One of the more fun aspects of our job here at Gingrich Communications is the opportunity to “staff” Newt when he delivers speeches all over the country.  Staffing Newt essentially involves keeping everything on schedule, knowing where to go next, and coordinating other details.  It’s a relatively easy assignment because most of Newt’s speeches are hosted by groups who know how to organize an event; so I’m basically there as a backup.  The best part is that during the travel time you get to converse with Newt and brainstorm.  It’s an amazing educational opportunity. 

Well, last Thursday, I had the odd experience of one of these educational opportunities intersecting with a previous one – my alma mater, Drew University in Madison, NJ. 

Newt was speaking there as part of the Tom Kean lecture series which has attracted luminaries such as Madeline Albright, Bill Clinton, and other famous opinion leaders.  When I saw back in November that the speech had been booked, I made sure I was the staff person for the trip.  What a great opportunity to revisit the old stomping grounds!  And after all, who else on staff has such an intimate knowledge of the event site? 

We arrived early and they set us up in Mead Hall, a stately, marble-laden building that is sort of the flagship building on campus.  The President’s class is taught there along with most of the alumni functions.  While Newt made some phone calls I took 20 minutes to wander a bit and reminisce. 

It was a quintessential Drew University day – mid seventies, classes being taught outside, music coming from the dorm rooms and Frisbees being tossed on the lawn.  Student body elections were being held that day and from what I could gather, the choice was between a candidate touting his or her experience and another running on a message of change.  Hmmm…

The short walk was vaguely unsettling.  I felt both at home and uneasy.  Drew is a small liberal arts school with about 1600 students.  I’m used to knowing every other person on campus.  So who were all these strangers walking around?  Then it struck me…I’m the stranger. 

As unsettling as that short walk was, it doesn’t compare to what happened next.  Before the speech, Newt spoke to some select political science students in Room 101 of Brother’s College, where I took many of my classes.  Once Newt started speaking, I sat down at one of the familiar wooden, desk-chair combinations along the back row against the wall, near the aisle…where I always sat.  A few observations:

1. Were the things always this uncomfortable?
2. The juxtaposition of memories recalling my previous classes flooding into my brain and watching my current boss (and current professor?) at the front of the room writing on the chalkboard was almost too much for me to handle.
3. I was very lucky to attend a school where in the back row of the classrooms you are still only 25 feet away from the chalkboard.

The session covered a lot of ground and the students represented themselves well, just as I expected.  Drew is, on balance, a pretty liberal school, maybe even as liberal as Berkley, but without the culture of activism that can make a school hostile to conservatives.  I often felt like the only conservative in my classes but at no time was I shouted-down or dismissed by students or professors.  It was always an atmosphere of a pleasant but firm exchange of ideas, and this article in The Star Ledger more or less captures the 30 minutes pretty well, with one exception. 

The Patriot Act came up during the discussion and Newt defended certain surveillance activities as necessary for public safety.  He also made the point that civil liberties activists should be very wary of hamstringing the government too much in their pursuit of terrorists.  Newt described the devastating consequences of a nuclear explosion or engineered biological attack in a major city.  If such a disaster were to occur in America, Newt argued, and hundreds of thousands of Americans were dead, we would be horrified at how fast Americans would be willing to surrender their civil liberties.  “If there’s a threat, you have a right to defend society,” Newt is quoted as saying. “People will give up all their liberties to avoid that level of threat.” 

Well, this quote grossly oversimplified what Newt was saying, and naturally, several liberal blogs (here are twoexamples) hysterically overreacted (as is their wont), and are now suggesting that Newt is in favor of Americans surrendering all their civil liberties for safety, when in fact, Newt was warning against it and describing the complexity of preserving our liberties in the face of an existential threat of nuclear weapons falling into the hands of terrorists. 

After the discussion, we headed to a VIP reception and then we were off to the speech.  It took place in the Simon Forum, the athletic facility where I spent about 3 hours a day during swim season.  The speech took place in the center of the track in the five-story main auditorium, right smack where my intramural floor hockey team lost the championship game to those punks in the Hoyt Dormitory.  (Not that I’m bitter…) 

You can read the Drew Acorn’s account of the speech here.

The best part of the trip for me came after the speech.  I helped arrange for Hannity and Colmes to broadcast live from campus, back at Mead Hall.  That was a real kick for me just because Alan Colmes said “live from Drew University” while introducing Newt during the show.  You can watch or read it here.

We left campus around 10:15, just around the time I imagine the Thursday night parties were starting at the suites in the back of campus.  (I remember I made the mistake my freshman year of scheduling a class on Friday morning…dumb.)  As we left, I looked out the car window and was thankful for my four years at Drew University, not only for all the great times I had there, but also for the great education I received enabling me to do what I do now, working with Newt to make America more safe, healthy, prosperous, and free. 

The banner on Newt.org today says, "Two speeches that changed history."  But what does it mean to "change history?"  How can we change history?  Don't we actually mean to change the future?

