Ups and downs: Gingrich notes history's lessons
Atlanta (CNN) -Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich began his remarks at the Atlanta press club Wednesday with an admonition for the pundits and media already reporting the death of his campaign.
"I want to say one thing about the campaign before I begin," Gingrich said to flashing bulbs and feverishly clacking laptops. "In July of 2007 Hillary Clinton was going to be the Democratic nominee and Rudy Giuliani the Republican (nominee). John McCain was out of money and written off by the press. The fact is campaigns go up and down."
His remarks about the last presidential race were aimed at pre-empting the assembled reporters who were eager to ask him about the missteps plaguing his campaign, including Tuesday's news that his two top finance campaign staff members had quit and the embarrassing disclosure of a second high-dollar credit line he held at the Tiffany's jewelry store.
"I'm not running to talk about the nuances of campaigns" he said, telling members of the media that he would not be answering questions about "campaign process."
Gingrich then focused on the topic at hand – economic policy, reform at the Federal Reserve and the repeal of the Dodd-Frank bill that increased financial regulations in the United States.
Devoting much of his speech to the "big ideas" and "big solutions" he wants to bring to the White House, the former House speaker made only one mention of a current GOP rival (praise for Texas Rep. Ron Paul). But he frequently assailed the man currently occupying the White House.
"We need to replace the food stamp president with a paycheck president" he said of President Barack Obama. "The pain inflicted by the Obama depression runs deep."
His comments coincided with a new initiative and video titled "Who got the money?" on his campaign website demanding an audit of the Federal Reserve.
After his remarks, reporters couldn't resist prodding about the state of his campaign. When asked how he expects to run the massive federal government when he is having trouble doing so with his own staff, Gingrich was quick and careful to refer to his defectors only as "consultants" – painting them as business-as-usual Beltway insiders who do not relate to average people.
"We made a mistake," he said. "We tried to be normal."
Prior to Tuesday's staff defections, sixteen members – including all of Gingrich's paid staff in Iowa – quit en masse June 9th. When asked how many staff members remain on his payroll, spokesman R.C. Hammond said there are "over a dozen" split between Georgia and Virginia. However, Hammond refused to divulge how many staffers the campaign had at its height.
I don't agree with Newt on much of anything. But I will acknowledge that he has a point on this one – political fortunes rise and fall rapidly. It's still very early.
This guy is still talking?
You know, it's hysterically funny to watch a GOPer try to pontificate about "history's lessons" when they're ALL still trying to sell the country their randian, supply-side, trickle-down, unicorf fart, double rainbow economic daydream ideology. The past 30+ years have proven beyond ANY reasonable doubt that the economy is trickle-up...that THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS ECONOMIC GRAV ITY. Not a single longitudinal statistic or study can be cited to argue otherwise and, moreover, there are myriad statistical measures and overwhelming evidence that this is the reality: that deploying the GOP's economic ideology in formulating our policies over the past 30 years has created a massive, undeniable redistribution of wealth to the already wealth and corporations and away from the middle-class, increased middle-class household debt exorbitantly, done nothing to create a stable job environment or avoid periodic (and purposefully created) market bubbles and cyclical recessions, etc. etc. etc. It's time to start accepting that the economy is driven by DEMAND, not the sources and creators of supply, and that the economy is made healthy and grown by creating a vast middle-class with the means to create and sustain that demand WITHOUT HAVING TO RELY ON A MASSIVE CONSUMER DEBT BURDEN. Credit cards and loans and mortgages and leveraged equity are sold to you by the banks in order to keep the rich and corporations, who are investing in said banks and financial institutions and their proliferation of financial instruments, from having to pay the middle-class a wage/salary that allows it to generate and sustain demand without incurring crippling debt. Then the rich and corporations invest in those very debt products you're forced to use because of your piddling wages. They thought they could create a feedback loop and keep it going forever. Guess what? THEY WERE WRONG.