Posted on 11/04/2011 6:31:27 PM PDT by presidio9
Newt Gingrich predicts the race for the GOP nomination will come down to two weary candidates: "This will end up being Mitt and Newt."
Gingrich, the former Georgia congressman and speaker of the U.S. House, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Wednesday that his campaign is now where it needs to be and that by December he'll have the resources to compete head to head with former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.
"And Romney is the real competitor," Gingrich said in his Buckhead campaign headquarters, where he rallied two dozen volunteers before heading to Duluth for a town hall meeting sponsored by the 7th District Republican Party.
An obviously upbeat Gingrich said he survived June and July, which he called the darkest two months of his 53-year political career, and is poised to make a serious run at the nomination.
It's a remarkable turnaround for a candidate many pundits and news outlets had declared out of the race earlier this year. And while polls have shown Gingrich inching into sole possession of third place -- including a Quinnipiac poll released Tuesday that had him distancing himself from fourth-place Rick Perry -- he's still at least 10-12 percentage points behind Romney and Atlanta resident Herman Cain.
But Cain has suffered through four days of brutal news coverage over allegations of sexual harassment from when the former Godfather's Pizza CEO was head of the National Restaurant Association. Polls have yet to reflect any impact of the charges, and it's unclear whether Cain will slip from the top tier as have past challengers, such as Perry, the governor of Texas, and U.S. Rep. Michelle Bachman, R-Minn.
Gingrich, who suffered through his own bouts of scandal earlier in his career, said Cain needed to hole up somewhere and figure his way out of this mess.
"My first advice is what he hasn’t done, which is say nothing until you sit down with your lawyers and with the people who know the facts," Gingrich said. "You thoroughly and completely understand them and you go through a period where everybody asks you -- in your team -- every possible negative question so you thoroughly understand what will happen."
Gingrich said Cain is going through "a rough patch" and whether or not Cain survives Gingrich said he is ready to eclipse Cain.
"We just had the two best days," Gingrich said. "We raised more money Monday than we ever had before and we raised more money Tuesday. Those two days we raised 50 percent more than we raised in July."
As for critics who say he lacks the resources or organizational strength to compete in Iowa, whose caucus will be held Jan. 3, Gingrich said there's more than enough time.
"That’s part of what’s funny all summer," he said. "I work back from victory. Victory in Iowa starts about the 10th of December. Everybody else was saying, ‘Oh my gosh, look at August, look at September.' I’m like, well, it’s not the 10th of December."
The American people, Gingrich said, are tough and expect their leaders to be tougher.
"The job of the political leader is to reach past the distractions and to continue to communicate what they think matters, and to try and do it in a way that the American people decide they offer a better future," he said.
In Duluth, before about 300 local Republicans, as well as several local tea party leaders, Gingrich unveiled plans that he said could save the federal government trillions of dollars. His plans include turning Medicaid into a block-grant program that would allow states to tailor plans for its needs.
Questions from the audience dealt with national security, federal spending, concerns about the Environmental Protection Agency and border control.
If you have pictures of other so called conservatives agreeing on the liberal point of man made global warming, I'd be very interested in seeing them.
Not at all. The picture is boring. I’ve seen it a hundred times and I don’t know what it’s supposed to prove.
I like Newt but he’s not my candidate.
I just said that about the picture because some freepers have pictures that they just love so much they keep posting them and it gets old.
But go ahead, I don’t really care.
I’m off to bed, don’t let my non answers tonight make you think I won’t answer at all.
Yes, it is and I'm going to remove it then go to bed.
Newt helped engineer a special session of Congress in December 1994 to pass GATT/WTO membership before his fellow Republicans could take the majority in January and stop it. This is after he publically admitted that it was a huge transfer of power to an international body. He might get trashed about his personal life, but it's the least of the reasons I won't support him.
Goodnight, I do like Newt. I am not going to get onboard the slash and trash all our candidates but Cain train..Reagan’s law. BTW...wonder how our very beloved president felt about his son? Ron jr? they called him jr...if I had my way we would somehow reincarnate...President Reagan.
This isn't a picture of when the two just happened to be together. This is an add, made for an Algore group, promoting the idea that the government had to do something about climate change.
So unless Cain wins the nomination...you will stay home?
There is a video of Cain and Nelson too.
That’s your 2012 GOP ticket - Romney/Gingrich. Thanks for playing, everybody! :)
Cain’s my guy, but I could accept Newt without a fight.
4 months ago, I’d have never said that. Here’s the thing about Newt though...he does the opposite of most GOP politicians in that, he talks moderate sometimes and governs more conservatively. Most do the opposite, i.e., sound conservative then govern like RINOs.
If I had to bet today on who the nominee will be, I’d say Newt.
I have never said that, and will not say that. If I had to rank the republican candidates Gingrich would be near the bottom, but they are all flawed. Cain has made enough cringe-worthy gaffes to ensure that my vote for him is not a lock.
Many of you have written to me to ask why I recently taped an advertisement with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for The Alliance for Climate Protection, a group founded by former Vice President Al Gore.
I completely understand why many of you would have questions about this, so I want to take this opportunity to explain my reasons. First of all, I want to be clear: I don’t think that we have conclusive proof of global warming. And I don’t think we have conclusive proof that humans are at the center of it.
But here’s what we do know. There is an important debate going on right now over the right energy policy, the right environmental policy, and making sure we do the right things for our future and the future of our children and grandchildren. Conservatives are missing from this debate, and I think that’s a mistake. When it comes to preserving our environment for future generations, we can’t have a slogan of “Just yell no!”
I have a different view. I think it’s important to be on the stage, to engage in the debate, and to communicate our position clearly. There is a big difference between left-wing environmentalism that wants higher taxes, bigger government., more bureaucracy, more regulation, more red tape, and more litigation and a Green Conservatism that wants to use science, technology, innovation, entrepreneurs, and prizes to find a way to creatively invent the kind of environmental future we all want to live in. Unless we start making the case for the latter, we’re going to get the former. That’s why I took part in the ad.
Do you really think that they'll be able to blame Obama's economy on Newt Gingrich? Really?
Thanks for the link.
I remember the republican revolution and Clinton being forced into signing welfare reform. DC closed down for awhile but I credit Newt with playing a major role in improving our economy.
We were at that town hall. It was really good. Newt was fantabulous and his ideas for cutting this govt down to size are right on.
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