Gingrich urges U.S. Republicans to move beyond Obama opposition

Reuters ^ | Wed Aug 14, 2013 2:02pm EDT | Scott Malone

[Olog-hai]

Former U.S. House speaker Newt Gingrich told a meeting of the Republican National Committee that his party needs to move beyond its image of steadfast opposition to President Barack Obama and convince voters its goal is to improve the country.

“We have to get beyond being anti-Obama and we have to convince people you can have hope in America,” Gingrich said on Wednesday. “What we have to do, in a sense, is be a party of optimism and a party of hope and show actual cases of how it can work.”

Speaking at a Boston hotel adjacent to where Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney delivered his 2012 concession speech after failing to unseat Obama, Gingrich said the party needed to be more alert to ways Americans were changing, particularly in their use of technology. “What happened last year? Why were so many of us wrong?” Gingrich asked the group. …

[Olog-hai]

. . . while they all pretend that the problem was not their abandonment of conservatism, and continue to also pretend that no such abandonment occurred.

[freedomfiter2]

This time, I think he is right. As far as last year, running a leftist cost us the election.

[Olog-hai]

Running a leftist doesn’t translate into opposing Obama, though.

[JCBreckenridge]

Gingrich wants to reach around the aisle? I wish I could say I were surprised.

[cripplecreek]

Former U.S. House speaker Newt Gingrich told a meeting of the Republican National Committee that his party needs to move beyond its image of steadfast opposition to President Barack Obama and convince voters its goal is to improve the country.

I think he's right.

[Olog-hai]

How so? They tried that already and Obama got stronger.

The 2010 “shellacking” was all about opposition to Obama and would not have happened without the strength thereof.

[McGruff]

“What we have to do, in a sense, is be a party of optimism and a party of hope and show actual cases of how it can work.”

Sounds kinda Reaganish to me.

[livius]

He’s not “reaching around the aisle.” He’s saying we have to be like Reagan and offer a whole different vision.

Remember how Romney kept blithering that he and “the President” essentially agreed on everything?

We certainly don’t need that. Obama isn’t running again, so personal opposition isn’t going to matter anyway.

[cripplecreek]

Yup, we aren't going to win on anger and threats to punish.

The major issue of this campaign is the direct political, personal and moral responsibility of Democratic Party leadership --i n the White House and in Congress -- for this unprecedented calamity which has befallen us. They tell us they have done the most that humanly could be done. They say that the United States has had its day in the sun; that our nation has passed its zenith. They expect you to tell your children that the American people no longer have the will to cope with their problems; that the future will be one of sacrifice and few opportunities.

My fellow citizens, I utterly reject that view. The American people, the most generous on earth, who created the highest standard of living, are not going to accept the notion that we can only make a better world for others by moving backwards ourselves. Those who believe we can have no business leading the nation.

I will not stand by and watch this great country destroy itself under mediocre leadership that drifts from one crisis to the next, eroding our national will and purpose. We have come together here because the American people deserve better from those to whom they entrust our nation's highest offices, and we stand united in our resolve to do something about it.

Acceptance Speech at the 1980 Republican Convention

[Jabba the Nutt]

Before you can move beyond opposition to Obama, you have to oppose Obama. The GOP has not opposed Obama. What planet are these people from?

[RedHeeler]

The GOP opposition to President Obama is non-existent. So, Newt wants to rally voters with a hope & change meme. These Beltway bozos are completely deluded. As the exsanguination continues unimpeded- we are treated to a penny theater farce by a celebrated clown conservative.

[Protect the Bill of Rights]

I agree with that statement. The problem is the image the GOP has cultivated.

Spineless eunichs who express their objections with Obama & his policies, but that is as far as it goes. They admit defeat before the battle has begun.

[nathanbedford]

Gingrich ran a remarkable and nearly successful primary campaign in no small part based on exposing the media for its bias. As a result the issue of media bias and the difficulty of getting through it to prevail in an election became thoroughly understood, at least by the conservative base, and no doubt by much of the Republican electorate. That is all to the good.

Since then we have learned, especially from Mark Levin, that our difficulties are not limited to a biased media but extend throughout the very structure of the Republican establishment.

As one who supported Gingrich very early on, I applaud his observations that Republicans must make an affirmative case which extends beyond mere opposition to Obama if they are to prevail in the next election. However, this is not news, this is but conventional wisdom and I would've expected more from Gingrich by way of offering solutions. He probably did in his speech because that would be in keeping with his custom and it probably was not reported in this article. I would not be surprised that the media does not believe itself to be in the business of offering its bandwidth for solutions about how to defeat Democrats.

In any event, we now must think about Mark Levin's solution which is inchoate in the public mind so far but at first review must at least be saluted for its originality. By going to the states to fashion constitutional amendments to restore the original intent of the Constitution, he offers an end run around the Republican establishment as well as Washington Democrats. That is not to say that it will succeed, merely that it is innovative and brilliant.

Mark Levin himself is brilliant but one man alone cannot carry this burden. He will find aligned against him all the powerful elements of the media, the Democrats, and the Republican establishment. He needs articulate and enthusiastic allies like Gingrich could be.

We shall see.

[Servant of the Cross]

Maybe, but we still must run against his (and Reid/Pelosi) policies which are what has brought the country to its knees and the brink of bankruptcy.

He is the face and the leader of all of that and we oppose his namesake 0bamacare.

p.s. It worked effectively for the RATS in 2008 to run against the previous POTUS.

[LibLieSlayer]

Screw newt... yeah I voted for him in the primary but he is a slimy self-serving creature of shifting sands. We should no longer take advice from a loser or anyone that has been a loser and newt hasn't won anything since he dropped his drawers and was booted from his Speakership and the House. We need fresh blood and those like Cruz and Lee are the real deal while newt is of the old gop/elite clan that really hates Conservatives. Hey newt... “The era of Reagan is over”... remember when Rush kicked your butt for saying it? I do and I also know that you are for the gop/elite so bugger off newt. WE CAN BOTH OFFER HOPE AND DESTROY OBAMA... what the hell is wrong with your multi tasking skills newt

[Mouton]

When “we” decide whom to cultivate a representative, whom should we look to, someone who says a lot and does nothing or someone whose values, verbiage, and deeds agree with “ours”. Frankly I don’t want to hear loafty ideas, I want to know how this decline in our national economic and spiritual values is going to stop...it has to be stopped before we can turn it about. In fact, decline may be too soft a term, it has been a virtual Stuka in the past 5 years. To me, the way you stop it is to stop the madman leading this dive because by 2016 we will have crashed and no amount of loafty ideals is going to change it in the next campaign.

[Pan_Yan]

Has Newt apologized for NAFTA, the WTO, pushing through “most favored nation” status for China? Has he admitted yet that the deficit increased every year he was Speaker? Still a huge fan of Woodrow Wilson and FDR? Has he explained why Romney money paid off his campaign debt?

Didnt think so.

[yldstrk]

Gingrich is a hack who needs to go away and leave us alone

No one is opposed to obama because he has a tan

the resistance comes from recognition of his disregard for us and our country

[jersey117]

What’s the point when the media is only going to put a negative slant on their ideas.

[faucetman]

Walk/chew gum