According to Jackie Cushman, the former speaker’s daughter, her father’s top two debate advisors are her children, his grandchildren.

“His two greatest debate coaches are my children,” Cushman said earlier this afternoon during an interview with Radio Iowa. “…They’ve really focused on two things. It started with Maggie, the oldest. She’s 12 and was like, ‘Grandpa, you need to smile more.’  Because when she seems him, he’s always smiling. I mean, who isn’t smiling when they see their granddaughter…so he started smiling more.

“And then Robert, the 10-year-old — and this is a 10-year-old who loves history, loves the military channel, is current reading the Sharpe series novels, I mean he’s really into that — and he’s like, ‘Grandpa, your answers need to be a bit shorter and more concise, so people can understand,’ so that’s the coaching he’s gotten and I think if he sticks with that coaching tonight, he’ll be fine.

“When he walks up on stage, the first thing he’ll do is he’ll draw a smiley face and write ‘Maggie’ and he’ll write, ‘short, concise’ and put, ‘Robert’ and that’s what he has in front of him. He doesn’t make notes about, you know, phrases or anything else. That’s literally his reminder of what to do.”

AUDIO of Cushman’s remarks about Gingrich debate prep on stage.  Back in a few with more of the conversation.

Darrell Kearney has done lots of things in Iowa politics. He’s been the chief fundraiser for the Republican Party of Iowa. He worked for Ronald Reagan in 1980 and for Jack Kemp in 1988. Kearney was Bob Dole’s Iowa Caucus campaign manager in 1996. Kearney is now publicly endorsing Newt 2012.  Read his statement below:

As the founder of the Des Moines Conservative Club and Breakfast club, It is with  great enthusiasm that I announce my support for Newt Gingrich for the Republican Nomination for President and encourage all of my conservative friends to vote for Newt at the upcoming Iowa Caucuses.  All of our Republican Candidates are good people and they all have strengths, expertise and ideas that are commendable.  Any of them would make a far better President than the one who occupies 1600 Pennsylvania Ave today.  I supported Governor Romney in the 2008 caucuses and he would be my second choice today.  But my first Choice for the 2012 Caucus is Newt.

Having met almost every Republican Candidate for President since 1980 and having worked either as a volunteer or staff person for many of them, it is my opinion that Newt Gringrich is the most prepared conservative leader to be President since Ronald Reagan.

George Santayana once said, “if you do not learn from history, you are doomed to repeat it”.  Newt’s deep understanding of American History and it’s foundation of liberty provides him with a philosophical compass that will help him steer a strong course for renewed freedoms and prosperity.  He understands that America’s greatness comes from God and freedom and free enterprise not big government.  He understands that a government that can give you everything you want is also a government that can take everything you’ve got.

Newt Gingrich’s visionary Contract with American for the 21st Century spells out in detail the solutions for the problems we face.  Just as he was successful in the first Contract for America in 1994 leading to the Republican Takeover of the US House of Representatives for the first time in 40 years.  I am convinced with our help, Newt can win in 2012 and help us restore America to that “Shining City on a hill”  President Ronald Reagan so elegantly dreamed of.

Darrell Kearney, Founder
Conservative Club of Des Moines
Conservative Breakfast Club

Mitt Romney yesterday called Newt Gingrich a “life-long politician” and Ron Paul released a video alleging Gingrich is a flip-flopper. During a Radio Iowa interview with Gingrich late this afternoon, I noted that, with audiences, Gingrich stresses his experience and criticizes Obama as an inexperienced president.

I asked: “How can you be both an outsider and someone who has inside knowledge?”

Gingrich replied: “I would just draw the distinction I’m certainly a life-long citizen and I tell people it started in August before my sophomore year in high school and I’m proud of citizenship. I would also say I’m a little bit like Reagan in that Reagan spent eight years in the White House, but was never in Washington, that it’s a state of mind.  If you look at the degree to which the Washington establishment would tell you I’m an outsider, you know, it’s pretty clear that the way I think, the degree to which I challenge the establishment and the degree to which I’m willing to follow ideas and solutions to their natural consequence without regard to Republican or Democratic political correctness makes me probably the most experienced outsider in modern times.”

AUDIO of that response.

I raised the idea that Herman Cain’s (previous) popularity was due to his outsider status, as voters are attracted to that persona.  Gingrich, in his reply, quipped that the country is having its own “999” moment with a nine percent approval rating for congress and the nine percent unemployment rate.

AUDIO of this portion of the Radio Iowa interview

“It’s a little bit like being in a card game where they want to kick over the table.  I mean, they don’t want to get told, ‘Just deal another hand.’ They want to say, ‘Wait a second.’ And I think the country’s right. This is a mess,” Gingrich said. “…I get the sense people, because they’re really worried about the country, they’re having conversations that are much more substantive and much tougher minded than if we were at four percent unemployment and a balanced budget and everything was working, they’d be asking a totally different set of questions and so they’re sort of peeling back the layers and saying, ‘Now wait a second. Nice slogan. What’s the policy? Nice policy. Could he really get it done?’ And interestingly, maybe just because of who gets involved in these things, I find an amazing level of sophistication in the people that ask me questions and talk to me…Not just in the obvious three early states, I mean, you and New Hampshire have this exquisite experience of personally interviewing every presidential candidate at least six times, but there’s also just a general, when you go around the country,  it’s almost like there’s a national conversation going on and because of youtube and stuff, people will take like certain scenes from debates. We’re seen by millions more people than watched the debate because that clip went everywhere.”

