At Ovide Lamontagne’s home last night Newt Gingrich gave a classic Newt talk to about 75 guests and about 10 representatives of the media.
He made fairly brief introductory remarks, took about 15 – 20 questions from guests and about five from the media. Then he walked around meeting people and answering questions individually. As far as I could tell everyone had a chance to meet and ask Newt their questions.
Newt demonstrated his unparalleled knowledge of the issues, reminded us of his record of spending cuts and welfare reform as Speaker of the House, and demonstrated self confidence based on his time fighting the fight and his years of observation, investigation, and consideration of our nation’s problems.
Newt talked about a set of tax reforms to restart American job creation and investment. Newt indicated that he would sign a set of Presidential directives on inauguration day to start putting us on the road to recovery and to re-instated the historic prohibition of Federal funding for abortions. He requested suggestions for other things his administration should quickly do be provided at Newt.org (apparently coming in the future).
Newt would love the opportunity to debate President Obama, he is confident of his ability win big (as am I), and of his ability to win the election. He feels he needs more help in winning the primary and asked for people’s support.
A guest questioned Newt’s answer on Meet the Press which wrongly implied that Paul Ryan’s proposal for Medicare reform was right-wing social engineering and was a Republican attempt to impose a solution on the public. Newt acknowledged that his answer was poor that he should have indicated that Paul Ryan was courageous to put forth his proposal because the discussion on fixing Medicare MUST BE started because Medicare MUST BE fixed.
I was looking for a little more in this answer. I wanted to hear that Newt likes Ryan‘s proposal or if not, how he would improve it. I wanted to hear him state that while imposition of any social engineering, left-wing, right-wing, center, is wrong, Republicans have never had any intention to do so and could not do so with the Ryan plan even if they wanted to. The Ryan Medicare plan is a proposal (I think a great proposal) which starts a necessary discussion. This is another major difference between Republicans and Democrats, the Democrats forced Obamacare down our throats against the strongly voiced objections of a vast majority of the American people (to paraphrase Clinton, just because they could).
Someone asked a question about man-made global warming. I wanted Newt to say he feels it is a fraud, but he didn’t say that. He did indicate skepticism of predictions that the earth’s climate would do this or that in 100 years when no one can explain why so many climatic changes occurred in the past. He reminded us that the earth has been much hotter than it is today … even without SUVs…even before human.
Newt acknowledged that out country is 100 times cleaner today than 100 years ago. He believes the EPA has been turned by the liberals into a job destruction agency (I agree) and should be totally eliminated (I agree) to eliminate all the people implementing its currently destructive ideology. He would create an environmental solutions agency.
The second question from the Media was about Newt’s Tiffany bill … as we all know the fate of the Western world hangs on the answer to that question. Fortunately Newt has paid that and all other bills except for a mortgage on a piece of property. I have not seen the formal AP report on this, having a mortgage is probably a disqualification for office in some left wing bible like Rules for Radicals (although a worse crime might be to actually pay your mortgage).
I had a chance to ask Newt two questions. Newt has talked about “center-right” and “far-right”. TEA Party members like me are usually described as “far-right”, but we believe in balanced budgets, rule of law equally applied,
government and judicial decisions based on the US Constitution as understood by the people when they approved it, personal responsibility, small, efficient government, that society should reward desired behavior not undesired behavior. I think most people agree with these, thus they are the center, not right. Newt agrees, these are the center and people claiming the center who believe in deficits, etc., are the leftists, so we have a labeling problem to fix. He would describe some of Ron Paul’s positions as “far right”.
I also asked the following: It seems to me that almost every Obama domestic policy action kills American jobs, discourages investment, and even discourages doing business in the US. Yet, Rasmussen reports that 54% of American voters still blame Bush for our economic problems. If we can’t correct this obvious misunderstanding, how can we expect to win the Presidency?
Newt agrees with the situation but he is confident that we can overcome this this situation as the Republican campaigns crank up even with the media covering up every Obama failure. I maintain a healthy skepticism on this. I do agree we should be able to show the obvious failures the liberal policies that Obama has doubled down on. I think any reasonable Republican candidate should be able to do it, if they aren’t afraid to actually do it!! (It seems to me that the fact that the RNC is not doing this on a daily basis suggests that absolute uselessness of the RNC … but what do I know about the RNC?)
Newt was very impressive at Ovide’s. Whether he overcame the discomfort that some of his actions have caused for conservatives which raise questions of how much he can be trus
ted is another question. His commercials with Nancy Pelosi were a shock to many conservatives as they seemed to re-enforce the left’s fraud about man-made global warming.
In his recent “Meet the Press” interview Newt was subjected to repeated “gotcha” attempts that lasted the full interview. He even received a ridiculous charge of racism because Newt dared to criticize Obama, ever so mildly, from a location in Georgia. (Horrors!! I wonder where you can criticize Obama without being called a racist?).
It is unfortunate that Newt’s one big failure in that interview provided a sound-bite that will be used repeatedly against every Republican in subsequent campaigns. And, one wonders how someone so brilliant could have made such a gaff. While I had no problem with Newt’s answer, something like, it is just as wrong to impose right-wing social engineering as it is to impose left-wing social engineering, it was not a sufficient answer. He needed to say that Ryan’s proposal was a courageous start to a necessary discussion and that Republicans cannot and would not ever impose a massive social change against the will of the American people like President Obama and the Democrats did with Obamacare. The Democrats are the bad guys here, not the Republicans.
Newt is brilliant. He is experienced. He has been attacked by every media source, and he usually responds very well. More importantly, even in the face of severe attacks, he has persisted doing the right things. He has taken time to consider alternative solutions to many of our problems. He demonstrated ability and commitment to conservative principles while Speaker and on most things after that time. People know Newt. He is one of several Republicans who could make great American Presidents. It seems to me the question is, “Can he regain the trust of conservatives?”
Watch the video, form your own conclusions.