty good, so we made him an offer.\n\nGQ: What was your first impression once he arrived?\n\n\n\n Ben Kennedy: Well he seemed pretty energetic, young, ambitious. God, always that.\n\nGQ: What tipped you off to his ambition?\n\nBen Kennedy: Let's see, he'd been there maybe 2 years, certainly not more than 3, and the presidency of the college came up. By that time Newt had made friends with several local businessmen and industrialists and even though he was an untenured assistant professor, he offered himself as a candidate for the presidency of the college. Some of these big shots in town backed him. There's no limit to the man's ambition.\n\nGQ: How did that play out?\n\nBen Kennedy: He didn't get it. I don't think he was even interviewed for the job or even seriously considered, but he sure wanted it. He thought he could do it, but he had no administrative experience whatsoever and only three years of teaching experience.\n\nGQ: As a history professor, what did he set out to do?\n\nBen Kennedy: After about three and half or four years he shifted over to the department of geography, and by that time he was teaching these off-the-wall courses like \"History of the Future.\" You remember Alvin Toffler, Future Shock? He was into that. I always thought history of the future was an oxymoron, in spades. Of course that's right up Newt's alley. He can talk a good talk, you know?\n\nGQ: Newt has said that he left his job at West Georgia because he wasn't willing to publish the books and papers that would get him promoted. Did you talk to him about publishing?\n\n\n\n Ben Kennedy: No. To my knowledge he never published anything in history while he was at West Georgia. Of course he's published a lot of stuff with ghost writers since then. He published one speculative book with a fellow who became the department chair and then later one of his staff members, Steve Hanser. But he never published any history while I was department chair.\n\nGQ: It wasn't a problem that the guy you hired wasn't publishing?\n\nBen Kennedy: You know, publications weren't that important then. It was a diverse department, there were a lot of problems, and Newt was not one of the problems, at least not until towards the end, when I resigned. Our big problem was that we had four untenured instructors who weren't going to get promoted. And a year or so after he came on, enrollment began to fall and we were feeling the pressure to get rid of faculty, so we had to let these guys go, which caused a great rift in the department. And Newt was one of the ones who led the opposition to me, because I made the decision to let these guys go.\n\nGQ: Why did he oppose you?\n\nBen Kennedy: Well, you know...[chuckles]...I think it's just typical Newt. They're saying it in Iowa right now: Newt is ruthless, unprincipled, immoral, super-ambitious. There is nothing he won't do to get ahead. Nothing.\n\nGQ: How did that play out in this case?\n\nBen Kennedy: I was blindsided by him. We had a meeting on letting the four adjuncts go. A lot of people in the department didn't like the idea. They weren't getting the pressure from up above, like I was. So we had this meeting and I was taking all this flak. And Newt said, \"I've talked to the vice president and he thinks you're wrong.\" It was extremely unpleasant. And several months later I turned in my resignation as department chair. It's not worth it.\n\nGQ: He went behind your back?\n\nBen Kennedy: Exactly. You know how it is. If you're gonna talk to the dean, you talk to the chair first, and then to dean. And if you're gonna talk to the vice president, you talk to the dean first. Et cetera. Newt didn't do that.\n\nGQ: Did his ambitions to rise into administration have anything to do with it?\n\nBen Kennedy: Perhaps he wanted the job, I don't know.\n\nGQ: How were his relations with other colleagues?\n\nBen Kennedy: Some of them liked him. Most of them thought that he was a blowhard. How you seen that cover of The Week? It has Newt as a hot air balloon. And that's him alright. He's a talker. The thing about Newt is he's clever but he's not intelligent. A mile wide and an inch deep.\n\nGQ: Did you have a sense from the beginning that Newt would run for office?\n\nBen Kennedy:No, I did not. And you know when he ran the first two times, the Democrat he ran against, a woman, I can't remember her name, was more conservative than he was, and I actually voted for Newt twice. But I think he's like an amoeba when it comes to principle. He just moves. I really, honestly don't think he has a central principle or core.\n\nGQ: Have you followed the ways Newt has used history in his campaign?\n\n\n\n Ben Kennedy: A little bit. You know he makes an occasional reference to Appomattox or something like that. I think Newt's understanding of history is not very deep.\n\nGQ: What is his concern with history?\n\nBen Kennedy: It's a footnote for him on the way to greater things.\n\nGQ: It must be unusual for you to see this former colleague of yours so close to the nation's highest office. What do you think when you see Newt in this position?\n\nBen Kennedy: I certainly hope he doesn't get the nomination. I think he will implode before that sort of thing will happen. He has done so before. If he does get the nomination I think President Obama will be better than he in the campaign. If he gets to be president...[laughs]...God help America is all I've got to say.\n\nGQ: The narrative seems to be that he's too unstable and self-centered to be president.\n\nBen Kennedy: Not just that. He is that. But the man lacks a moral compass. He is completely enfolded in himself. And whatever it takes to advance himself in the world he will do, without scruple."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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