Doyle McManus has an op-ed in today’s L.A. Times that describes what the first day of a Newton Leroy Gingrich presidency might look like, and it should scare the pants off (trouser removal: a Gingrich specialty) anyone who values what’s left of America.

I only highlighted the extremist goals that Newt strives to achieve, so read the whole article to see why they’re so dangerous (if you don’t already know) and how likely it would be that this loon could/would follow through on them:

A Gingrich presidency would be just like its chief: noisy, combative and prone to self-generated crises. [...]

President Gingrich would act on Day 1 to abolish all the policy “czar” positions in the White House that conservatives have objected to as centralizing too much power in the president. He would sign another order halting implementation of the healthcare law that Obama got through Congress in 2010. He would instruct his new attorney general to abandon the Obama administration’s lawsuits against Arizona and South Carolina over their decisions to enforce federal immigration laws more toughly than the federal government. He would order the State Department to approve construction of the Keystone XL oil pipeline from Canada to Texas, even though environmental reviews haven’t been completed. He would open more offshore areas for oil and gas drilling. He would instruct military tribunals to ignore the Supreme Court ruling that gave detainees at Guantanamo the right to challenge their imprisonment in U.S. courts. And he would move the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

And that’s just on Day 1. [...]

With most presidential candidates, voters worry that campaign promises are empty words that will never be carried out. But in the case of Newt Gingrich, the worry will be that he means exactly what he says.

Of course, whether Newt could carry out his extremist promises all by his lonesome is another matter, but according to McManus, he can issue some pretty scary executive orders on Day One, and two would spark crises.

If that op-ed doesn’t convince people what a reckless fool he is, then perhaps this will: This is the candidate Sarah Palin and Herman Cain like. ‘Nuff said.