By Brandon Moseley
Alabama Political Reporter
United States Presidential Candidate Newt Gingrich had four campaign stops in Alabama Tuesday and Wednesday. Following his big win in Georgia the former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich went too Pell City in St. Clair County. Speaker Gingrich and his wife Callista were greeted by a crowd of well over 300 people at the Pell City Civic Center. Speaker Gingrich also had stops Wednesday in Montgomery and Birmingham and was in Huntsville on Tuesday.
‘The Alabama Political Reporter’ caught up with Newt Gingrich in St. Clair County. Former Speaker Gingrich told the crowd, “What is wrong with America today is liberalism. Liberalism is wrong about reality.”
Speaker Gingrich said, “The President (Barack H. Obama) went to North Carolina and explained that you could not get $2.50 a gallon gasoline.” Gingrich disagreed. “The President said drilling would not solve anything President said we had a solution ……algae. “ “This would be a great Saturday night skit.” “We can’t get any of the White House reporters to ask any serious questions about the speech.” “Not enough energy will come out of all the algae research to take one family on one summer vacation.”
The former Georgia Congressman said, “Two pages later we have had this great break through with natural gas that will create 600,000 jobs with natural gas.” “Not a single reporter has had the courage to ask the President how did we find the natural gas?” “This is a guy who is deeply ideologically committed to making energy more expensive.” “This is a President who promised to make coal energy so expensive that nobody will ever build another coal plant again, because it will bankrupt them.”
Speaker Gingrich said that Obama’s Department of Energy Secretary, “Dr. Chu believes we should pay European levels on gasoline: $8 to $10 a gallon.” Gingrich said that new technology increased liquid natural gas supply from an estimated ten years to 125 years. “Liquid natural gas is being shipped to China.” Supply and demand meant than an 11% increase in available supply has caused the price of natural gas to from $8 a gallon down to $3.00. Gingrich said that the same improvement in gas prices by increasing supply was possible. “No Obama then no expensive gas.” Modern oil fields are more difficult to develop; but “If you look at North Dakota, where oil is developed on private land” they discovered 25 times more oil than they thought they had. “North Dakota doubled the entire reserve of the United States.” What would happen if we fully developed oil fields in Alaska or California. Gingrich said that there is “perhaps 80 million barrels in California.” The state of North Dakota now has 3.5% unemployment, they have a fully funded rainy day fund, and they cut taxes. Speaker Gingrich said that oil production on federal lands has dropped 11% since Obama took office and natural gas production has dropped more than 20%.
Speaker Gingrich said that we could generate $18 to $20 trillion in oil and gas royalties over the next 20 years by fully developing all of our available oil fields on federal lands and offshore. Speaker Gingrich said that the federal government should balance the budget and then use all of the oil and gas royalties to pay off our national debt.
On foreign policy, Speaker Gingrich said, “I do not ever want to see an American President bow to a Saudi King.” “The Iranians are currently practicing closing the straits of Hormuz.” The short term solution is to tell the Iranians that, “Any effort to close the straits of Hormuz is an act of war.” “The long term solution is to develop our own energy resources need to be able to tell the Indians, the Europeans, and the Chinese that the Middle East is their problem.”
The Presidential candidate said that his thinking on the Middle East has changed because the region has changed fundamentally. The Egyptian government has grown much more militant and Islamic following the Arab Spring and it is clear that someone with the Pakistani government was hiding Osama Bin Laden and they have over 100 nuclear weapons. Gingrich said that when we killed Bin Laden they made no effort to find the people who were protecting him, they went after the people who had helped us.
Speaker Gingrich said, “When an American President apologizes to those who are killing Americans there is something profoundly wrong about our foreign policy.” “Obama is very eager to apologize to Islamic religious fanatics while he is attacking the American Catholic Church and religious liberties here
Speaker Gingrich said about the growing deficit, “We have had a generation of politicians who believe in selling the farm and leaving the children the mortgage.”
Speaker Gingrich said about Obama. “His leftwing ideological policies are wrong for America have led to his fuel prices and high unemployment. We have an obligation to defeat President Obama for the future of the United States.” “I need your help to win the nomination I need your help to defeat President Obama and I need your help as Commander n Chief to govern the country for the next four years.”
