Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich says his proposals will be “evolving” as he gathers input from ordinary Americans rather “slick advisers” hired to shape presidential campaigns. And Gingrich dismisses criticism of statements he made during a nationally-televised interview on Sunday.
“I’ve for two years gone around the country making speeches about ObamaCare. I’ve said over and over, ‘We should repeal it,'” Gingrich said during an interview in Des Moines this evening. “And then people to go from all of that body of evidence to say, ‘Yeah, but for 25 seconds yesterday, I thought you said X,’ that’s beyond gotcha.”
Gingrich will be in Mason City tomorrow morning where he plans to sign a petition calling for the repeal of President Obama’s health care reform plan. Gingrich, who is campaigning for the Republican Party’s 2012 presidential nomination, is in the midst of a 17-city campaign swing through Iowa.
“We need people who have the stamina and the willingness to have a conversation with the American nation,” Gingrich said, “not just buy commercials, not just have slick consultants with slick advisers, but actually go out and talk to the American people and see if, together, we can find the energy and the intelligence, together, to get this country back on the right track.”
In the past three days two men who were thinking about competing for the Republican Party’s 2012 presidential nomination decided not to run. Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee said on Saturday that his heart wasn’t in it. And Donald Trump, the real estate tycoon who’s the star of his own reality television show, said early today that he is not ready to leave the private sector. According to Gingrich, the public interest in Donald Trump’s flirtation with a presidential campaign shows Americans “are pretty good shoppers” when it comes to candidates.
“There are a lot of people who are so deeply anti-Obama that having somebody that aggressive and that cheerful about getting in the president’s face just made them feel good for a while,” Gingrich said this evening.
And Gingrich said there was a kind of “only in America” quality to “The Donald’s” brief interlude as a prospective candidate.
Gingrich recently has hired campaign staff in Iowa and is laying plans to compete in the Iowa Republican Party’s Straw Poll this August.