Julia Dahl, Salon, August 2, 2007
Newt Gingrich was looking fit and tanned as he stood before a sea of young conservatives this morning at the Young America’s Foundation National Conservative Student Conference. The weeklong event, held at George Washington University in Washington, is billed as an “entry point into the conservative movement,” and this year’s version featured speeches by Robert Novak, Michelle Malkin and, wrapping up the event Friday night, G. Gordon Liddy. With panels titled “Standing Up to the Left in Hostile Places” and “Liberal Bias in School Textbooks,” planners may have imagined that Gingrich would give a lively rah-rah-Republican presentation. They would have been wrong.
Prior to Gingrich’s arrival, the crowd — a mish-mash of polo shirts and pinstriped suits, platform heels and pashmina wraps — had been worked up by Republican Sen. James Inhofe, who taught them all about the “far left elitists” and their Chicken Little climate change hysteria. Inhofe’s PowerPoint included slides of polar bears and “environmentalists” like Leonardo DiCaprio and Barbra Streisand (boo!). He referenced Al Gore’s “science fiction movie,” and finished off the hour with some good news about the war: “A miracle is taking place now in Iraq,” he said, and explained that there is now zero anti-American propaganda in the country’s mosques and that American troops, instead of retreating to the Green Zone at night, are now “bedding down” with Iraqi families.
As 9 a.m. drew near, the students started to get restless, turning in their seats to see if Gingrich had come in. Finally, the former speaker of the House — who’d been introduced as “the most articulate communicator of conservative principles alive today” — made his way to the stage amid a standing ovation, thunderous applause and cheers.
He began benignly enough, using an anecdote about going to Disney World with his grandchildren to explain an epiphany he’d had about the value of not “thinking like a Republican.” From there Gingrich moved into waters the students surely did not expect. He cited the Detroit school system, where a black male is more likely to go to prison than graduate from high school.
Newt has a major league problem. The very people who would support him are supporting Fred Flintstone…err Thompson. Now he has to look for support from the middle and they remember him very well.
Comment by greyhawk — August 3, 2007 @ 3:21 pm