Posted on 02/15/2012 11:41:55 PM PST by Red Steel
MARIETTA — Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich is coming home to Georgia this weekend with a campaign rally in Cobb County.
Gingrich, who represented much of Cobb and Marietta in the U.S. House of Representatives, where he served as speaker, will speak in southeast Cobb at 3 p.m. Saturday at the Atlanta Marriott Northwest at the Galleria hotel, 200 Interstate North Parkway SE.
The rally is open to the public.
At least 300 people are expected to attend, but Gingrich usually exceeds such campaign estimates, said Susan Meyers, Gingrich’s southeast communications director and a senior communications strategist. The venue, in the hotel’s grand ballroom, is 5,000 square feet.
Former presidential hopeful Herman Cain will be campaigning with Gingrich all day Saturday, Meyers said.
Meyers said she expects Gingrich to give his campaign stump speech to rally supporters in his home state ahead of Super Tuesday, when Georgia and nine other states conduct their primaries and caucuses on March 6. At 76, Georgia has the most delegates up for grabs that day.
“Newt likes to follow what’s going on in the news and see what’s going on in Washington and give a speech predicated on what the mood of the country is,” Meyers said.
Recent polls have shown that Gingrich’s momentum has slowed since beating frontrunner former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney in the South Carolina primary on Jan. 21. A new CBS News/New York Times poll showed just 36 percent of Republicans view him favorably, compared to 29 percent who don’t.
Romney’s political action committee, Restore Our Future, has reportedly bought roughly $100,000 of airtime on four TV stations in Atlanta.
But the Gingrich campaign has expressed confidence that its candidate will win his home state.
“They’re wasting their money because Newt is the favorite son, well-loved and well-known in Georgia,” Meyers said. “He represents Southern conservative values, and Georgians have said before that they want a candidate who represents their values. Certainly, a Massachusetts moderate or someone from the northeast is not representative of their values.”
In December, more than 60 federal, state and local officials in Georgia gathered at the state Capitol to throw their support behind Gingrich, including Gov. Nathan Deal, who served in Congress with Gingrich.
However, Deal will not be joining the Gingrich campaign on the candidate’s multiple stops around metro Atlanta on Friday and Saturday due to a prior commitment, but he does plan to hit the trail when Gingrich returns to Georgia on a bus tour later this month, Meyers said.
Among local officials who have endorsed Gingrich are U.S. Rep. Phil Gingrey; state Sen. Judson Hill; state Reps. Sharon Cooper, Judy Manning and Matt Dollar; former U.S. Rep. Bob Barr; former state Sen. Chuck Clay and former state. Sen. John Wiles.
Meyers said she expects many Cobb officials who have endorsed him to be at Saturday’s rally.
The Cobb Chamber of Commerce announced Wednesday that Gingrich will also be the guest speaker at its special breakfast meeting on March 1 at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre, before he takes the stage later that day in a nationally televised primary debate in Atlanta.
Cobb Republican Chairman Joe Dendy, who is prohibited from endorsing a candidate, said he welcomes all of the Republican presidential candidates to visit the county.
“We’re excited about having Newt come to Cobb County for a rally, as we would for any candidate who comes here to have a rally or gather our folks together to let them hear more about what they stand for,” he said.
“Newt discusses the need to have an honest national dialogue about radical Islamism, the danger of an Iranian nuclear weapon, and how a strategy of energy independence from the Middle East is the single most important long term national security imperitive we have.”
I watched it yesterday. Newt understanding of world’s problems is mind-boggling.
Thanks for the link. I’m reposting it for others to watch.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUHRjtK-t6o
Ronald Reagan’s “weakness,” Gingrich told the National Academy of Public Administration in Atlanta, was that “he didn’t think government mattered. . . . The Reagan failure was to grossly undervalue the centrality of government as the organizing mechanism for reinforcing societal behavior.”
He was also in the tank for the Rockefellers.
Yes, you are right.
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