Human Events' Tony Lee on Newt at Palmetto Freedom Forum

The Chase 2012 reporter for the conservative weekly:

There is not a more exceptional person in the 2012 GOP presidential field than Herman Cain in terms of life experiences and private sector success. And there is not a person who is capable of explaining American exceptionalism better than Newt Gingrich.

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To put it simply, American exceptionalism matters in Republican primaries. It is why immigration issues will matter in 2012 because it is a way for Republicans to speak about and discuss Americanism.

At the Forum, Gingrich stole the show by proposing ideas to eliminate the regulations such as Dodd-Frank that are screwing up the economy, reign in the federal judiciary and activist judges and even comparing himself to the University of South Carolina football team by saying that, like South Carolina did in their first game of the season last Saturday, his campaign has had some early fumbles but that he would prevail in the end.

But it was his discussion of "melting pot" Americanism that reverberated. Here's Gingrich's words:

When you have a country which is proud of its history, which is proud of its language, which is comfortable saying to people, come to America to be Americans, you can absorb more people than if you have a country whose elites are totally confused and are prepared to give up on being an American.

...if we're not going to be a melting pot, we can't afford to have very many people come here. When you realize that there are over 200 languages spoken in the Chicago school system, there are over 180 languages spoken at Miami-Dade Junior College, it's why I favor English as the official language of government.

We need a unifying system which says, yes, we are eager to have people come to America, as they always have, but we want you to come here to be American. We don't want you to come here to be confused about how this country operates.

It is hard to find a Republican who does not see the 2012 election as a pivotal election that will determine whether the country remains exceptional or begins an even more rapid descent to becoming an unexceptional version of Europe that is plagued by fiscal problems and multiculturalism.