Real Change, by Rep. Newt Gingrich (R, GA): on Principles & Values

Barack Obama: OpEd: Radical Spenders; Weak Defenders

The Obama-Pelosi-Rei team is the most radical group ever to hold the reigns of American power. Its vision of a high-tax, bureaucratic, Washington-centered system leading to a secular-socialist future will fundamentally challenge America's role as a beacon of hope, opportunity, and freedom.

The $700 billion Wall Street bailout of September 2008 marked the complete collapse of the Bush administration's economic discipline. Obama took office and presided over "Bush Plus"--but with an aggressiveness, speed, & scale that shocked most Americans.

In foreign policy, the Obama administration has reverted to the weakness and apologetic critique of America that characterized the Carter administration from 1977 to 1980. President Obama bows to the King of Saudi Arabia.

Barack Obama: OpEd: Replace red-vs.-blue politics with positive campaign

Senator Obama ran a positive presidential campaign that reached out to many sectors of the population beyond the Democrats' traditional base. The result was not just winning a narrow victory by maximizing turnout in traditionally Democratic areas among people who were angry with President Bush. Obama had reached out to all Americans and was rewarded with victories in North Carolina, Colorado, and other traditionally red states. In fact, it is likely that Senator Obama's victory would have been even more overwhelming if the ideology of the Left were not so fundamentally out of synch with that of the vast majority of Americans.

Haley Barbour: 1994: As RNC chair, gambled on big positive ideas

In 1994, we achieved the largest one-party vote increase in a off-year election in American history. Nine million more people voted for Republicans (and one million fewer people voted for Democrats) between the 1990 and the 1994 elections. We elected the first Republican majority in forty years and then managed the House through a confrontation with a liberal president, a government shutdown, and a balanced budget effort that included reforming Medicare. Then we won reelection for the first time since 1928.

Newt Gingrich: Red-blue split in America is 85% Americans and 15% fringe

The media tell us America is a nation divided between conservative red states and liberal blue states. They tell us that red and blue are equally divided--which is why elections are so close, why Congress seems gridlocked, and why nothing ever seems to get done in Washington.

But that's simply not true. The reality is the American people are united on almost every important issue facing our country. The real division is between red-white-blue America (about 85% of the country) and a fringe on the left (about 15% of the country). Not only have the media perpetuated the myth that the country is equally divided, but the elites on the left fringe have also insisted that their positions hold moral superiority. Neither is true.

Newt Gingrich: After 2000, Republicans failed to govern successfully

1. In Great Britain, Thatcher failed to change the culture of the Conservative Party, which reverted to an unthinking, non-reform style as soon as she left office.
2. Reagan failed to change the culture of presidential Republicans; the first Bush administration got rid of virtually all the Reaganites as soon as it could, and within two years was cutting deals with the Democrats to raise taxes.
3. Those of u who believed in a reform-oriented, majority Republican Party could not change the minority mindset of the House Republicans. The minority thinkers had no idea what it had taken to win the majority in 1994, and they had no interest in learning.

Newt Gingrich: Red-vs.-Blue fails: propose Red-White-and-Blue solutions

The American People Want Red-White-and-Blue Solutions: Red-versus-blue can work for one or two election cycles, but eventually it set up three destructive dynamics.

1. It continually narrows the playing field. Candidates give up on persuading anyone on the other side to join their cause and focus instead on narrow, partisan appeals
2. The requirement to maximize turnout with partisan appeals leads to a shrillness that eventually drives away independents & moderates
3. The most effective turnout mechanism is to scare or anger your side into voting, which in the long run leads to a numbness that convinces all but the hardest partisans that your messages are phony and misleading.

Newt Gingrich: 1979: wrote Art of Transformation; 1990s: implemented it

1. What do you value?
2. What vision of success do you have for achieving what you value?
3. What metrics would tell you whether you are making progress toward your visions?
4. What strategies would enable you to achieve your vision?
5. What projects would enable you to implement your strategies successfully? (A project is a definable, delegatable achievement and the key to entrepreneurial management.)
6. What tasks have to be done well to complete each project?

Ronald Reagan: 1950s: 375 speeches as GE employee education on free markets

Boulware gave Reagan books by great free-market thinkers like Hayek & Friedman. Reagan spent hours reading them on the train, which is how he travelled in those days, and this prepared him to talk to blue collar workers about the American system.

Boulware believed every issue had an "M"--the point where the majority opinion on that topic was found. If you could "move the M," you moved the entire framework of the debate. Reagan did not argue within the framework of the leftwing elites. He "moved the M," changing the fundamental framework of the debate and requiring people to think about issues in a completely new way.