Newt in e-mail to supporters: "Because the renewal of America can only begin with you, this will be your campaign."

Newt sent an e-mail to supporters on Friday:

America is in an economic crisis.

More Americans are without jobs, and for longer periods of time, than at any time in our history since the Great Depression.

I am running for President because we need to insist on dramatic and bold changes in Washington and in the policies that are killing jobs.

There is no more important task for the next president. President Obama has shown that he is not equal to the task. He has failed to lead effectively to solve these economic challenges. In fact his policies and his attitudes have made the economy worse. He needs to be replaced.

America is based on the belief that men and women are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, among which are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

As a result, America for 235 years has been a beacon of hope and opportunity for every person willing to work hard and create a better life.

But today, hope and opportunity are at risk.

In 2007 and 2008, candidate Obama ran a decentralized campaign that placed its trust in the American people. But upon his election, President Obama asked the American people to place their trust in Washington.

When I announced my candidacy for President of the United States on May 11, I set out to run a substantive, solutions-oriented campaign built upon an alternative idea.

To make Washington smaller, we as citizens must become bigger.

We must persuade one person at a time, one family at a time, and one community at a time that we have better solutions than the corrupted, collectivist policies we’ve seen from Washington.

Because the renewal of America can only begin with you, this will be your campaign.

As someone who has been in public life for nearly forty years, I know full well the rigors of campaigning for public office. I will endure them. I will carry the message of American renewal to every part of this great land, whatever it takes.

Next Monday, I will take part in the first New Hampshire Republican primary debate.

The critical question of how we put Americans back to work will be asked of me and the other Republican candidates.

It is the most important question of this campaign.

The road ahead will not be easy for America. As a citizen who loves his country and does not want to see it fail, I will humbly offer my vision for renewing America’s future alongside the other candidates.

And I will work every day of this campaign to make this vision of American renewal a reality.

But in the end saving America and getting us out of the Obama Depression and back to a working, prosperous America will take your voice, your work, and your support.

Together we can create a much better future for America.


Your friend,

Newt

What now?

So, as most everyone probably knows, a large chunk of Newt's campaign quit Thursday.

The top reasons given: the recent vacation Newt and Callista took and the lack of trips to Iowa in June.

Both are those explanations are reasonable. Dick Morris, however, says the reason is that his staffers were not comfortable with an campaign based so heavily on ideology. (Pet peeve: it is wrong to describe conservatism as an idelogy.) If that is true, it speaks very low of the staffers. And makes you wonder what they thought they were getting into with Newt, who is known as the ideas man of the GOP.

Getting past that: can he still win?

As some have wrote, John McCain was in a lower spot in the summer of 2007 when a lot of his staff quit and he famously had to resort to carrying his own luggage in airports.

His campaign was left for dead.

But through his ability to win over voters at town hall meetings, he cane storming back to win New Hampshire and South Carolina -- and the nomination.

If Newt can win the debates, he can pull a similar trick. With Romney officially saying he will not participate in the Ames Straw Poll in August -- basically writing off Iowa when combined with his other statements -- Newt has even a better chance to be in the top two in Iowa.

Regardless, I am with Newt.

Poll: Newt up nine points in the last two months against Obama; runs second to Romney in matchup with Obama

The latest Washington Post/ABC News poll has gotten a lot of attention for the fact that Mitt Romney beats President Obama in a head-to-head matchup, 49-46%. He is the only Republican to be in a lead.

But there was also good news for Newt in the poll. First, despite all the D.C. buzz, Newt's support among Republicans has increased four points since the last such poll in mid-April.

Against Obama, Newt has improved nine points since then.

Newt is in a virtual tie (with Rudy Giuliani, who may or may not run) for third place should Sarah Palin get in the race. With Palin out, Newt is tied with Giuliani for second.

The problem with Pawlenty's flat tax proposal

As I said in my last post, I think Tim Pawlenty's economic proposals yesterday were largely in the right direction.

My biggest problem with the way he would reform the tax code is that it is not bold enough. Pawlenty would replace the current tax code, in which there are six rates, with two: 10% and 25%. For those individuals who make $50,000 and families that make $100,00 and below, they would be taxed 10%. Those above would be taxed at 25%.

Newt calls for one rate: 15%. The advantage of one single rate is that when politicians come calling for more tax revenue so they can spend more money, everyone knows that they will have to chip in. Currently, liberals can go to some voters and say, "Don't worry, that new program will be paid for when we raise taxes on that guy over there, not you." That would not be possible if there was just one rate.

