Newt Gingrich Visits Chicago Harris
Newt Gingrich, the former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives and candidate for the Republican nomination for president in 2012, stopped by the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy on Tuesday, February 19, for a Q&A event with Chicago Harris students, faculty and staff.
During the 45-minute event, which was presented in partnership with the University of Chicago Institute of Politics, Gingrich addressed a range of subjects, including his thoughts on the future of the Republican Party, which he said is “either on the edge of breakout, or the edge of collapse.”
“We have 30 Republican governors in states that hold more than 300 electoral votes,” Gingrich said. “And states that have both Republican governors and Republican-controlled legislatures contain 51 percent of the U.S. population.”
Gingrich said that, like many in the GOP, he woke up on Election Day confident that former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney would defeat President Obama. One of the key lessons from the loss, he said, is that Republicans need to be more expansive in thinking about how and where they communicate their message.
“We need to be where people are. I appeared on the Colbert Report and the next day I went to an event at the University of Texas. Almost everyone there had seen me on Colbert, but had no idea that I was on Fox News Sunday or Hannity,” Gingrich said. “Romney wouldn’t do Leno. They skipped ‘The View,’ they skipped Nickelodeon. [Michelle] Obama did Nickelodeon. This is where the people are. Meanwhile, [Romney campaign advisor] Stuart Stevens is proud of the fact that he is not on Twitter, which is just crazy.”
Asked whether he felt having two Republican responses to the president’s State of the Union address – one from Florida Senator Marco Rubio, the other from Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, a Tea Party favorite – sent a message that the party was irreparably split, Gingrich disagreed and said he would welcome even more responses, adding, “I’m for noise.”
Gingrich criticized an effort spearheaded by Republican strategist Karl Rove to marshal resources in support of “establishment” candidates facing primary challenges from Tea Party-backed candidates. He said the effort, designed to prevent “weak” general election candidates from advancing past the primary, would damage the party in the long run.
Gingrich weighed-in on foreign policy – he warned that “the Arab Spring is most likely going to turn out to be an Arab mess.” – as well as domestic policy. When asked by Chicago Harris professor Bruce Meyer asked what steps he would take to address the federal budget deficit, Gingrich said Congress and the White House could save billions of dollars by modernizing Medicare and Medicaid, but neither is willing to make the tough choices necessary to accomplish the task.
“In Washington, you have a party of less – the Republicans – and a party of more – the Democrats,” Gingrich said. “But what you don’t have is a party of better.”
ADDITIONAL COVERAGE:
Newt Gingrich Talks Politics with David Axelrod, Meets UChicago Students - UChicago News
-- Dominick Washington
