1:30. Just back from a short press conference. Highlights.
Iraq. "If you do what the liberals want you'll have chaos and massive death, and send a message that America can't be counted on." He would triple the Iraqi forces and get the US out of cities and not use Americans for policing. Holly Berkowitz starts to argue about the illegality of the war while Newt repeats, "that's not true, that's not true." "All the intelligence agencies in the world believed Saddam was dangerous." After three or so minutes a radio reporter says "this isn't a debate, Holly," and the questioning moves on.
"How does your party win Congress back?" I ask. "Our job is to offer better solutions, not focus on attacking Hillary or Obama."
Immigration: "I would hope the President would let it go. We don't need a comprehensive bill. We need to keep the promise of 1986 and control the border."
My bottom line: Not running, using the forum of Caucus Land to get attention for his self-appointed elder statesman role. But we haven't seen the last of Newt.
1:15 Health care: "Doctors are interested in billing for care, but not in seeing that I'm getting better." How to make accountable? Newt: healthtransformation.net. Shift incentives away from acute care and toward total care. "Stopping at the gas station before you hit E is more practical than getting towed. But our health system pays for the towing and not the refill."
Staffer: "We're gonna miss our plane."
1:12 How do you solve apathy? Newt: Don't worry about the apathetic: that's the norm for 90% of people. Make activism fun and interesting and personal.
How are elected officials responding to you? Newt: Younger Republicans responding; since Contract we've offered few real solutions, there's a hunger. Questions winding down, this is the longest Q&A session I've seen all year. "We're starting with the premise that you're smarter than the media" gets applause.
1:08 Teacher Hani Elkadi asks about youth drug use. Newt: "My answer is radical. Adolescence is a failed idea. That's why I can't ever run for president, I say stuff like that." In the 18th century, you were a child, and then you were adult. Adolescence was invented in 19th century. Education bureaucratic and boring, and doesn't let people exploit their talents. Adolescents not allowed to be responsible. "Why do you at 13 follow someone who's 15 instead of a 45 year old mentor? No one in their immediate peer group has a clue." Meth is a symptom of a boring social structure. Being productive and making real mistakes because a real adult talks to you... that's where we should be.
1:02 Isn't the problem that people don't demand solutions? Newt: "only government has a monopoly." We're working toward a historic wave of change, like progressives, new deal, and Reagan.
How to fix social security? Newt: "We need to give young people the power of compound interest. The group that matters most is under 40. We need to guarantee the older people that they'll have what they have now, and give their grandchildren the power of compound interest. We need to finance it over 30 years" like a 30-year mortgage. Questioner: how do we guarantee other than just rhetoric? Newt: Individual accounts for the older. Under 40: "don't put the money in the government. In 1935, you couldn't manage money like we do now."
12:57 Long term solutions vs. short term "shelf life" of politicians. Newt: "We did it. But we didn't have a second wave of ideas. Only 10 or 15 people understood the purpose of the Contract with America. We elevated a whole generation of chairmen who didn't understand."
12:55 Detroit public schools have a 21% grad rate. "At first I thought this was a crisis. But I realized that I misunderstood the purpose. The purpose of the Detroit school system is to pay the people who are already there." Laughs. "Let's start this conversation over again. What is the purpose of a school system?"
12:52 Bipartisanship and solutions, "it seems like a real frustration now." Newt: "Congress has lowest approval rating in history. This means some of their mothers don't approve of them."
12:49 Fusion? "I would like to see basic fusion research. We have been 30 years away from fusion for 70 years. It's still at a pre-engineering phase of real science."
12:45 Long question ends 2with "Should we reward public employees for having good ideas?" Newt says its good, put it on the wiki.
Global warming and emissions cap: "I'm for incentives on emissions, I'm very cautions on a mandatory cap." It's corrupted in Europe. "I'm not for regulation, litigation and tax increases. I'm for incentives." The left says worry about carbon. "If Jane Fonda and The China Syndrome had not scared Americans, and we'd followed France's strategy of nuclear power, we'd be 15% better in the Kyoto plan."
12:41 Campaign finance and gov't transparency. Newt's all for, also says every appropriations bill should be on line 48 hours before vote. Says the blogging world will get involved and pressure. Notes that immigration bill killed because "the Senate switchboard actually stopped." Applause. Urges bush to drop it till border secured.
12:40 Todd Versteegh asks the Fair Tax question. Newt "a lot to be said for it, depends how you define it. I would never be for a consumption tax without repealing constitutional amendment for an income tax" because otherwise "they'll tax you both ways and we can't have that" applause.
12:37 How about your polling process? Newt: just a standard professional poll, I think it was 800 sample.
Holly Berkowitz of Iowa City: "I fear it's based on an assumption that private property trumps all, and doesn't look at productivity." Gingrich says there can be a green conservatism: caring for nature, with free markets.
12:33 Q & A. Marriage tax penalty. Why no repeal? "I suspect because of cost." Questioner is angry-"You spend millions to promote marriage and then you tax it. The tax code promotes having children and penalizes getting married." Newt says it's a good question.
