At Gingrich fundraiser, supporters came with eyes wide open towards media and GOP officials

Newt Gingrich greeted supporters at the PGA Tour's Tournament Players Clubhouse in Jacksonville on November 17. [Photo by Kay B. Day/The US Report]For the first time in my life, I attended a private fundraiser for a political candidate. I headed to The Tournament Players Clubhouse at the PGA Tour’s Sawgrass facility. My daughter insisted on driving me and it’s a good thing she did because we had a heck of a time finding the Clubhouse in the dark. GPS systems can go awry, especially in NE Florida.

Newt gave a brief speech to a room filled with small business owners, entrepreneurs and other private sector types. There was no fiery rhetoric. There were no theatrical flourishes and soaring hyperbole. What the former Speaker of the House aimed at was inclusiveness, “resetting” America and finding solutions for the quagmire we have enabled the federal powers to create.

I’ve seen presidents and presidential candidates in person before. I’ve seen enthusiasm and energy for President George W. Bush,  and for presidential candidate Gov. Rick Perry of Texas. Thursday night was different. There was a reasoning process.

Each supporter I met was keenly aware of the former speaker’s accomplishments deliberately ignored by media.

When Gingrich was named Man of the Year in 1995 by Time Magazine, the publication wrote:

"LEADERS MAKE THINGS POSSIBLE. EXCEPTIONAL LEADERS make them inevitable. Newt Gingrich belongs in the category of the exceptional. All year--ruthlessly, brilliantly, obnoxiously--he worked at hammering together inevitabilities: a balanced federal budget, for one. Not so long ago, the idea of a balanced budget was a marginal, we'll-get-to-it-someday priority. Other urgent work needed doing: the Clintons' health-care program, for example, which would have installed elaborate new bureaucratic machinery. Today, because of Newt Gingrich, the question is not whether a balanced-budget plan will come to pass but when.”

Gingrich actually kept his promises. A bio at Salem State University noted [boldface added]:

“As the architect of the Contract with America that laid out ten policies Republicans promised to bring to a House vote in Congress’ first 100 days, he catapulted his party to victory in 1994, giving Republicans a majority in the House for the first time in 40 years. Among his accomplishments were passages of the first balanced budget in a generation, the first tax cut in 16 years and extensive welfare reform.”

I worked the room at the fundraiser, talking to a number of people. The consensus was that Newt is the strongest possibility for the government reform that must take place in order to permit the private sector to regain its footing. Every single person I spoke to expressed anger at media. Some also expressed anger at Republicans smearing their fellow candidates.

Not a person I spoke to cared about Newt’s “baggage.” Count me among them.

I could not find a single person in that room who had good things to say about the designee of left of center Republicans, Gov. Mitt Romney (Mass.) Romney will not be forgiven for his healthcare bill so like the despised ObamaCare (Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act) Democrats shoved down Americans’ throats via an unethical back door reconciliation. Furthermore, the Massachusetts bill will be indefensible in a debate with Obama. That one is a no-brainer.

I did find a generally favorable attitude towards Gov. Perry. The chief concern: his inability to debate Obama and his ability to communicate effectively.

A couple attendees noted positives for businessman Herman Cain, but they also bemoaned his lapse on Libya and his less than acceptable performance in the first foreign policy debate held in South Carolina.

I also spoke with a supporter of President Barack Obama. When I say I worked the room, that doesn’t just mean I talked to Newt’s supporters. I talked to staffers at the facility. One fellow who still supports Obama had  a wistful tone and he still believes the president took fallout for circumstances occurring before he was elected. I chose to listen rather than to debate,  or to point out the president had a direct hand in those circumstances because he served in the US Senate and just like his fellow Democrats, the president chose to spend without any intention of passing a budget.

At the fundraiser, Newt asked everyone to help him, and his messaging rested on “We, the people.”

On Friday morning I saw The Washington Post’s hit job on Gingrich—a columnist called him “the phony intellectual.” I dare say there isn’t a person on Main Street who respects that newspaper, and there are good reasons for that:

• Journolist
• The publisher’s attempts to sell access to Obama’s cabinet officials.
• Hiring a fake conservative to write fake conservative columns.

I am reminded there’s only one Republican candidate who hasn’t faced a slew of hit jobs. That would be Romney.

I am reminded of 1976 and the cooperation of state Republican Party officials with major newspaper editors in barring Ronald Reagan, opting instead for Gerald Ford as the nominee.

In 1976 Republican Party group think handed our country to President Jimmy Carter.

In 2008 the same Party policy handed us over to President Barack Obama.

Is it time to take a hard look at some of our “leaders” in the GOP?

(Commentary by Kay B. Day/Nov. 18, 2011)

Update on Friday, November 18, 2011 at 2:55PM by Kay B. Day, Editor

Jacksonville's daily newspaper didn't mention the size of the crowd. This video captured a Newt moment.