Posted on 01/14/2012 7:29:31 PM PST by TBBT
Speaking at the Greenville/Spartanburg GOP Bronze Elephant Dinner in Duncan, South Carolina on Friday night, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, in response to a question about what the American dream is about, had the most exceptional moment of the 2012 cycle.
As he is emerging as the chief anti-Mitt Romney challenger in South Carolina (Gingrich is a strong second, according to numerous South Carolina polls released this week), Gingrich described the America many feel will be just a memory if President Barack Obama wins another term and articulated why the preservation of that America should never be taken for granted and how Americans should be proactive in ensuring their children and grandchildren inherit an American with gritty, Jacksonian values not unlike the one they inherited.
“Countries can die,” Gingrich powerfully said, referring to a lesson he learned while his father was stationed overseas. “And Leadership can make an enormous difference.”
Gingrich noted that he grew up surrounded “by people who were passionate about America” who loved America because “they did not have that much economically” and was raised by a grandmother who was from a generation that instilled in him a belief that “George Washington was a heroic figure and the founding fathers led remarkable lives.”
“We didn’t think we were poor,” Gingrich said. “ We were Americans, and therefore we were rich, we had freedoms and a sense of safety.”
Gingrich said that the “American dream is to recognize first that we exist under our Creator with unalienable rights” and, therefore, “no president, judge, or bureaucrat can take away our rights.”
(Excerpt) Read more at humanevents.com ...
“He can have my grudging support but he’ll have to earn my respect and trust. That’s how it should be with any candidate, in my opinion.”
Never trust a politician any further than you can throw him. If Newt’s elected watch him like a hawk, but I support him 100% because I haven’t heard an articulate defense of conservative principals, on a regular bases for more than 16 years(except for listening to Reagan on You Tube).
for later
Absolutely right on. We are all hungry to hear Reagan again. But I’d like to point out an area in which Newt is actually superior to Reagan. His command of history is amazing. I learn something new and useful each time he talks.
Listening to his speech in S. Carolina, I realized we are not helpless in the face of judicial tyranny. It has been dealt with many times by previous presidents in the way the founders planned - they put a provision in the constitution for it. But it takes brains and courage which Newt certainly has. We are fools if we don’t put him in the White House.
Yes! Very well stated.
I certainly did not mean to seem as though I was discouraging support for the guy — I was just a bit concerned when I saw people speaking as though an establishment politician really understands their hearts and souls.
We’re all flawed, at the end of the day, but the flaws of some of us are more public than the flaws of others. That in itself is no reason not to support someone. My point, however, is that at the end of the day Newt Gingrich is merely a man and that we should be cautious about treating him as a political savior until he actually delivers the goods — it’s a good way to get burned. Politicians are in it for themselves... that some of them have a knack for saying what the people want to hear is less a matter of being a true believer and more a matter of being politically astute.
With that said, I have nothing against supporting someone who I feel is politically astute that says and does the right things for the wrong reasons... so long as he delivers on what he says.
bases = basis
So, you are more righteous than us all perhaps, because you have kept your vow between you and your spouse ... or maybe many of us have also and your little tirade has another motive? Perhaps politics is too unrighteous for your type, so you want to chide us all for not being righteous, at least righteous enough to do as you doa nd condemn Newt Gingrich because he broke his vows to his wives, two of the three who still support him politically? ... That approach may influence some voters, but if anything it will cause folks to try and ignore your self-righteous pomposity unless your rants serve their agendas.
Their education, experience, and record of accomplishments, and he looked better to me than the others. I also wanted very much to have an articulate candidate to make the conservative message clear and he won hands down there.
When Newt took on the judges - that sealed the deal. They have been forcing the majority of Americans to live the way 20% or less think we should.
I have been disagreeing with the judges ever since Roe v Wade and banning prayer in schools. Lots of years of additional insults and injury. I know you probably understand what I mean, when I say I'm so mad at judges, I could spit.
I always say look at their record before you vote. Over all, his record in office was satisfactory enough to support, and waaaay better than mittens.
I don’t mind admitting I am an old conservative. Followed Reagan from the very moment he gave “The Speech” in 1964 for Goldwater. He used to write articles for Human Events and National Review, so it was easy to see how his political philosophy developed. When you’ve been devoted to a candidate over the years you get a real sense of their sincerity to the cause.
