Gingrich On 2012: Palin "Is Very Formidable"
February 2, 2009 10:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (3) | Share This
WASHINGTON -- Former House Speaker Newt Gingrigh said today that the 2012 Republican Party nominee will emerge from "a wide open field" -- but he suggested that AK Gov. Sarah Palin would have a "substantial advantage" in Iowa, the first-in-the nation caucus state, where she has "a very big base."
"If Sarah Palin seeks out a group of sophisticated policy advisers and spends time developing a series of fairly sophisticated positions," Gingrich said during his 33rd visit to the Christian Science Monitor breakfast series, "she is very formidable."
If the economy is still "a mess" a year from now, however, then Gov. Mitt Romney's business experience might become more relevant, Gingrich added. The former Speaker also mentioned another possible contender, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, who is expected to run for Texas governor.
Gingrich, who is running a policy organization called American Solutions, didn't make a pitch for his own candidacy.
"Nobody knows today who is going to fill the vacuum," he said, comparing this cycle with 1977, in particular, when Ronald Reagan was one of many well-known GOPers seeking the party's nomination.
Gingrich sharply critictized the Obama administration and Democratic congressional leaders for not involving Republicans in the drafting process of the stimulus bill. He called the proposal, which the House approved last week without a single Republican vote, "a bad bill."
"If Nancy Pelosi wants to run a one-party dictatorship then she should run it with Democratic votes," Gingrich said.
With Republican input, Gingrich said the bill would have included additional tax cuts, more infrastructure spending and less money for welfare programs.
"You would've had a substantially different bill," he said.
Gingrich also suggested that the Obama bailout actually echoes the Bush administration's spending proposal.
"This is not change you can believe in," he said. "This is more of the same."
The former House leader, whose Contract with America swept Republicans into power in 1994, also suggested that former Bush Treasury Sec. Hank Paulson and Obama Treasury Sec. Tim Geithner have ties to Wall Street that make them predisposed to support economic policies friendly to the nation's banks.
"I think Geithner is fronting for the banks," Gingrich said.
The nation's economic slowdown will last between three to five years, Gingrich predicted, noting, too, that the White House's plan bails out businesses that are already laying off tens of thousands of workers. The government, he said, shouldn't be "cushioning" the failures of industry.
"You can't have capitalism on the way up and socialism on the way down," he said.
Gingrich also hammered the Democrats for supporting the Employee Free Choice Act, also known as the card-check bill. The proposal would make it easier for workers to join a union.
"I don't think the Democrats understand yet how unpopular this is going to be," he said.
Putting policy aside, however, Gingrich praised the Obama team. "It is as disciplined and strategic an effort as we've seen in our lifetime," he said.
hotlineoncall.nationaljournal.com
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Newt is all over the place. Note his compliment to the Obama team (as contrasted with the policies he disagrees with). |
