Christopher Ruddy's Perspective: As the dust begins to quickly settle from the hotly contested Republican primary and Mitt Romney assumes the title of presumptive nominee, it’s important to recognize the role Newt Gingrich has played and will continue to play in helping the Republicans win the White House and Senate this fall.
The former House speaker recently told Newsmax in an interview that he remains in the race, not as a spoiler, but to play a key role promoting a conservative agenda at the Republican convention in Tampa in August. It’s a worthy goal – and I have no doubt that Newt will soon be officially supporting Mitt Romney to pursue that agenda.
Michael Reagan pointed out in a recent appearance on Fox News that Republicans must now unite behind Romney to defeat Obama and his liberal agenda. Considering the uphill battle we face, I couldn’t agree more.
And supporters of Gingrich and Santorum should keep in mind that the key goal now is to roll back the Obama agenda. We can only do that with a united front.
At the same time, Gov. Romney needs to realize that his nomination win came after a hard-fought battle, a war of attrition that saw one leading contender after another fall by the wayside until he was the last man standing. With superior funding and organization, Romney ultimately prevailed.
Though Newt failed to wrest the nomination, I believe he offered a very strong message that Mitt should tap into – a message that may have resonated even more strongly in the general election.
Today, Newt remains the great communicator of the Ronald Reagan vision of small government, strong national defense, low taxes, and individual freedom.
He also has a track record of accomplishment, acting as the key conservative figure behind the Contract with America, and a driving force behind the GOP’s congressional victories in 1995 and the first balanced federal budget in decades.
Newt is what I call a Big Picture Conservative. He grasps that the way out of our dire economic situation is not through tax increases or draconian spending cuts.
He smartly distanced himself from the original Ryan plan, which called for abolishing federal Medicare and turning it over to the states. Clearly this will be a huge issue Democrats will use against Congressional Republicans come November.
Newt understood the best way to deal with bulging deficits and looming national debt is not by draconian cuts but by restraining spending while growing the overall economy. High economic growth rates can increase government revenues, balance the budget, and make the national debt proportionally smaller to GDP.
Sounds easy, doesn’t it? In reality, it takes real leadership and willingness to think outside the box. Newt has such thinking, calling for such things as privatizing Social Security accounts, which would drive huge amounts of fresh capital into the economy.
He has also called for dramatically increasing oil production to cut gas prices.
Every penny cut from a gallon of gasoline adds $1.4 billion a year into consumer pockets for spending in the overall economy. Newt proposes to cut gas prices by $1.50 or more – pumping the equivalent of more than $200 billion into the economy each year. Falling oil prices act like a global tax cut.
As a Big Picture Conservative Newt also grasps the powerful demographic changes underway in the country, especially how Hispanic-Americans and other ethnic minorities need to be embraced and made to feel at home in the Republican party. Today Americans of Hispanic and ethnic backgrounds tend to vote overwhelming Democratic.
Mitt should gravitate toward this Big Picture Conservatism. He has had a tremendous career in business and finance and a reputation as a can-do, problem solver. As governor of Massachusetts he held the record of vetoing the Democratic legislature there, demonstrating he has political courage as well.
Those virtues – coupled with a willingness to bring in the ideas of Big Picture Conservatives, people like Newt Gingrich, Jeb Bush, Larry Kudlow, Grover Norquist and Mike Reagan, to name just a few, will help him craft a positive, pro-growth message that will resonate with the American people come November 6th of this year.
Christopher Ruddy is CEO and editor of Newsmax Media Inc. Read more Christopher Ruddy Insider articles — Click Here Now.
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