Posted on 02/13/2012 11:38:16 AM PST by VinL
The Brody File sat down with Newt Gingrich for a one-on-one interview at CPAC in Washington last week. We discussed the state of the race, from his perspective. Here's what he had to say. Transcription follows the video below.
David Brody: “Hey, you know, I like to call you the Yoda of this presidential race, so Yoda, if you will, give me your impression of where we’re at.”
Newt Gingrich: “Is this a comment on the fact that I’m a grandfather or what?”
David: “It could be partially that. Give me your sense of where we’re at in the race, where are you at?”
Newt Gingrich: “Look, I think it’s temporarily a wide open race. I think what’s happened is with each passing wave of negative ads, Romney has marginalized himself, and that finally came crashing down on him starting in Nevada where he really dramatically underperformed, and then Missouri, Minnesota, Colorado where he basically collapsed. And I think now he’s got a real challenge, there’s a new poll out in Georgia, he’s running third, I am now first, Santorum is second, things are in turmoil. Santorum’s gotten a nice bump, and should have, he earned it. He made the right strategic gamble. And now, we’re going to sort out who is really prepared to have bold changes, who is prepared to do the things we need to get back on the right track as a country, and that will be a good debate. I think people will look at it with new interest now.”
(Excerpt) Read more at blogs.cbn.com ...
The good news for Newt is- in his most down period- his numbers remain at 17-20% base-- in a race where the leaders have 30-35%--
One misstep by the frontrunners, and the polls will reset again. And that misstep will surely come- because now Romney and Rick have to make major, game-changing decisions as they go head to head--- and Newt can sit back- out of the fray-- and pick up the pieces.
Typical Newt precision. Exactly right.
We need this guy to unravel the rats nest in dee-cee.
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I think Santorum’s surge is one that will stick because the more people look at him and how he’s lived his life the more they will like him. Newt’s of course welcome to stay in the race as long as he likes, but I just don’t see him making another surge. It’s going to be Romney or Santorum IMO. Yesterday I would have bet on Romney getting the nod, today I’m thinking Santorum will actually pull it out.
Even with both his self-created baggage, coupled with the media-created baggage, I still believe that Newt is the only candidate that can beat obama.
I believe that the obama machine will chew up the others and spit them out.
Romney can’t think on his feet and when challenged he stammers and stutters like obama without a teleprompter.
Santorum gets in a snit when he is challenged, and I don’t think “richie cunningham” has the wherewithall to win over “uber cool” fonziebama.
And Ron Paul...well, he’s Ron Paul.
On the other hand, Gingrich can spout the facts, history and unconstiutionality of obama faster than obama’s research team can look them up.
Obama will never out-debate Newt, even on a good day. Also, having been in Congress and speaker, Newt knows the rules ten times better than obama and knows the precedents that will nullify obama’s line of bullSh!+.
I don’t care if Newt has had 5 wives, and about any of the circumstances surrounding his divorces; the big deal about him leaving the Speakership is bogus, as he was found innocent of all charges. Clinton and his demobuddies wanted Gingrich out for the same reason we need him in...to impede and block the democrats at their own game.
Then they say that Newt is “mean”, or has a temper...well, after three years of chronicling obama I can say I’ve never been a more tempermental and petulent @$$h0!3 in my life.
Insofar as being “mean”...obama has nearly ruined America, taken our jobs, homes, and life’s savings, indebted our children for decades to come and imperiled our safety and soverignty as a nation...can someone tell us why that isn’t much, much meaner than anything Newt has ever done or said?
obama has 100 more baggage and a doubious past that has been hidden from the public and guarded by the media jackboots. He is the only person to OCCUPY the presidency that has held the level of contempt and hatred for this country.
I can’t believe that there are loads of people who are willing to let obama just walk us to a dictatorship and an internal takeover of this country - and that is exactly what will happen if obama gets four more years as a lame duck. If obama wins, this will be the last free election we will ever have in America. And we’re going to let that happen because Newt’s attention-starved, narcisstic ex wife suddenly comes out of nowhere with tales from the twilight zone?
At this point in America we don’t need Richie Cunningham (BTW, Ron Howard AND Henry Winkler are devout obama supporters)OR Thurston Howell III, or even a Perot-job...we need a take-no-prisoners warrior like Newt.
But it appears again that the fickled GOP is going to allow the mainstream media to pick our candidate - just like with McCain...and we all know what a disaster that was.
Folks, we’re fighting a domesticated enemy who is trying to destroy us from within, and it would be better to send a warrior than a Richie Rich, a geek, or a fanatic into battle with the obama machine.
Conservatives are not “groupies” by nature, but as independent as we all are, we need to come together behind the one weapon that we have that can throw a monkey wrench into the obama machine, and I believe that the person to do is, is Newt Gingrich.
hey im ahead in georgia!!!
If they don’t poll in Tennessee soon, they may be in for a March surprise.
its gonna come down to romney and an anti romney...right now ricky s is the anti romney...and newt has to win something sooner or later..and georgia aint gonna do it,newt..esp not if ricky’s surge takes it over even there as the polls look likely
I think Santorum’s surge is one that will stick because the more people look at him and how he’s lived his life the more they will like him
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Trout, if he’s your guy, I wish him luck- and mean him absolutely no ill.
But, for discussion purposes only, imo, his surge will not stick. I base that on the history of this primary process-GOP voters are nauseatingly malleable and feckless— one wrong statement in the next debate-— and the numbers will change.
