I caught much of Newt Gingrich’s speech in the CPAC ballroom, and it was classic Gingrich.
He offered, tongue-in-cheek, the keynote address at next year’s CPAC if the president is willing to enact a series of conservative reforms, including permanently eliminating the death tax, securing the border, eliminating all taxpayer funding for abortion, and undertaking a serious plan to expand domestic energy production. It had the typical Gingrich zingers; at one point he held up Time’s cover depicting Obama and Reagan together and declared, “I knew Ronald Reagan . . .” He didn’t have to finish the Lloyd Bentsen put-down for the crowd to laugh.
If he runs, he should do well in the debates and fire up the crowds on the stump. But that’s never been Gingrich’s problem, has it? There’s the personal baggage, the fact that he’s been out of office for more than a decade, his stubborn support of Dede Scozzafava after most conservatives had deemed her unacceptable, and a sense that his verbal bomb-thrower persona wouldn’t necessarily come across as presidential.
If this hasn’t been mentioned elsewhere, it is worth noting that this year’s CPAC turnout is 2,000 more participants than last year, which was a record in itself. “If liberals thought 2010 was the peak, I have news for them: 2010 was the appetizer. 2012 is the main course!” Gingrich roared.
(I guess that makes the 2014 midterms dessert?)