Gingrich in Florida: “My plans for our space program … will make NASA officials nervous”
The Steve Bussey Radio Experience and Stevebussey.com covered the Newt Gingrich town hall event today in Brevard County, Florida reporting for AM 1300 WMEL (1300wmel.com).
The Republican primary frontrunner currently locked in what some have characterized as a “bloody fist fight” with former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney for the presidential nomination said today in Cocoa, FL that his plans for the American space program are “very bold and very different and will make NASA officials very nervous.”
Gingrich then harkened back, as only a History professor can, to Abraham Lincoln stating the need for a transcontinental railroad even before the technology to cross the Rocky Mountains existed and having never seen a train himself, but had only read about them. Gingrich also pointed out that President Kennedy challenged America to send a man to the Moon and return him back to earth safely again before the end of the decade when manned space flight was still in its infancy and the technology did not yet exist.
The event was attended by approximately 1,200 Brevard County residents according to the local fire marshal with 700 to 800 people inside the conference hall and an overflow crowd of several hundred listening to loud speakers of the even outside.
Local law enforcement sources stated they did not expect any violence or disruptions as has been the case at least one Rick Santorum event, but they did have information that the Occupy Melbourne (Florida) group did attempt to recruit members on Facebook in order to protest the event. No such protest materialized.
During a press availability after the town hall meeting Newt Gingrich said in response to one question that Governor Mitt Romney’s accusations of lobbying for Freddie Mac were “laughable” considering that it has now been revealed that Romney owned stock in both Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, and a person the Romney campaign, or a Super Pac, hired to speak about the allegations against the former Speaker actually was a Fannie Mae lobbyist.
Also in response to a question, Speaker Gingrich said his ideas for the space program would require a complete review of the NASA bureaucracy because, in his words, “if they have the same size bureaucracy now when they’re not launching as they did when they were launching then something is wrong.”
Statements like that may be why he thinks his plans for the American space program will “make NASA officials nervous.”
Early primary voting has already started in Florida but the primary itself is scheduled for January 31st. Last year the Republican National Committee sanctioned Florida by taking away half of their Republican convention delegates, leaving Florida with only 50 delegates, because that state moved up its primary to January 31st. Florida will be the first large state to hold a primary, is the first winner-take-all primary and it is a closed primary – only Republicans will be able to vote for the Republican candidates.