Gingrich reached his public in the eighties when he gave late-night talks on C-Span from the House of Representatives. I remember the camera constantly panned the empty seats behind him but who cared. He was talking about freedom!
I can’t help comparing Reagan and Gingrich. I’ve heard both talk about freedom and their love of America hundreds of times. Newt may not be quite as lovable as Reagan but he’s as good a communicator and he knows more about history. He’ll always have my vote.
You do make good points. And I do admit to being a bit harsher on Newt than I really intended. To put things in perspective, I turn 31 this month. The first election I ever had the chance to participate in was back in 2000. My first presidential candidate was George W. Bush — his “compassionate conservatism” aside, I backed him rather enthusiastically, if only because I feared the consequences of seeing Algore take the Oval Office. I backed him again, of course, in 2004. George W. Bush was no Ronald Reagan. In practice, quite a bit of his governance came straight out of the liberal playbook — government solutions to all our problems and whatnot. Then, in 2008, my presidential candidate was McCain, whose only saving grace was that he was not Barack Obama, a man about whom I had suspicions ever since I first heard about him in 2004.
Throw on top of those two a lack of inspiring Republicans in Congress and you might start to see what I’m getting at. I’m rather jaded when it comes to politicians, who seem, in my experience, to have this knack for saying one thing with great, wonderful words and then go off to do just the opposite. Even when they do right they seem to find ways to sink their hooks straight in so they can take a chunk to call their own. Sure, I’ll back Republicans... but it’s only because they at least pay lip service to that in which I believe. But I can’t get excited about them. It’s all phony to me, albeit less than the crap the Democrats pull off (I wanted to vomit back during the Wellstone Memorial... that sealed my opinion of that den of vipers).
I was in my teens when Gingrich became Speaker of the House. I admittedly never had much against him and could tell that he was getting the raw end of the deal when it came to a lot of the coverage he received. All the same, I’d readily admit that perhaps it tainted my opinion of him a bit on a subconscious level which, when coupled with my general distrust of politicians as being all hat and no cattle, makes me hesitant to jump on the gung-ho bandwagon.
Like I said, I’ll support the man. But I’ll need to see accomplishments over the next four years before I’m willing to start extending my trust.
What exactly does "fly off the handle" mean sir? Twice now you've used that term. I've barely heard him raise his voice, and agree with him or not, he always gives an intellectual account for his actions, beliefs and thoughts. Again, I DEFY you name another person who has designed and accomplished an ACTUAL conservative agenda even approaching what Newt has, because you can't. They don't exist.
Gingrich easily gets my vote before Mitt. No worries there.
Like I said, if he can’t be trusted to keep his vow to his wife, he won’t keep his vow to uphold and defend the constitution. It’s as simple as that.
Rick! Santorium promoting his book, told NPR in 2006:That is disturbing quote by Santorum. IMO, far worse than Newt's Pelosi couch moment. Not one of the republican contenders is consistently conservative (in the FR sense of the word, not as Santorum defined it above).“One of the criticisms I make is to what I refer to as more of a libertarianish right. You know, the left has gone so far left and the right in some respects has gone so far right that they touch each other. They come around in the circle. This whole idea of personal autonomy, well I don’t think most conservatives hold that point of view. Some do. They have this idea that people should be left alone, be able to do whatever they want to do, government should keep our taxes down and keep our regulations low, that we shouldn’t get involved in the bedroom, we shouldn’t get involved in cultural issues. You know, people should do whatever they want. Well, that is not how traditional conservatives view the world and I think most conservatives understand that individuals can’t go it alone. That there is no such society that I am aware of, where we’ve had radical individualism and that it succeeds as a culture.” http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/rick-santorum-v-limited-government/
I don’t care about a vow to his wife because I was not there when the marriage fell apart, and I am in no position to judge his infidelity. God will judge him on that. I am in a position to judge his voting record and getting a D from Gun Owners is a much more serious matter in my mind than worrying about whether his zipper stayed zipped.
By the way, this quote is demonstrably false.
This is the Newt that I want to see in the White House.
Hope S. Carolina agrees. I wish mittens would come in at about 15% or less at this point. Get him out, and let the conservatives duke it out!LOL I know it ain’t gonna happen but its an entertaining thought.
He never gets weak kneed, he just sez one thing, then changes his mind later. His campaign theme song should be Blind Willie Johnson’s “Nobody’s Fault But Mine”.
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