Newt Gingrich’s appearance on “Meet the Press” today could leave some wondering which party’s nomination he is running for. The former speaker had some harsh words for Paul Ryan’s (and by extension, nearly every House Republican’s) plan to reform Medicare, calling it “radical.”
“I don’t think right-wing social engineering is any more desirable than left-wing social engineering,” he said when asked about Ryan’s plan to transition to a “premium support” model for Medicare. “I don’t think imposing radical change from the right or the left is a very good way for a free society to operate.”
As far as an alternative, Gingrich trotted out the same appeal employed by Obama/Reid/Pelosi — for a “national conversation” on how to “improve” Medicare, and promised to eliminate ‘waste, fraud and abuse,’ etc.
“I think what you want to have is a system where people voluntarily migrate to better outcomes, better solutions, better options,” Gingrich said. Ryan’s plan was simply “too big a jump.”
Newt has a tin ear which is why he has had a dozen wives and many who served in the house with him hate his guts. He believes in big government solutions, not in getting government off our backs. This could be the last shot for Republicans to get their act together before a third party becomes a reality and if Newt is the vehicle, then everyone might as well start forming it now. The old political class in the republican party is not very different than the democrats except they seem to favor the killing a babies a little bit less, but not enough to make a change. And the sad news is that if the republicans split, the democrats gain advantage and if they rule, America is done as we will drown in our own debt and freedom will be gone forever. We do not need another washington insider, but someone that wants to blow up the old politics with straight truth and hard solutions. We will also need a number of candidates who believe the same thing in the house and senate or this new leader will not get much accomplished and hacks from both parties will be out to destroy them.
He also came out backing the individual mandate. For someone who prides himself as being a history guru, he must have skipped over the Constitution and Federalist Papers. By making the statement he pretty much destroyed his chances of being a serious contender.
@another vet: I did a little piece about that very thing, av. Looks like Newt broke the contract with America…
Newt Gingrich = Obama Lite?
@anticsrocks: Add that to his seemingly inability to stay faithful to his wives and he is probably wasting his time and money.
There was a time when I thought Newt was a true conservative. I was disabused of that notion sometime just prior to his appearing with Pelosi on that global warming commercial. He is nothing more than another liberal-lite GOP member, who needs to just go away and let true conservatives lead the Republican party.
This could also be called “Newt sticks a fork in himself too”
…The most vile kind of “conservative”. I guess his philandering is not the only indicator of his perfidy.
I can’t remember the last time a politician has committed political suicide so completely in the first weekend of his/her campaign.
It took Sharon Angle a few weeks to go nuts. Newt does it a few days.
The only possible logic to his position is that he is taking the most extreme Left positions in order to conflict moderate GOP members, who have always disliked him, into not voting at all.
Even Newt realized he was misspeaking…..but not until after, when he read the transcript.
Newt had this to say:
Gingrich says that conservatives have taken his remarks out of context, although he admits that the “social engineering” may have been a little too strong. He tells Gallagher that his response was to David Gregory’s question about whether Republicans should force a Medicare reform over public opposition, saying it would be the same “social engineering” mistake Democrats made with ObamaCare.
Now, recall, that it was two weeks ago that Gingrich called the same plan “brave” and said he’d vote for it.
Thank you Newt for taking yourself out of the running. Don’t let the door hit your butt on the way out.
Thank the Gods that no-one ever takes the Newt, and Ron Paul seriously. Maybe they could share a ticket? Be a spoiler for the republicans. Thats a joke. So don’t go thinking I ment it.