Heck, in Sc, with one 30 second answer-— Newt rose 30% in the polls over-night.
I think Newt can grab Santorum’s non-committed delegates. He’s got a lot of them and they could easily go over to Newt.
Newt is VERY gracious toward Santorum in this interview. Will Santorum’s supporters return the favor?
I've not seen much grace in either direction lately. I've been guilty myself in the past, but have recanted. Right now, I want them both to stay in, or I suspect Romney will sew things up before the reconciliation can occur.
Newt IS the only candidate who can make the sweeping changes needed in the Federal Government to save our country. He did it before and he will do it again. Newt is the real deal. I just sent his campaign more money and I hope all of you who support Newt will do the same.
“I base that on the history of this primary process-GOP voters are nauseatingly malleable and feckless— one wrong statement in the next debate-— and the numbers will change.”
We can definitely agree on that- I’ve never seen numbers shift so wildly based on seemingly minor events. Santorum is my favorite of the current candidates, but even I can admit he has had no spurt of brilliance in the last week or so to justify his numbers skyrocketing like they have. Weird stuff- but weird in a good way in this particular case. :)
There are supporters on Newt’s and Rick’s sides that misbehave ...and some who troll both types of threads just trying to stir things up. Hard to blame either Newt or Rick for the misadventures of some of their more vocal supporters ...who are probably more interested in getting attention than anything else.
As long as Newt and Rick are respectful of each other I will let the escapades of the zealots slide. We will need to get together at some point in the future; so, pointless to stoke the fires of angry zealots.
I believe Newt and Rick also believe they need each other at this time. Because of the lag in moving from one to the other, if either dropped out, Romney would be coronated before people could adjust.
GINGRICH: Now, I am going to give you a series of solutions that are big enough to get America back on the right track. And I think this has been the greatest challenge of this campaign.
We have lots of bickering; we have lots of arguments about this and that. We have virtually no discussion of what does it really take to take the most complicated society in the world, the largest economy in the world, and move it back to being the most successful, most prosperous, safest and freest country in the world.
So I am going to try this afternoon to set the stage for that.
And we have tons of details at Newt.org — any of you want, to just go to my first name dot org. You will see an immense amount of material.
But the standard here is that solutions big enough to get America working again — and the principle is to unleash the American people to rebuild the America we love.
Let me start with jobs: If I am the nominee, with your help, I will ask the entire Republican ticket to campaign with me on the pledge that when the Congress comes in on January 3, it will stay in session, and by January 20, when I am sworn in, it will have repealed Obamacare.
GINGRICH: It will have repealed Dodd-Frank.
GINGRICH: It will have repealed Sarbanes-Oxley.
GINGRICH: All three of those are job killing bills, which centralized bureaucracy in Washington DC and increased the corruption of the political system. All three should be repealed and held at the desk until I am sworn in. That afternoon, on the very first day, we should sign the repeal of all three. That's a reasonable start.
GINGRICH: Two hours after the Inaugural Address — that was just the hors d’oeurve. We haven't got around to serious work, yet.
After the Inaugural Address, I will spend it signing executive orders and presidential findings. All of them will have been published by October 1. The country will know precisely what this campaign is about.
The very first executive order will abolish all of the White House czars, as of that moment.
GINGRICH: We will sign, that day, an executive order, which as of that moment, approves of the Canadian pipeline to Houston, period.
GINGRICH: My message to Prime Minister Harper and the Canadian government is simple: You do not need a partnership with the Chinese. Give the American people a few months. When we beat Obama on election night, you can start buying equipment because we will approve it on January 20th.
GINGRICH: There will be an executive order to move the State Department, to put the embassy in Jerusalem as of that day, period.
GINGRICH: We will, that day, reinstate Ronald Reagan's “Mexico City Policy” — No money for abortion overseas, period.
GINGRICH: And we will have an executive order to repeal every act of religious bigotry by the Obama administration period.
My goal, with your help, is that by the time President Obama lands in Chicago, we will have repudiated at least 40 percent of his government on the opening-day.
[the more people look at him and how he’s lived his life the more they will like him. ]
I see the opposite, someone I could never sit and have a beer with. I don’t drink with saints. Too brittle when hell breaks loose.
If people start to seriously look at Santorum’s record, they will find he supported Bush’s compassionate conservative agenda. That’s a big sticking point for me, but there’s no doubt Santorum is better than Obama or Romney. I appreciate the fact that Santorum is good on social conservative issues, but he was not a fiscally responsible senator. I don’t see much difference between spending tax money for AIDS in Africa, a compassionate act, and handing out EBT cards to the poor. That said, I’ll definitely support Santorum in the general election, but I think Newt is the only one with a track record of shaking things up in DC. That’s what we need, real change toward smaller government.
“I think Santorum’s surge is one that will stick because the more people look at him and how he’s lived his life the more they will like him.”
This is exactly why he is not the leader we need right now. Obama was elected for superficial reasons. The same goes for Santorum. There’s no meat here. We finally have a candidate in Newt that represents a cross section of the electorate, and can articulate where we’ve been a nation and where we should go. Santorum’s time will come, but not now.
Newt is confident still. That’s good. That makes me feel better. He knows that in time he will prevail. All it will take for something to happen from within or from without.
I predict that something major will happen in the world that affects our country, similar to the Iranian hostage crisis during Carter, but worse. Only Newt will articulate what we should do.
Only Newt will appear the true leader.
Bump!
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