On Wednesday evening, GOP presidential contender Newt Gingrich spoke to a sizable audience in Gaston Hall, while a protest of slightly smaller size took place outside Healy Hall.

If we told typical that a former Vox editor was Chair of GU College Republicans, he might actually die of shock.

“[Editor's note: Stangler is a Voice staffer]”

[Reader's note: excuse me while I die of shock]

Very Impressive thinks very highly of the protestors‘ loquacious expostulation, based on a de/gendered-Baudrillardian discourse of granulated subjectivity:

You must have gone to college Gina!!! You already sound like a po-mo professor infused with some lefty mysticism (voices amplified by their collectiveness). Great work. For the perplexed, a great guide on how to speak post modern. You are an inspiration to us all.

http://cscs.umich.edu/~crshalizi/how-to-talk-postmodern.html

Read the rest of this entry »

In an interview with campus media prior to his speech in Gaston Hall this evening, Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich discussed his campaign’s viability, in light of a recent staff shake-up and polling that suggests six out of ten Republicans want Gingrich to drop out of the race:

We streamlined the campaign precisely to be able to continue to Tampa, not to suspend it. There’s a difference between streamlining and suspending. And frankly because of the news media coverage, I don’t pay attention to polls like that. Remember my campaign was dead in June and July, every reporter in the country said it was dead, and by the middle of December Gallup said I was ahead by 15 points and Rasmussen said I was ahead by 21, so I worry much more about how to develop new approaches like my speech tonight how to communicate issues that matter, we just spent three weeks with Obama on defense over energy and I think if you go back and look that was almost entirely my campaign. I think we’re having a positive impact, and we’re going to continue campaigning all the way to Tampa. And I think Governor Romney has clearly has not gotten a majority, nobody thinks he has a majority at this stage, so why would you quit? I’m from Atlanta, we were ahead by 10 and a half games last year- there were only 28 games left. Imagine if we could’ve talked St. Louis into quitting- we’d be happier today. We’re living proof that playing out the entire season matters.

Asked who he would tell his supporters to list as their second choice if America employed the instant-runoff voting that GUSA elections use, Gingrich said to his staff’s laughter, “I wouldn’t. I would tell them to write my name in nine times.”

Yesterday, Gingrich visited the Salisbury Zoo in southern Maryland. He said about the trip, “I’m a big zoo fan. I’ve gone to 100 zoos around the world.”

Photo: Julian De La Paz

In a speech that seamlessly transitioned from quips about NASA and the laws of physics to history lessons about Abraham Lincoln and the Wright brothers, ex-Speaker of the House and contender for the GOP presidential nomination Newt Gingrich confidently laid out his vision of American exceptionalism based on the country’s religious founding and its people’s capacity for innovation. Gingrich declared:

We’re exceptional because we’ve inherited from the founding fathers an explanation of our rights unlike in any other country in the world—we’re the only society that says power comes from God to each one of you personally, you are personally sovereign. You loan power to the state, the state does not loan power to you. This is very fundamental to the nature of being Americans.

From the Wright brothers to UPS, Gingrich cited examples of innovation in the private sector to criticize intellectually decrepit federal and state governments. In an interview with campus media prior to the speech, he said, “I think we have a much greater lack of ideas than a lack of money or lack of political willpower.”

In addition to his standard criticisms of the judicial system (“courts have become engines of secularism,” he declared), secular academia and the secular news media, Gingrich peppered his speech with references specific to his young audience. For example, when he discussed Abraham Lincoln’s religiosity, Gingrich asked if any student had learned about the 14 references to God in Lincoln’s second inaugural address.

During the speech, Gingrich proposed the establishment of personal Social Security accounts, subject to compound interest, into which wage-earners pay their Social Security levies. Based on the Chilean model, these accounts would be treated as estates, which could be transmitted to heirs after death, unlike current Social Security payments. He connected his proposal to privatize Social Security to the larger battle of “the American model” versus “the European model”, laying the choice at the feet of the next generation.

Read the rest of this entry »

Former Speaker of the House, Republican presidential contender, and defender of American civilization Newt Gingrich will address the University community in Gaston Hall tomorrow at 5 p.m. on the topic of “Giving Young Americans the Right to Choose a Personal Social Security Account.” It’s unclear if he will also have an Etch-a-Sketch handy.

