Gingrich gears up for battle, points to Obama jobs gap

Chart used with permission, newt.org

Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich has opened a substantial lead in the race for the GOP presidential nomination, and the challenge for him is to hang onto it.

Gingrich is weathering attacks on all fronts, some from predictable sources like GOP contender Rep. Michele Bachmann who has routinely attacked her fellow candidates,  sparing only former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney. An attack ad was also aired by the Ron Paul campaign, using truncated video and statements Gingrich made while in the private sector rather than in the public sector where his successes are indisputable.

Other criticism has come from various pundits on major networks,  and even Fox News who many Main Street conservatives believe is subtly lobbying for Romney.

Gingrich should be capable of weathering the storm. In a statement on Friday, he refused to attack his fellow Republicans, opting instead to focus on President Barack Obama’s jobs report.

Obama’s central campaign theme in 2008 was the economy—he routinely promised he could turn it around. However, the November jobs report, as the Gingrich campaign noted, “marks yet another devastating landmark in the Obama jobs crisis.” It doesn’t help that the black unemployment rate is at an all-time high.

Gingrich pointed out that the overall  unemployment rate dipped below 9 percent, but that is because of a “tragic reason”—more than 300,000 in this month alone “have simply given up looking for work.”

The Gingrich campaign said:

“Obama is now 34 months into his presidency, and the economy has lost 1.9 million total jobs since he took office. At the same point in the Gingrich speakership (November 1997), Americans had created 303,000 jobs in one month alone, and had created 7.7 million total new jobs since he became speaker. This is an ‘Obama-Gingrich jobs gap’ of 9.5 million.”

Gingrich asserted that “the Obama model of class warfare, government takeovers...and creating fear and uncertainty for job creators” has failed.

The Obama administration’s actions validate Gingrich’s claims. Among Obama’s moves to obstruct US jobs are closing down drilling in the Gulf, raids on companies like Gibson Guitars due to questionable interpretations of obscure amendments to the Lacy Act, using the National Labor Relations Board in an attempt to kill thousands of Boeing jobs in a right-to-work state and funding energy projects that send US jobs overseas.

Obama’s myopic energy policy rests almost solely on solar power rather than a mix of the abundant resources in the U.S., has driven and that policy has driven food, utility and material costs higher. Added to the mix are loans to corporate cronies in the solar industry like the Solyndra scandal that cost taxpayers more than $500 million dollars.

Gingrich said Congress should “take bold steps” as follows:

• Reform tax and regulatory policy dramatically.
• Fix entitlements.
• Cut spending.

For Gingrich as president, the economic recovery would “begin on Election Night, 2012, the second the country realizes that Barack Obama has been defeated.”

(Filed by Kay B. Day/Dec. 2, 2011)