Newt Gingrich visits Barrington

Former Speaker of the House and presidential candidate Newt Gingrich and his wife Callista were in Barrington on September 2 for a well-attended dinner event at which local voters had a chance to meet him and listen to his point of view about the issues facing our country.

One of his more interesting points was that every state - including Illinois - should be in play in 2012.  He also pointed out that, if Obama had simply followed the Reagan economic policies rather than class warfare and bureaucratic socialism, roughly 3.7 million more Americans would have jobs today.

A transcript of his remarks is available at the new BarringtonVotes website.

http://barringtonvotes.com/forum/topics/newt--barrington

Conservative blogger Warner Todd Huston (Publius' Forum) wrote about the evening, where you can also find some nice photos from the event:

http://www.publiusforum.com/2011/09/02/newt-gingrichs-illinois-fund...

Other candidates will hopefully visit here soon as well. Regardless of which candidate you may favor, we all need to pay attention to the March 20 primary and become well-informed about the choices we will face.

This is not about who seems to be leading in the latest national opinion poll or is most popular among media pundits.  We each need to invest the time and effort to make better choices as individual voters who are responsible for our own futures.

Some highlights from the speech are repeated below.  Although this event was not publicized in the media, it was not an exclusive fundraiser for large donors.  Instead, it was an informal garden dinner party with an estimated 150 attendees.

He addressed that in an amusing way in his opening remarks.

"There’s another team that would argue that people shouldn’t earn too much, and they often use public money to fly on airplanes from state to state, in order to tell everybody that people shouldn’t earn too much."

"You have a President today who is against people living too high on the hog, or earning too much, who flies around at your expense, taking with him a gigantic armored bus made in Canada, in order to tell you, you should buy a Prius.  I mean, it’s truly one of the more amazing moments in American history."

"But, I’m delighted to be here, and here’s a fundamental difference in the two teams. If the other team would show up here, and if you were not a donor to them, they would try to figure out how to get you out of here. We think every American, of every background, in every neighborhood, should have the dream that their children, and their grandchildren, can do as well as they’re capable by working hard, learning, growing, and being part of America, and that the right to pursue happiness is not defined by politicians." (applause)

He went on to explain the philosophy behind his campaign plan, and the need for voters to do more than simply vote in 2012 and hope for a better outcome.

"This campaign is very simple, and I want to talk backwards from the final round. We’re running, in large part, because we believe we’re in real trouble.  Callista and I have talked about this for over a year. And we believe that we have to ask you … we don’t want to ask you to be for us. Because if you’re for us, you’re going to vote, go home, and say, “I sure hope he fixes it”.

"I want to ask you to be with us, because we’re going to need your help every day for eight years. We’re going to need your help with the Congress, the state legislature, the governor, the city council. We’re going to need your help because if we shrink the Washington bureaucracy by implementing the 10th Amendment, we have to grow citizens to fill the vacuum."

"So this is, I believe, the most serious election since 1860. We’re going to decide whether America remains an exceptional nation with an unlimited future, in which we are citizens, not subjects, in which the politicians serve the people, the people don’t serve the politicians."

He explained how he had taken on the "Washington establishment" repeatedly over the years, and was doing so again in this campaign.

"Which is why, in June and July, in both parties there were people on TV saying, well, Gingrich is gone. So the first thing I’d like for you all to be able to do is to say that no, you were with us on September 1, and I’m still here. So they’re just plain wrong."

"But for us to win, we have to have a grassroots campaign of enormous proportions, which is why I’m going to ask all of you to go to my first name, Newt.org , sign up, e-mail and Facebook all of your friends, tweet your friends if you use Twitter, whatever your techniques are, to maximize across the country the number of people who you tell that you were here tonight, and ask them to go to Newt.org ."

He went on to explain why the Illinois primary on March 20 is important, because "there’s not a state in the country that is safe for Barack Obama if he doesn’t fix this economy. And since he believes in class warfare, and bureaucratic socialism, I don’t believe he can fix this economy. So I’m going to compete in 50 states, and DC, just to drive them crazy. (laughter)  No, no, every state in America is open, because this is a red, white, and blue country, and every state in America can vote for somebody who has common sense and a record of getting things done."

"But, in the short run, there’s something else. We’re going to come back to all of you, if you’ll sign up at Newt.org . We’re going to need your help to carry the Illinois delegation for the nomination. This state is going to be very important. There are no blue states in a convention. We need every state, and we need your help in organizing Illinois. With your help, I believe we can turn the country around. With your help, we’ll take on the most effective food stamp president in history, and we’re going to replace him with the most effective paycheck president in history, and that’s my commitment."

He concluded his remarks by commenting on the latest unemployment data, and contrasting the lack of any net new job creation in August to the pace of recovery from the Carter recession which Reagan inherited.

He pointed out that, "the Reagan recovery from its peak, as of today, would have put 3.7 million Americans back to work.  That is, if Obama had simply given up on class warfare, and given up on bureaucratic socialism, and accepted the Reagan game plan, 3 million 700 thousand workers would be at work today, paying taxes, not getting food stamps, not getting welfare, not getting Medicaid, not getting unemployment."

"The number actually goes up every month from here on. In every month, with the unemployment number, we’re going to announce Reagan’s achievement, and we’re going to draw a contrast between what good policies do to create jobs in a free enterprise system, and what bad policies do to kill jobs. And I think the gap between Reagan and Obama is going to become a crushing burden for him to try to explain why it’s OK to fail."

In his concluding remarks, he mentioned that President Obama sent out an email to supporters recently entitled “Frustrated”, in which Obama "talked about how frustrated he was."

One of his staff said at the time, “Does he have any idea how frustrated 14 million Americans are?”

He concluded that "I personally don’t believe a re-election slogan, “Vote for me, I’m really frustrated too” is going to work.

He said that in the debates, the choice will be between paychecks and food stamps, and "every state in the United States will be in play". 

In other words, the Newt 2012 campaign isn't going away, contrary to media reports of earlier this summer.  It will be interesting to see how well he performs in the upcoming debates.  He obviously still has many supporters and valuable experience and ideas to contribute to the debate this fall.