Is a Gingrich / Paul Republican Ticket in the Offing?

Commentary – How would a Republican ticket of Gingrich and Paul suit you?

It has become apparent to anyone watching the South Carolina and Florida debates, that former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich and Texas Congressman Ron Paul appear to have a familiar and respectful rapport on stage, which at times seems downright chummy, including this snippet from the transcripts of the January 23rd Florida debates in Tampa –

WILLIAMS (moderator): Would you support a Newt Gingrich as nominee of the GOP?

PAUL: Well, he keeps hinting about attacking the Fed, and he talks about gold. Now if I could just change him on foreign policy, we might be able to talk business…(LAUGHTER)

WILLIAMS: Speaker Gingrich, are you willing to adjust to pick up an endorsement from Texas?

GINGRICH: And Congressman Paul is right. There`s an area – I think what he has said about the Federal Reserve and what he has said about the importance of monetary policy, the proposal I’ve issued for a gold commission, which hearkens back to something that he and Jesse Helms helped develop, on which he served on in 1981, and the fact that we have people of the caliber of Lew Lehrman and Jim Grant, who have agreed they would chair such a commission, I think they’re areas we can work on.
There are places we disagree very deeply. Iran is a good example. But there are places — you know, you build a coalition by trying to find ways you can work together, and frankly we could work together a lot more than either one of us could work with Barack Obama.

And this back and forth about NASA exploration of the moon – from the January 26th Florida debate –

BLITZER (moderator): Congressman Paul, Texas, the space program very important there as well. Where do you stand on this?

PAUL: Well, I don’t think we should go to the moon. I think we maybe should send some politicians up there… (APPLAUSE) But I went – I went into the Air Force in 1962 and studied aerospace medicine. Actually had a daydream about maybe becoming the first physician to go into space. That – that didn’t occur, but I see space – the amount of money we spend on space, the only part that I would vote for is for national defense purposes. Not to explore the moon and go to Mars. I think that’s fantastic. That’s – I love those ideas.

But I also don’t like the idea of building government business partnerships. If we had a healthy economy and had more Bill Gateses and more Warren Buffetts, the money would be there. It should be privatized, and the people who work in the industry, if you had that, there would be jobs in aerospace. And I just think that we don’t need a bigger, a newer program, when you think of the people – I mean, health care or something else deserves a lot more priority than going to the moon. So, I would be very reluctant, but space technology should be followed up to some degree for national defense purposes, but not just for the fun of it and, you know, for – you know, for scientific…

BLITZ ER: We’re going to leave this subject, but before we do, I want Speaker Gingrich to clarify what you said yesterday in that major speech you delivered on space. You said that you would support a lunar colony or a lunar base, and that if 13,000 Americans were living there, they would be able to apply for U.S. statehood from the moon…

GINGRICH: …I actually agree with Dr. Paul. The program I envision would probably end up being 90 percent private sector, but it would be based on a desire to change the government rules and change the government regulations, to get NASA out of the business of trying to run rockets, and to create a system where it’s easy for private sector people to be engaged. I want to see us move from one launch occasionally to six or seven launches a day because so many private enterprises walk up and say, we’re prepared to go do it.

But I’ll tell you, I do not want to be the country that having gotten to the moon first, turned around and said, it doesn’t really matter, let the Chinese dominate space, what do we care? I think that is a path of national decline, and I am for America being a great country, not a country in decline.

Even when they disagree, they agree –

PAUL: I want to make a quick comment, because Newt’s mentioned this quite a few times about balancing the budget for four times. I went back and looked at the record. The budget was – the national debt during those four years actually went up about a trillion dollars. What he’s talking about is, he doesn’t count the money he takes out of Social Security. So, Reagan nor you had a truly balanced budget because the national debt goes up, and that’s what we pay the interest on. So I think you’ve stretched that a little bit more than you should have.

BLITZ ER: You want to respond to Congressman Paul?

GINGRICH: No, I would just say – I would just say, under the system that was used, we were $405 billion” (inaudible)… (BOOING) I agree with Ron – but let me finish. I actually agree with you, and I propose that we take Social Security off budget so no president can ever again get threaten, as Obama did in August, that he would not send the check out, and you could set Social Security back up as a free-standing trust fund. It does have enough money and you could in fact pay the checks without regard to politics in Washington.

On stage, Gingrich and Paul seem to be watching out for one another, at least as much as one can do during the donnybrooks that the debates have become. So where would this leave the American voter, should these two entities join forces?

For Dr Paul, it would mean a chance to see his platform move into the mainstream where many believe it belongs and, quite possibly, as Vice President, having the power to bring some of those ideas to fruition, like Ending the Federal Reserve and putting us back on the gold standard, lowering the tax rates, term limits, balancing the budget while, in general, helping to reduce big government.

For Newt Gingrich, it would mean not only gaining the valuable delegates from Ron Pauls ardent supporters, but also the organizational skills and fervor those supporters bring to the table. Of course, as a nice perk to go along with those boosters, Gingrich would have a running mate that has shown in many polls , to be a man who could win against President Obama, securing many unhappy Democratic voters who might otherwise had voted to retain the President if Dr Paul were out of the election. If Ron Paul continues to make headway with voters, gaining a bucket full of delegates along the way, the next few months leading up to the Republican convention could be a lot of fun to watch!

Some answers from the transcripts were edited for space concerns


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