I next raised the topic of the Ron Paul tape, and its specific rap on Gingrich regarding the health care mandate.  “How will you answer that question amid this criticism that you flip-flopped on it?”

“It’s an idea which the longer we studied it, the worse it got. Period. Virtually every conservative was for it in 1993 to stop Hillary and gradually people reached a conclusion that it wasn’t workable and it was a bad idea,” Gingrich said. “I don’t mind saying there are things I’ve learned over the last 53 years that I have changed my opinion on.”

I followed up with: “Do you think that’s an adequate response?”

“Against Barack Obama? He’s not going to attack me because of the mandate,” Gingrich replied.

AUDIO Gingrich addressing the health care mandate.

Many Iowa Republicans who supported Mike Huckabee in 2008 lament that he didn’t have the resources ($$$) to be competitive beyond the early states, and Huckabee himself talked about the importance of fundraising for 2012 were he to run again.  Here’s what Huckabee said in Nov., 2010:

“I’m probably going to give more weight to (fundraising) this time than I did before because I understand far better than I can even begin to tell you how tough it is to run a campaign on fumes, without fuel,” he said.

During an interview with Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich late this afternoon, I asked if he had the resources to go the distance.

“We raised more money yesterday than we raised in July and that’s true probably four days a week now and people are flocking to the campaign, so we’re getting a lot of folks coming in who wouldn’t have been for us six months ago, but suddenly (are) and I think today’s Rasmussen poll will probably accelerate that,” Gingrich said. “So what I can assure people is that we will be competitive everywhere. I assume Romney will out-spend us, just because he has huge assets — you know, without spending his own money he has huge assets — but I don’t think he’ll out-spend us enough to be definitive…We have a different challenge. We have to get up to sufficiency and I think if we get up to sufficiency we get our message out and that will happen in every state. The other thing, as you’ve seen, is we just generate immense amounts of earned media and, well, that’s not going to stop.”

AUDIO: from the Radio Iowa interview, of that passage above.

During a town hall meeting at Nationwide Insurance in Des Moines, Newt Gingrich presented himself as the person who would provide, as the GOP presidential nominee, the “widest choice in American history” in a general election match-up with President Obama.

He started by talking about the “visionary” Abraham Lincoln, who began advocating for building railroads before he had ever seen rails or a locomotive.

“Up until the mid-1960s, we were a country that believed in the future,” Gingrich said, adding the nation’s “elite culture” has a “negative and frightened” attitude toward innovation and progress.

“You don’t get very far into the future if you hide from it,” Gingrich said. “…I think we need a serious, in-depth conversation about the mess we’re in…This mess has been growing for 30 years. ”

Gingrich repeated a theme he’s struck before on illegal immigration, jokingly suggesting that the way for authorities to track down illegal immigrants in America is send them a package via FedEx or UPS.  “And then when we’re delivered we know exactly where they are,” Gingrich said, getting a wave of laughter from the audience.

Gingrich then took pains to ensure everyone in the room knew this idea was “hyperbole and that was not a serious proposal.”

Gingrich touched on a number of different themes, including “gasahol”.  He said “economic nationalism makes sense” in regards to ethanol, Gingrich said, repeating some of the ideas he talked about last winter in Des Moines.  He closed his remarks, as he normally does, by asking people not to be “for me” but “with me.”   Question and answer time began.  I’ll be back with a separate post on that.

A secretive “group” calling itself Iowans for Christian Leaders in Government has penned an open letter to Bob Vander Plaats, the GOP candidate for governor in 2002, 2006 & 2010 who is now president & CEO of The Family Leader. TFL is a conservative group that’s been leading the effort against gay marriage in Iowa. Vander Plaats said earlier this month he might endorse a candidate on his own, and he didn’t rule out giving his backing to Newt Gingrich. Vander Plaats made his statements on the eve of The Family Leader’s presidential candidate forum, in which Gingrich participated.

…Newt Gingrich didn’t sign “The Marriage Vow,” but Vander Plaats said Gingrich — who has admitted to affairs and has divorced twice — isn’t automatically disqualified from getting his endorsement or the backing of The Family Leader.

“At the heart of our faith is a thing called forgiveness,” Vander Plaats said. “…Has he asked for forgiveness? Has he demonstrated a level of maturity? Is he willing to move on? A lot of these attendees like Newt, they like his experience and they like his ability to debate and so if the focus can be on his vision for America, I think he’s going to do well. If the focus remains on his personal past, then he’s probably going to be in trouble.”

Now, Vander Plaats is the target of a letter from Iowans for Christian Leaders in Government which focuses not only on Gingrich’s past, but on Vander Plaats’ past.  Read it below:

Dear Mr. Vander Plaats:

We are aware that you are preparing to endorse a candidate for President of the United States in the coming weeks.  This will undoubtedly be an important decision considering you have the ear of many Christians throughout our state of Iowa.  Our group believes that we must select leaders who not only espouse our values, but who live them each and every day.

With that being said, we have serious concerns that your endorsement may be guided, not by prayer and conviction, but by personal benefit and prior relationships.  Of which, would seem to lead you toward Newt Gingrich and, needless to say, he is not an acceptable choice among Christians.

[Read more…]