What I’m going to say at the Iowa Caucus tonight

By Tom Quiner

My wife, son, and wheel-chair laden mother-in-law will head to Hillis Elementary School tonight for the Iowa Caucuses.

This is the biggest caucus of any of our lives. For my 20 year old son, it is his first. For my 87 year old mother-in-law, perhaps her last.

The stakes are huge.

America is unrecognizable.

Abortion is not only the law of the land, the president and his party want taxpayers to pay for them.

The president refuses to enforce legislation (DOMA), that defines marriage as being between one man and one woman.

Government spending has increased precipitously and the unfunded liabilities geometrically under this president and his Congress.

Our high unemployment rate remains high.

Our low economic growth remains low.

The federal reserve has been expanding the money supply, paving the way for inflation.

Expanded government regulations are choking businesses to death.

The president fights development of new energy resources, unless it is money-losing green energy.

Unfavorable tax policy inhibits the creation of start up businesses.

It’s time for change.

Here is what I plan to say to the friends, acquaintances, and strangers who caucus with me tonight:

***

I support Newt Gingrich for President. I say this after carefully weighing every single candidate who has graced our state this past year.

There is something I like about each of these candidates. There are things I don’t like about each, including Mr. Gingrich.

I have settled on Mr. Gingrich for a simple reason: he has a track record for advancing a conservative agenda.

In other words, he can get the job done. He did it back in 1994 when Republicans regained the House after 40 years in the wilderness. No one thought it was possible, including most Republicans.

Newt Gingrich believed, and he led the charge.

The accomplishments under his leadership were substantial:

1. A balanced budget.

2. Welfare reform, despite two vetoes by then President Clinton.

3. Tax cuts.

4. Telecommunication reform that opened the door to the cell phone revolution.

5. Congressional reform.

I’m supporting Newt Gingrich because he goes beyond rhetoric. He leads. And he achieves.

He is not only the most-feared candidate by the president and his party, he is the candidate most-feared by his Republican rivals.

How else can you explain all of the negative advertising directed at him, so much of it bogus? The sheer quantity suggests that his political rivals want to take him out early because, they fear him the most.

Can you blame them? Have we seen a better debater in recent decades?

Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan were formidable debaters, but they never had to go against the likes of a Gingrich.

Newt Gingrich offers that rare blend of a larger than life personality and a razor sharp mind that gets people to follow him.

Conservatives love his unequivocal support of the pre-born and traditional marriage.

Although those issues are of lesser importance to many Independent voters, Independents love his economic plan, which includes:

• Reducing the corporate income tax rate;

• Eliminating the capital gains tax rate;

• Finding a new Federal Reserve Chairman who will reinstate non-inflation-inducing monetary policy;

• Offering an optional 15% flat tax for taxpayers.

As a small business owner, I suggest that if his plan was implemented, our economy would take off as if it were 1981.

It will be Springtime in America all over again.

Coupled with Mr. Gingrich’s demonstrated ability to moderate the spending appetites of Congress, Independents would vote Gingrich by the millions.

By all accounts, Mr. Gingrich is a changed man from the passionate, political animal he was in decades past. Today, he is a grandfather. Even more, he has embraced his Christian faith. We might call him a kinder, gentler Newt … as you can see in his TV ads. He’s the only candidate who hasn’t gone negative

I’m not interested in making a symbolic vote this year as I have so many times in the past. I am voting for the best candidate, Newt Gingrich, not only because he is the best overall candidate in the field, but because he can win.

I humbly ask you to join me.

Thank-you.