Posted on 11/26/2011 12:31:21 PM PST by rzman21
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Former Gingrich press secretary Tony Blankley tells ConservativeHome USA that the popular desire to elect someone with ideas and substance has fueled the former House speakers rise to the top of the polls.
While most of the people who are running for president are pretty well informed and pretty bright people, most just end up in talking points, Blankley says. Theres not a lot of depth to their discussion, and I think that Newts standing out in the debates as somebody whos actually thought deeply on these issues, cares about them and who discusses them both conceptually and in detail.
And I think thats why hes moved up from single digits to anywhere from around 22 to 24 percent after a couple of months of debates.
Blankley observes that a candidate like Gingrich has appeal because he stands for ideas and results at a time when both parties cant seem to get the job done. The Supercommittees Super failure stands as the latest and most searing example of Washingtons inability to place the countrys needs before political considerations.
I think not just a lot of conservatives, but also a lot of independents and moderates want to hear somebody who has some idea of how we can improve things, Blankley says. Thats Newts strength, and now is his moment, I think.
Gingrichs former press secretary jokes that you would need a really large vehicle, maybe an ocean liner to affix a bumper sticker that would fit all of Newts ideas in one place.
But on a more serious note, Blankley suggests that a Gingrich presidency would be the most ambitious of any in recent memory. Blankley saw Gingrich up close on an almost daily basis throughout the Contract With America and the Republican takeover of Congress in 1994.
I was with him about 12 hours a day, particularly before he became speaker where it was just the two of us and a secretary in the room, Blankley says. I know him very well.
According to Blankley, Gingrich was just about the only person in the room in the run up to the 1994 midterms who thought the GOP could win early on and made it happen with his dogged determination.
He predicts that the first eight months of a Newt presidency would be not unlike FDRs in the event he would win along with sizeable GOP majorities in the House and the Senate.
It would be like 1933, but wed be going back in the other direction toward markets and traditional values, Blankley says. It would be a really thrilling thing to watch.
We had a bit of that during the first eight months of the Reagan term in 81 had some of that; it was a pretty invigorating period where the ideas of the new president won support in Congress and the country.
Gingrichs record from the 1980s shows he consistently ran to the right of the Reagan administration, particularly in his insistence on a spending freeze in 1983, which put him at loggerheads with people like James Baker and then OMB Director David Stockman, as Evans and Novak reported in January of that year.
Blankley predicts Gingrich would likely have sizeable majorities in both the House and the Senate, but exact number in the latter chamber being more open to question.
I think you would see a remarkable period of legislation on deregulating, on attracting health care into a more market-oriented system and on reforming taxes, Blankley says. But I cant imagine anyone who would bring the intellectual vigor or policy agenda to the table as Newt would.
He characterizes Romney as someone who would be more like a manager who would manage the nations policy problems incrementally rather than in large jumps unlike Gingrich.
I think we need to do it in larger jumps, Blankley says. So I think comparing a Romney to a Gingrich presidency, I think would see a far more dramatic effort under [Newt] more like he did when he was speaker.
I think the motivation for him to deliver once hes committed on something is really powerful.
To date, Gingrich is the only American politician who committed to balancing the federal budget and succeeded.
Blankley predicts based on his knowledge of Gingrichs character that the former speaker would only choose people in his cabinet who would get the job done and be most effective. He notes that Gingrich bucked House tradition when he tapped people like now Ohio-Gov. John Kasich to chair the House Budget Committee and Henry Hyde to chair the House Judiciary Committee.
Gingrich is man who isnt restrained by Washington convention, but who instead has consistently bucked custom to get things done.
Newt believed you picked people who would deliver people who would deliver the results you committed to, Blankley says. And I think youd see that kind of selection in top appointments, and [his] people wouldnt be there because some faction of the party wanted them to be there, but [rather] because of the policy commitments he made during the campaign. (Audio of the interview is on-site.)
But they wouldn’t be able to use the levers of power the way newt could
R.I.P. Tony Blankley. Thank you for your service.
I’m saddened. Although I didn’t know Tony well. He was always a gentleman.
Thanks for letting me know.
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