Automatic citizenship for babies of illegals. "That’s a good example of what's wrong in DC. Nothing in the 14th Amendment has anything to do with people born outside the law. It's a modern left wing interpretation." We need absolute control of the border, and not "accept any of this baloney. Biggest applause yet. Questioner: "There were planeloads of pregnant women from around the world, the LA social workers would take care of them, and then they'd bring their whole families in."
12:31 In a science and technology based market entrepreneurs ought to provide more options at a better price and higher quality and convenience. (appl.) That's our core model. We need a fundamental shift from the obsolete bureaucracy model. "People are so hungry for a positive vision of a workable future."
12:27 July 23 online forum focusing on moving gov’t to "world that works." Says he'll be at state fair and in Ames for straw poll... "We’ll hold eight workshops, and we'll announce the topics in July. One will be on curing Alzheimer's... one will probably be on the fair tax or flat tax."
September 27 and 29 is "the big, key workshop."
"If we can build a powerful presentation and get people all around America engaged, reporters will have to cover it and learn about it and cover things differently." We're sharing our polling data will all campaigns in both parties, and inviting them to the forum on 9/29. "We think it ought to be Americans talking as Americans, and not as liberals and conservatives."
12:18 Our work based on three principles. 1) We have been successful over 400 years due to key values like work ethic, private property.
2) "There’s a world that works and a world that fails." World that works is markets and investment and capital, like "the miracle of camera phones. 50 years ago you couldn't have explained any of this." The world that fails has no consequences. We tolerate the failures in the world that fails that we would never accept in the world that works. UPS tracks millions of packages while they move, but gov’t can't find illegal immigrants sitting still. Proposes sending a package to every illegal immigrant to much mirth. "How can you have this gap of capability?" Need to migrate gov’t to the world that works. "That's the key to competing with China and India."
3) Recognize that the world is dangerous, our enemies would destroy us, and we have an absolute obligation to defend (big applause).
Leads into a discussion of technology and wikis that I'm not sure how ties into defense. But he ties it into finding solutions to many issues.
12:13 I kept telling GOP "we’ve been presiding over a mess" - big city schools, immigration, international trade. "We have a lot of appeal to people who don't want America to be on wrong track."
"Then we asked people how effective is government." Laughs. 7 percent "and we're checking to see if those are gov’t employees".
"People want to be united in red white and blue -- not divided. There's a pretty big base for what we want to accomplish." He's walking up and down the center aisle, glancing at notes. Notes that people have a strong belief in science.
12:09 His Organization's survey: 92-5 people want focus on long-term solutions. Not what you usually get from govt. 85-10 people believe we have to defend America (he acknowledges that's an easy question.) 75-16 want to "defeat enemies." Iraq problems are a "performance issue"
Strengthen and revitalize America's core values? 80-9 say yes. He picks on University towns that question if we even have core values, which gets chuckles.
He sums his numbers and says there's a vast majority supporting. "No red, no blue -- we're really a red white and blue country." Overwhelming majority for our values.
12:07The Speaker is speaking. Sound is a little muffled. Newt notes this. People are tired of red vs. blue and negativity. Want positives and solutions.
He ditches the mike.
American Solutions organization is his outfit, americansolutions.com
Gingrich signs his book for Cyndi Michel.
12:05. Cyndi Michel says she likes "two or three candidates," doesn't name them. "I'm so undecided, isn't that terrible." I reassure her that it's pretty early yet.
11:56. Gingrich worked his way through the handshake line and is close to ready to speak. People waiting in line had little better to do than talk to me.
Former Johnson County GOP chair Cathy Grawe would be glad to back Newt for president: "I don't think he's electable but I love him to death." Of the candidates running, she likes Tom Tancredo. "He's good on immigration and a solid conservative."
Royce Phillips of Tiffin likes Mike Huckabee. "He's saying what I like to hear. A lot of people on the secular side don't understand that Christian conservatives are not monolithic, and we have a deeper philosophical process than we're given credit for. Governor Huckabee verbalizes that well." John Nolan also like Huckabee -- though not as much as Newt. But he expects the next president will be -- al Gore. "He's already won the popular vote once, except for that terrible Supreme Court decision." Nolan says Turkey, with its secular history and former role as the Ottoman Empire, should play a big role in Middle East peace. "We should encourage the Turks to move in as we move out. They're the toughest SOBs in the world."
Another former JC GOP chair, Todd Versteegh, says it's hard to say whether Gingrich will run. "He'll have a large presence at the straw poll, he'll certainly make a name for himself." Versteegh is working for Fair Tax; they're not endorsing.
11:33 and hello from the Quality Inn in Iowa City. We locals still call it the Highlander. A line of local GOP activists is forming in the lobby for a greet and photo op with former Speaker Newt Gingrich, who's in Iowa "promoting his book." C'mon, it’s IOWA.
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