The event is sponsored by the Lecture Fund and GU College Republicans. Doors open at 4 p.m. and seats will be filled on a first-come, first-serve basis. Gingrich is coming to the Hilltop in advance of the D.C. Republican primary, which will take place Tuesday. The winner of the primary, expected to be Mitt Romney, will win 16 convention delegates.

Although privatizing Social Security may be an unpopular notion on a liberal college campus, Kevin Preskenis (COL ’12), National Coalitions Coordinator for the Gingrich campaign and one of the organizers of the event, wasn’t concerned about the speech’s reception in an email to Vox:

Once he outlines his plan, I’m confident many students will be fully on board. Social security is close to a broken system. Our generation will be faced with a choice: watch the system wither away or pay massive taxes to keep it alive. Newt’s social security program, based on the Chilean model, gives Americans more freedom in their retirement and creates dramatically more wealth in the long run. As a barometer of support among youth, over 230 college campuses have setup chapters in support of the plan.

The afternoon does not promise to be a completely quiet afternoon of pontification on the merits of privatization however, as Georgetown Occupy has called for a protest on Copley Lawn at the same time as the speech. Occupy member Cole Stangler (SFS ’13) explained the point of the protest in an email to Vox:

It’s important for Newt Gingrich to know that his bigoted politics in service of the 1% are rejected by the vast majority of young people in this country, and that he can’t come to a college campus and tell us why he wants to privatize our social security without expecting some sort of negative outcry.

Read the rest of this entry »

Victoria Briody is probably not the only student on campus who wasn’t thrilled to hear about Newt Gingrich Wednesday evening speech in Gaston. But come on Hoyas, this guy’s had it hard enough on the campaign trail; an empty Gaston may just about break his heart.

What Eric Begoun doesn’t know is the golf cart was actually an upgrade from the widely disparaged Facilities monorail system.

Read the rest of this entry »

On Monday night, former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich and his wife Callista came to Georgetown to screen Nine Days that Changed the World, the documentary film that portrays Pope John Paul II’s nine-day trip to Communist Poland in June 1979. The event, hosted by the Catholic Student Association and co-sponsored by the College Republicans, was protester-free, despite the worries that some students waiting in line expressed that the event would be a repeat of the disrupted General David Petraeus event.

Newt and Callista Gingrich narrate the movie, which documents how Pope John Paul’s visit transformed Poland and led to the eventual overthrow of communism. According to its website, the film “is a story of human liberation, revealing the extraordinary power of Pope John Paul II’s worldwide message of freedom through faith.”

Still, protests seemed to be on everyone’s mind, with Kevin Preskenis, the chief of staff of the College Republicans, obliquely referring to the Petraeus protest and calling this screening a “chance for all of us to unite as a Catholic university,” in his introductory remarks. Co-president of the Catholic Student Association Melinda Reyes welcomed the audience to the “non-partisan event.”

In his remarks, Newt Gingrich urged those who enjoy the film to promote it both by word of mouth and social networking sites so it will reach a wider audience.

Read the rest of this entry »

Because the event with General Petraeus went so well, this April, Georgetown will play host to two big-name conservatives: Karl Rove, brought to you by Lecture Fund, and Newt Gingrich, who is coming to campus as part of his premier tour for his new movie, Nine Days that Changed the World.

These Republican heavy-hitters will visit Georgetown within just two days of each other. Gingrich, the former Republican Speaker of the House, will be here on Monday, April 19, and Rove, who was former President George W. Bush’s adviser, is coming on April 21.

According to Student Activities Commission minutes, Rove’s typical speaking fee is $35,000, but Lecture Fund bargained him down to $8,000. SAC allocated them $8,500 for fees, security, and additional costs in a 5-3-3 vote in early February.

Alicia Melvin, an event coordinator for the April 19 movie screening, confirmed that Gingrich would be present at the screening, which is being sponsored by the Catholic Students Association and co-sponsored by the Georgetown College Republicans.

The screening will take place at at 7 p.m. in the ICC Auditorium. Rove will speak at an unknown time in the Lohrfink Auditorium in the Hariri Building.