Posted by Leonard Steinberg on January 22, 2012

With Newt Gingrich’s remarkable surge in the South Carolina caucuses, I have to ask the following question:  did he win on substance, or on the soundbite mentality that has overtaken our society?

Is Newt really more qualified to be president than Mitt Romney? What exactly in Thursday’s CNN debate demonstrated his real abilities aside from his Jersey Shore-style attack on the media for making it difficult for politicians to lead sordid private lives…..the same media he encouraged to vilify Bill Clinton and John Edwards for equally bad behavior? Yet this new Kardashianist-soap-opera-esque tone of the debates fueled Newt’s popularity even though none of it made much sense in light of the great historian Newt’s personal and professional history. Just like Kim Kardashian’s marriage, isn’t Newts protests about the media exposing politicians private lives just as fake?

I often ask the same question about my fellow New York real estate brokers: sometimes I am saddened how some really, really good brokers suffer because they don’t participate in the loudness of our industry, choosing to focus on substance rather than noise. I don’t think there is any harm in a bit of both, but the noise without the substance is really painful. There are too many brokers who are truly incompetent, or worse….really corrupt: These super-stars are seen on television, quoted in some of the most prestigious publications and their word is perceived my most to be reality and the truth. Not too long ago, wasn’t Shvo the ‘it’ broker of Manhattan……to-day he has all but dissappeared. He is not alone, although a good number of this breed are around continuing bad traditions and inventing worse new ones.

One can only hope that the future of these Kardashianistas fades fast and is replaced by competent and smart brokers……and substantive presidential candidates.