But even then, Pawlenty proposed good policy. But it should not be how conservatives start the tax reform debate. By having an opening position of two rates, once negotiations start in Congress -- where, almost inevitably, the plan will have to be watered down -- it could soon turn into, say, four rates. Which is not much better than what we have now.

With Newt's single rate reform, even if there are not enough votes for it -- read: too many Democrats in the Senate -- and it had to be changed to get enough votes, the "compromise" could be to have two rates. Which is a lot better than the current mess.

So while Pawlenty's plan would be a good ending point, it is not a good strategic beginniing point.

The media claims Pawlenty was the first to unveil an economic plan

In a speech yesterday, Tim Pawlenty outlined his economic plan. It is quite good -- though much of it is similar to the one Newt gave a speech unveiling on May 13. Notice the date Newt released his plan -- May 13, almost a month ago -- because the media obviously doesn't notice the date.

The mainstream media, even some mainstream conservative outlets, spent yesterday and this morning talking about how Pawlenty was the first Republican to have a plan on the economy. As should be expected, Newt's camp wanted to set the record straight.

Newt's spokesman, Rick Tyler, tweeted that one of the members of the Wall Street Journal editorial page, Stephen Moore, was at the very speech in which Newt laid out his nine-point plan.

POLITICO:

"Apparently, according to the Journal, its editorial board neither looked at nor has seen Gingrich’s jobs and prosperity plan, even though one of its members was present when he revealed it," Tyler told POLITICO. "It’s posted on our website and it’s been distributed to hundreds if not thousands of political reporters."

Kendra Marr: "Though the Journal apparently hasn’t been impressed, Investors Business Daily’s editorial board gave Gingrich an “A” grade for the plan, calling it “one of the most laudable economic plans in memory.”

Marr doesn't mention it, but as I have written about, Peter Ferrara has called it the best reform plan of any of the candidates.

Art Laffer, vital to the Reagan economic policies and the man who hosted the speech Newt laid out his plan in, said of the plan: "The combination of pro-growth tax reform, spending restraint, and sound money will restore robust economic growth with low unemployment and low inflation."

Tentative schedule of candidates on Iowa Tea Party bus tour

(Update: Ryan Rhodes, the group's organizer, says to ignore the schedule released below.

He says to check the group's website for details.)

Schedule.

Newt, according to Jennifer Jacobs, is scheduled to be in Waterloo on June 16 and Davenport on the 18th. It sounds confirmed that he will be on the Des Moines stop on July 2, the last day of the tour.

Newt will sign deficit reduction pledge tomorrow; Tea Party bus tour in Iowa later this month

-- Tomorrow, in New Hampshire, Gingrich will sign the Strong America Now deficit reduction pledge. The group -- "which claims 50,000 supporters in first caucus state Iowa, is promoting cutting the deficit by employing lean business practices known as the Lean Six Sigma strategy, which targets inefficiencies."

Tomorrow night, Newt and his wife, Callista, will be screening Nine Days that Changed the World, a film about Pope John Paul II's trip to Poland in 1979, in Plaistow. You can RSVP here.

-- It was announced today that Newt will be one of the Presidential candidates who will be riding on the Iowa Tea Party Bus Tour, which will run from June 13 through July 2.

"The purpose of the tour is to train grassroots activists in the state of Iowa to get them as prepared as they’re going on and best advocate for the candidate of their choice," ABC quotes Ryan Rhodes, the tour organizer, as saying.

Rhodes says only one candidate will be on tour at a time and they will not be releasing when the candidates will be appearing.

Here is the group's page on Newt. Once you register, you can vote for him in their straw poll.

-- I have changed the videos page of this site. Before, in order to allow the page to load faster, I simply posted links to various videos. Now, I have embedded a number of the videos at the top of the page. (I have shrunk the size of the video, which allows the page to load quite fast.)

If you have any comments -- about the change to the video page, any other proposed changes, or just any topic in general -- feel free to e-mail me at joshgosser1776@gmail.com.

In which I forgot to post Investor's Business Daily calling Newt's economic plan "one of the most laudable economic plans in memory"

When someone asked me today on Twitter why he should support Newt, I responded that two reasons I was is that Peter Ferrara and Investor's Business Daily have called Newt's economic plan the best among the candidates. When I went to look for the links, however, I realized that while I posted about Ferrara, I had not about IBD. I had simply re-tweeted their article.

