Gingrich should stay focused on fiscal discipline, friend and former adviser says
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich announced he is running for president in 2012.
May 11th, 2011
08:39 PM ET

Gingrich should stay focused on fiscal discipline, friend and former adviser says

As Newt Gingrich prepares his candidacy for the 2012 presidential nomination, he needs to remind people of what he accomplished as speaker of the House dureing the Clinton administration, his former campaign chairman said.

Gingrich announced via Twitter Wednesday that he is a candidate for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination. His agenda includes overturning health care reform and eliminating the EPA.

Gingrich needs to remind GOP voters, especially the fiscally conservative, that he worked "to bring President Clinton to the table to bring a balanced budget, that he worked to reduce capital gains, that he worked to reform welfare," political consultant Matt Towery said.

At the same time, Gingrich should not talk up too many issues and ideas, just stay focused on the fiscal discipline matters that are driving much of the national debate, Towery said in an interview with CNN Radio.

Towery, a former member of the Georgia House of Representatives, served as campaign chairman for Gingrich and chief strategist for numerous national political campaigns. He said he is not working on Gingrich's campaign.

It won't be easy for Gingrich to deal with social conservatives when it comes to his personal life, which includes an affair while his first wife was stricken with cancer and a second while he was leading the Clinton impeachment proceedings. But the transgressions are not necessarily a deal-breaker, Towery said.

“Most people ... really don’t care about that issue,” Towery said. “They’re more concerned about whether they have a job, food on the table and the like.”

Gingrich has been facing up to his indiscretions in interviews, the Atlanta-based attorney and businessman said. Plus, “neither of his two former wives have come out against him.”

Listen to the full interview here:

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Filed under: Newt Gingrich
soundoff (56 Responses)
  1. easynan

    Once a chippy, always a chippy. Newt is just a bad bet all around.

    May 12, 2011 at 1:59 pm | Report abuse |
  2. dan smith

    Newt doesn't have a chance in hell of getting the nomination. It will most likely be Romney when all is said and done.

    May 12, 2011 at 6:53 pm | Report abuse |
  3. dan smith

    Newt doesn't have a chance in hell of getting the nomination. It will most likely be Romney when all is said and done and I could see Guilliani as his running mate.

    May 12, 2011 at 6:54 pm | Report abuse |
  4. StIves

    Donald Trump and Newt Gringrich send a very bad message for the 2012 Presidential election. None of them have been faithful to themselves or to the wives they had. Trying to discard everything that President Obama has done or is doing is their key efforts and platform as to what they will be running on. The former speaker of the house once fled, and will flee again; his only key motion is turing things around and becoming a mainstay on the Hill. If you think about it, President Clinton and Newt both was in the same situations of cheating on their wives while in office...this is part of what we don't want to see. Motive and revenge is not the values we want to see and hear from Trump or Newt, it is all that matters they can't be President of this great country. To put it plainly, they are not Presidential Material that will last!

    May 13, 2011 at 9:19 am | Report abuse |
  5. papa smurf

    What a waste of time and money. Politics aside, asking his wife for a divorce while she was in the hospital fighting cancer makes it iimpossible to get elected. This is nothing more than an ego trip by a has been. Give it a rest Newt!!!

    May 13, 2011 at 9:46 am | Report abuse |
  6. RLP

    Wow!!!!!! What a waste of time. He has to be using this as a vehicle to achieve something else. Like a reality tv show or a spot on the Fox news.

    May 14, 2011 at 2:48 pm | Report abuse |
  7. TheFamily USAbuse

    He is already President from the day he illegally used American universities and had his friends pay the 1.5. million dollar Tea Party fine: All over the Midwest... he is the invisible "GOD" of the most abusive people.

    May 14, 2011 at 5:16 pm | Report abuse |
  8. gord

    his contract with america was more a contract on america-was the start of corp. america shipping jobs overseas and the tax payers pay for it

    May 15, 2011 at 12:22 pm | Report abuse |
  9. Dwayne Frykman

    Newt has my vote. There is NO one better for this country. We need him.

    May 16, 2011 at 11:12 am | Report abuse |
    • andres

      Are you nuts or just don't remember? He runs a great campaign, gets control of the house and then what? Nothing, he didn't deliver on ONE of the articles of the Contract with America. The only thing he pulled off was to shut down the government and impeach Clinton. He is incapable of bringing about the change we so badly need. Just because he has been around a while does not mean he is the right person for the job. Kinda like the major league coaches who float from job to job and still don't deliver. Look at his past and you should come to the conclusion that he is badly flawed.

      May 17, 2011 at 11:08 am | Report abuse |
    • Linda

      Yup, that is a good plan – take away the only progress made on health care and do away with the watchdog to keep companies in line. That way the poor become poorer and the rich have no bounderies to keep them from making profits at the expense of others.

      May 17, 2011 at 1:40 pm | Report abuse |
  10. Hilary O

    Newt can not keep a legal promise to one person that he was married to . How could he possibly keep any promise to people he has nver known eg We the People.

    May 16, 2011 at 11:20 am | Report abuse |
  11. Silas Scarborough

    Gingrich doesn't have the morality of a streetwalker.

    May 16, 2011 at 3:19 pm | Report abuse |
    • andres

      Don't demean the morality of streetwalkers with that comparison. At least you KNOW what you are going to get with a streetwalker

      May 17, 2011 at 11:10 am | Report abuse |
  12. USArmyOverLord

    Ha obama has it for sure if this the the best that the republicans can do. I'm loving the side show!!!

    May 17, 2011 at 9:39 am | Report abuse |
  13. Ted

    Newt – the perfect name for such a slimy reptile!

    May 17, 2011 at 11:16 am | Report abuse |
  14. Kristine

    most of the time when i read CNN or Fox blogs it make me so sad that people are really so stupid, so sad.

    May 18, 2011 at 5:17 pm | Report abuse |
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