VAN SUSTEREN: Well, you mentioned the negative ads. And I don’t know if you were watching Sean Hannity’s show a little — a few minutes ago. They did text voting on it. And it actually was — they said — they asked which candidate was running the most negative ads, and Governor Romney did win that contest, one he probably didn’t want to win, at 57 percent.
So I think that, you know, people — although, you know, they may say that he runs the most negative ads, but they still vote for them because negative ads are very effective.
GINGRICH: Well, they’re not — they’re not actually voting for him. I think, for example, in Maine, which is a New England state he ought to be doing good in, he got 39 percent. I think you’re going to find in his home state of Michigan, as you pointed out, Santorum’s now ahead of him.
People are looking for a positive leader who has a positive solution on jobs, a positive solution on gasoline and energy, and frankly, somebody who’s going to stand up to the Obama administration’s war against Christianity and is going to draw a line in the sand and say, We’re prepared to fight to defend religious freedom in America against a radical secular administration.
So I think you have — you have three or four different things coming together here, where people want positive, issue-orientated leadership. They don’t just want somebody with a deep pocket of Wall Street money running negative ads.
VAN SUSTEREN: All right, you mentioned gasoline. Since the end of 2011, the price of gasoline has gone up 8 percent. And the rise of gasoline prices doesn’t hurt the rich. They can pay it. But it really does — it really does pinch the middle class and the — and people who don’t make — who are even below the middle class line. And it can put a thumb on the economy.
If you are President of the United States tonight, what would you be doing about gas policy? And when would those prices come down?
GINGRICH: Well, gasoline was a $1.13 a gallon when I was speaker. It was $1.89 when Obama was sworn in. It is in California above $4 today in some places.
The fact is, one, I’d sign the Keystone pipeline immediately to start Canadian oil moving south into the United States. Two, I’d open up offshore development both off, for example, the Gulf of Mexico, but also in the Chukchi Sea in Alaska.
Three, I would open up federal lands. The one great breakthrough has been North Dakota, and the reason is it’s on private land, and the liberals have not been able to stop it. If we allowed federal land to be developed, we would have a shocking amount of energy. We would, in fact, rapidly become independent of the Middle East. No American president would ever again bow to a Saudi king. And we’d get — we’d get gasoline prices back down to $2 or $2.50
VAN SUSTEREN: All right, one last quick question. We only have a minute left, the accommodation that the president suggested to try to cure this problem, this rift he’s having with the Catholic church on contraception and the health care bill. I assume that you side with the Catholic church on this. IO don’t — I mean, that’s my assumption. But is there any way to sort of reconcile this, to work this out between the two?
GINGRICH: ... there’s a very straight question here. Does the government of the United States have the right to overrule a religious organization on how it deals with its religious circumstances? Can the government of the United States dictate, whether it’s an Episcopal church, a Baptist church, a Jewish synagogue, a Catholic church, a Greek Orthodox church — does the government have the right to dictate to churches?
Those of us who believe in America believe we were founded by people who were fleeing religious persecution to come to America. We think what Barack Obama’s doing is the most secular anti-religious bigotry that we’ve ever seen in a president. And I think it’s not bridgeable. He’s got to back down totally and concede that no government can come between man and God.
Video with Greta - Gingrich: “Voters Don’t Want Candidate With Deep Pocket Of Wall Street Money Running Negative Ads”
http://video.foxnews.com/v/1455034863001/
GINGRICH: People are looking for a positive leader who has a positive solution on jobs, a positive solution on gasoline and energy, and frankly, somebody who’s going to stand up to the Obama administration’s war against Christianity and is going to draw a line in the sand and say, We’re prepared to fight to defend religious freedom in America against a radical secular administration.
So I think you have — you have three or four different things coming together here, where people want positive, issue-orientated leadership. They don’t just want somebody with a deep pocket of Wall Street money running negative ads.
Guys, can you believe that?
In the middle of the presidential campaign , NEWT found the time to talk to Mallory Factor’s class about American History, in the third seminar of the Conservative Intellectual Tradition in America, Citadel Seminar, February 7, 2012.
NEWT-ON is simply ... amazing!
Hats off to him.