Speaker Gingrich said that if he wins the nomination he would organize the entire ticket as a team.
Between the time the new Congress is inaugurated and the time he is inaugurated as President the Congress should repeal Obamacare, Dodd-Frank, and Sarbanes-Oxley. The first thing he would do as President would be to sign the bills repealing those laws. He said he would also sign executive orders that first day to approve the Keystone Pipeline and moving the American Embassy to Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
Speaker Gingrich said that he is the most experienced candidate in the field. “It takes somebody who knows how to do these things.” The Country “needs somebody who understands how Washington works.” “I worked with Ronald Reagan in the 80s” to defeat the Soviet Union and turn around the economy with tax cuts “that created 16 million new jobs.” “Eleven years later Soviet Union disappeared.” As Speaker in 1994 Gingrich said that they ran positive ads not negative ads. The Gingrich Congress passed welfare reform, cut spending, passed the largest capital gains tax cut in history, and balanced the budget. “I am the author of the first four balanced budgets in your lifetime.”
Speaker Gingrich said that Senator Santorum voted for No Child Left Behind because he was a team player. “I voted no when Ronald Reagan asked for a tax increase” and voted no when George H. Bush broke his promise. “I do not play along to get along.
Speaker Gingrich said that his energy policy come from a book he wrote four years ago on energy policy. Gingrich said that he wrote a 54 page paper on the Constitution that took years of research to complete.
“Who do you want to have actually trying to fix the country?” Gingrich said that he was in Huntsville yesterday because Huntsville is an appropriate place to talk about Space. Speaker Gingrich said that both Santorum and Romney were critical of his space plan and Gov. Mitt Romney said that he would a fire someone who told him to build a moon base. “I understand that Romney likes to fire people, but would he fire Christopher Columbus? Would he fire the Wright Brothers? Would he fire John F Kennedy?” Gingrich said, “I am a visionary.” People need a bold achievable vision to work and strive for. “Being the manager of decay is not good enough.”
Presidential candidate Gingrich said, “I can not match Romney’s ability to go to Wall Street and ask for money. I need your help.” The former speaker suggested that people donate to his campaign, email their friends asking them to vote for him, and follow him on Twitter and Facebook.
“If we win both Alabama and Mississippi this is a whole new race.”
Before Speaker Gingrich spoke Alabama State Senator Jabo Waggoner (R) said, “Newt Gingrich is going to carry Pell City, St. Clair County, and Alabama.”
Alabama State Representative Jim McClendon (R) from Springville said, “I am excited to take part in bringing our next President to St. Clair County.”
Former Miss Alabama and Miss America Heather Whitestone McCallum said, “I love what Newt stands for and that is why I am here.”
Mrs. Callista Gingrich told the crowd, “America is at a crossroads.” “This is the most important election of our life time. We have one opponent, Barack Obama and we are committed to removing his from the white house.”
St. Clair County Republican Party Chairman and St. Clair County Sheriff’s Department Deputy Freddie Turrentine said that the event had a great turnout and could not recall another Presidential candidate coming to St. Clair County during an election. St. Clair County Board of Education member and former St. Clair County School Superintendent said the only one she could think of was George C. Wallace, who ran as an independent twice.
Winning Alabama and Mississippi is critical to Speaker Gingrich maintaining a viable candidacy going forward. Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney currently has won more delegates than Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul, and Rick Santorum combined. It takes 1144 delegates to win the Republican Party nomination for President. Both Rick Santorum and Mitt Romney will be making campaign stops in Alabama. Gov. Romney has been endorsed by: Congressman Mike Rogers (R) from Anniston, former Gov. Bob Riley (R) from Clay County, and The Birmingham News. Speaker Gingrich is committed to attend the GOP Presidential Debate at the Alabama Theatre on Monday at 5:30 pm.
The winner of the Republican Party’s nomination for President will face incumbent President Barack H. Obama on the General Election Primary Ballot on November 6th
To learn more about former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich’s campaign for the Presidency visit his website:
