Reagan Dinner Speaker Newt Gingrich Compliments His Republican Competitors

Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich was the final speaker of the evening at the Reagan Dinner held at Hy-Vee hall Friday evening

Des Moines, Iowa – “This is a national conversation. It’s an opportunity for the American people to talk about where we are, who we are, what we value and what we’re trying to accomplish.”

Starting out by complimenting Iowa GOP Chairman Matt Strawn and his leadership “on some very key elections,” Gingrich then went on to remember some past legislation Senator Chuck Grassley and he worked on back in 1984. “He and I worked back in 1984 on a project called gasohol, for those of you who are younger, that’s what happened a long time ago before it became ethanol. We also worked together when I was Speaker to save it in the late ’90’s. I have a very simple principle on why I’m for ethanol. I believe if my choice is for money to go to Iran or go to Iowa, I pick Iowa. If my choice is for money to go to Saudi Arabia or South Dakota, I pick South Dakota. It’s not very complicated.”

Gingrich talked about the other candidates that spoke before him, specifically Ron Paul. “I’m really proud of my colleagues who’ve been here tonight. Each of them brings unique things and unique characteristics. The fact is that Ron Paul has been consistently correct about the need to audit the Federal Reserve, to limit it, and to return to a policy of a dollar as sound as gold so if you save a dollar, 20 years later it’s still worth a dollar, and it’s great to have him as a candidate,” Gingrich said of Paul.

“Rick Perry was my mentor on the 10th Amendment and the importance of implementing it. He has a number of tremendous ideas. I agree with most of his energy policy which I think is exactly in the right general direction. I’m delighted the part of the debate we’re going to have is who’s flat tax is better, and I think it’s a significant idea you now have a 9-9-9 plan and you have two candidates with flat taxes. You have real effort to think through on the Republican side what we need to do as a county to be competitive and to be prosperous and be successful,” Gingrich said of the Texas Governor. Gingrich and Perry have consistently have been polling near each other in the past month.

“Michele Bachmann deserves a lot of credit. Not only did she stand up to the Republican leadership at times when she was virtually alone, but in addition, she was the first person to introduce a bill to repeal the Dodd-Frank Bill, one of the most destructive bills crippling our economy today. I think she and Steve King were in a race to see who would be the first to introduce a bill to repeal Obamacare. These are powerful ideas,” the Former Speaker said of Congresswoman Bachmann.

“No one has done more to try to arouse America to understand the challenge of radical Islamist, to understand the dangers in Syria and Iran than Rick Santorum. I can’t tell you how proud I am of the courage he’s shown year after year in wanting to serve his country and to leave his children with a better future,” were the words of respect given by Speaker Gingrich towards his fellow candidate Rick Santorum.

“This is a great group. There are a couple I wish were here tonight and I would have said nice things about them, but we’ll skip over that,” Gingrich said to the crowd who broke out in laughter. Both current frontrunners Mitt Romney and Herman Cain were not in attendance at the dinner.

“I am here with very fine competitors, but no opponents. We only have one opponent, that’s Barack Obama,” Gingrich said of the continued focus the Republicans have been taking towards the upcoming election.

Gingrich who was the one of the original framers of the “Contract with America” during the mid-90’s and the Republican takeover of Congress is coming out with a “21st Century Contract with America”. Gingrich says the contract will “grow and evolve from now until September 27th when we will release a Contract with America on the anniversary of the original contract in 1994.”

Gingrich continued. “Then on October 1st, we’ll release executive orders which we will implement on day 1 of a Gingrich Administration. The first of which will abolish all of the White House czars as of that moment,” Gingrich said of his plans if elected as President.

Gingrich has two points in why he hopes to gain support in the upcoming caucus. The first of them, according to Gingrich, is “I am the only candidate in this race, who at a national level, has balanced the budget four consecutive years, lead an effort across the system for the first tax cuts in 16 years, lead an effort which lead unemployment to drop from 5.6 to 4.2 percent and created a national majority for the first time in 40 years, and the first re-elected national majority for the first time since 1928.”

Gingrich also explained why people should support him in the caucuses. “What we are faced with is the result of a radical ideology and an inexperienced, incompetent president and I would simply suggest to get the scale of change we need, we need somebody who understands the legislative branch, somebody who understands how to get things done in Washington, and somebody who has a track record of building a national movement that can in fact bring to bear in Washington,” Speaker Gingrich said.

“As  your nominee, I will challenge Barack Obama to seven Lincoln-Douglas style debates of 3 hours each, with a time keeper and no moderator. I will coincide that he can use a teleprompter. And I predict to you, and many of you will find this surprising, I predict to you in the end he will accept for two reasons. First, a matter of ego. How can a Harvard law review editor, the greatest orator in the modern Democratic party admit to being afraid to be on the same platform with a West Georgia College professor. The second, because I am a historian and I actually study history, and unlike President Obama I actually study American History. I know how Lincoln set up Douglas,” Gingrich said laying out a challenge to the President if he is chosen as the nominee.

Gingrich said if President Obama has not agreed to the debates, “In my acceptance speech, if the President has not yet agreed, I will announce from that date forward for the rest of the campaign, The White House will be my scheduler and wherever the President appears, I will appear 4 hours later,” in reference to how Lincoln would follow Douglas until Douglas agreed to the debates.