So while it is a bit of old news -- all of two weeks old -- here are some excerpts from their editorial titled "A Solid A For Gingrich's Economic Plan":

Still, all of this and more can be forgiven if Newt spends the coming months proving he's serious about the audacious five-point economic plan he has just unveiled — the best reform program of any of the presidential candidates.

Its most important feature is the elimination of -- not just a reduction in -- the capital gains tax. It can't be stressed enough the kind of positive effect such a long-overdue step would have on a battered, post-financial-crisis private sector. This would be a real economic stimulus, costing just a pittance in government revenues and generating millions of new jobs.

Tiny Hong Kong became the economic powerhouse of Asia by recognizing that a zero tax on capital encourages and attracts massive amounts of private investment. Domestic and foreign capital would pour into the U.S. if Gingrich's plan were enacted.

There's also a too-seldom-made moral argument against capital gains taxes. What Americans own — from equities to real estate and everything in between -- is not "income" and should not be taxed when it happens to increase in value.

...

The rest of the Gingrich economic plan is just as praiseworthy: a no-new-taxes pledge, full deduction of capital expenses, a huge cut in our highest-in-the-world corporate tax and abolition of the estate tax.

Equally bold, he would repeal ObamaCare, scrap the torturous Sarbanes-Oxley corporate regulatory regime, abolish the National Labor Relations Board and "replace" the Environmental Protection Agency -- which hopefully goes well beyond renaming it.

As Gingrich told CNBC, his plan comes straight out of "the Reagan playbook" and "would move us toward a very dramatic job growth," lessening government dependency and practicing fiscal restraint -- exactly what the Tea Party movement demands.

Also, for anyone who has yet to see it, here is the CNBC interview IBD refers to:

Link.

Two South Carolina Gingrich supporters give testimonials

Link.



Link.

Newt's speech at the Republican Jewish Coalition will be on foreign policy

Politico reports:

RJC executive director Matt Brooks said Gingrich is planning on giving a "major foreign policy speech," which would focus on "his view of the world" but also specifically on Israel.

The other topic Gingrich, whose aides approached Brooks a week ago about speaking, will discuss is "how he wants to reform the State Department," Brooks said.

The event's website.

Brooks sent out a tweet:

Former Representative Robert Walker: Newt "an agent of change"

Excerpts from The Washington Times:

Such leadership is a Gingrich legacy. In 1995, the idea of balancing the federal budget was not only a pipe dream but was the subject of ridicule in sophisticated Washington circles. President Clinton’s budgets showed deficits of hundreds of billions of dollars as far out as the eye could see. It was Newt’s strategy and leadership as speaker of the House that not only changed the terms of the debate that year, but within three years produced real balanced budgets.

When Newt tried to reform the welfare system, Mr. Clinton vetoed those efforts on two occasions. But the persistence of a real leader kept the pressure on, and Newt produced one of the most significant changes in government policy in the latter part of the 20th century - welfare reform.

The American military often holds exercises in which the troops simulate real national emergency situations. On many occasions, they have asked Newt to take the role of president in those exercises. One of the most respected institutions in America, our armed forces, has recognized the capability of this leader for good judgment.

...

A Gingrich presidency holds the promise of real change. For some, that phrase has been a political tool for maintaining the status quo or moving us further down the road toward European-style socialism. Change under a Gingrich White House would be based on values first articulated by our forefathers -- individual liberty, entrepreneurial enterprise, devolved government power and spiritual fulfillment.

Fiscal discipline, good jobs, a government that works, responsible global leadership, world-renowned science and technology, and winning the future would all be featured in a Gingrich administration.

With Newt, the concept of change in the face of adversity is not just a political promise; it is the reality of his entire career. When choosing a president, the American people may want to look at the mess inexperience has produced and decide that a new generation of leadership requires someone who bears the scars of winning in an arena that is tough and unforgiving. Winning the future will require the kind of courage in the public arena that Newt Gingrich has demonstrated before and once again has stepped forward to provide.

Newt to be back in Iowa over July 4 holiday

It was announced Saturday that Newt will be back in the Hawkeye State over the Independence Day holiday.

Newt's upcoming calendar (which can be viewed by clicking on the calendar heading above or by clicking here) will put him in New Hampshire a few days this next week, then out to California for a Republican Jewish Coalition dinner, then back to New Hampshire for a debate on June 13.

P.S. For those who missed them the first time, here are some posts from Newt's first Iowa trip:

The Iowa Republican on Newt drawing bigger crowds than the other campaigns.

Photos of Newt's crowds.

Attendance figures for twelve of Newt's seventeen events.

Video of Newt in Mason City.

Video of Newt in Le Mars.