I decided to ask one of the smarter people I know, Vince Haley, Newt's Research Director at the American Enterprise Institute.  This was his response:

The phrase means that someone changed what appeared to be the trajectory/course of history.  The course of history, prior to Reagan, was that the Soviet Union was here for a long while, and would continue to keep people under the boot.  Reagan changed history, in that he changed its course, and redirected.

March 2008 is the 25th anniversary of Ronald Reagan's "evil empire" speech and the address to the nation in which he first outlined the strategic defense initiative, or missile defense.  These two speeches fundamentally altered the direction of the Cold War, from a "reasonable" expectation that the Soviet Union would be around forever, towards Ronald Reagan's original strategy for the Cold War, "We win, they lose."

To celebrate, Newt is giving an address at the American Enterprise Institute this Wednesday.  We'll be sure to post it soon afterward on Thursday.  

We've also prepared a summary page here on newt.org with audio clips, transcripts and more celebrating the two speeches.  I especially recommend viewing the documents showing the sampling of the number of people who came out against Reagan.  The list is surprisingly bipartisan, which just goes to show you how steadfast Reagan really was. 

Ronald Reagan truly is proof that one man can change history and underscores the importance of strong leadership as we face a new enemy today. 

Newt was on Hannity's America Sunday night to talk about the anniversary of the two speeches.  You can view it below.

P.S. Compare Ronald Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative Speech to these campaign promises.  Doesn't this underscore the necessity to study these two historic speeches to remind America of the importance of strong leadership and a strong foreign policy? 

To:       The radio host on WTOP in the AM
From:   Irritated Listener in Herndon

Dear Sir,

You sound ridiculous when you refer to this coming Tuesday's primaries as "Super Dooper Tuesday." 

It's already "Super."  No need to add "Dooper."

That is all.

Sincerely,

Irritated Listener

I've been asked by a number of friends and family about what is going to happen in Iowa tomorrow, by which they mean, "who will win?"  I tell them I have no idea.  But I do have some predictions. 

1. Giuliani will do poorly.  Of course, Rudy has never been strong in Iowa, and his campaign has never expected to win, but he will finish even lower than expected, which will receive quite a bit of media coverage on Friday morning, hurting his campaign. 

2. Ron Paul will finish surprisingly high.  I think Paul could beat Thompson and/or McCain, finishing third or fouth.  His poll numbers aren't as high but the passion he inspires amongst his supporters suggests an extremely high turnout rate at the caucuses.  A disproportionately high percentage of his supporters will show up, compared to the other campaigns who may lose people to the Orange Bowl, or whatever else. 

3. Edwards wins on a 2nd ballot, followed closely by Obama.  Ok, I'll go out on a limb and predict this one.  Remember that the Democratic caucus is different than the Republicans.  The supporters of candidates under 15% in the first round get to vote for a different candidate.  Edwards is tops in preferred 2nd choice and in likability.  I say he wins with these 2nd choice voters.  A 3rd place finish will hurt the Clinton campaign badly and unleash an onslaught. 

I ran in the Marine Corps marathon this past Sunday.  I trained hard and ended up dissapointed with my final time, but still enjoyed the overall experience.  This is the second time I've run this race.  Both in 2002 and this past Sunday I was struck with an overwhelming pride and thankfullness at having being born an American.  Consider:

• There are still many places on earth where the day to day priority is simply surviving.  In America, we have so much wealth and free time that we think it would be fun to train ourselves to run a distance that killed an Athenian herald 2500 years ago.  In fact, over 30 thousand people showed up to do so.  Another 10 thousand were on hand to watch. 
  
• I raised money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society as part of their Team in Training program.  In exchange for training help, you raise money that goes toward blood cancer research.  In the end once some matching funds kick in I'll have raised about 3,800 dollars.  The very existence of such an organization today would make de Toqueville proud.  Can there be a more quintessentially American organization?
  
• The race course is filled with volunteers handing out water, food, and supplies.  They're mostly Marines.  And get this, in addition to making sure you don't die of dehydration, the Marines cheer you on.  The Marines.   At a moment's notice these brave men and women could find themselves sent off to war to protect us.  But they're the ones cheering us on as we engage in a sport that is a luxury of the wealth and prosperity built on the back of the freedom they provide.  And believe me, those last few miles, cheers are all that keep you moving.  That amount of selflessness is difficult to imagine.

Add this to the amazing scenery of running through Washington, DC on a beautiful Fall day and it is hard to leave the experience without humming at least a few bars of the national anthem.  I'm considering making the Marine Corps Marathon my personal "4th of July."

I remember a months back when that movie with Robin Williams playing a comedian running for President first started airing ads, I thought to myself, "How absolutely absurd."  Apparently many others thought the same thing because I don't think it made all that much money at the box office. 

Well - maybe the plot wasn't the problem. Maybe they just had the wrong comedian? 

The Colbert for President Facebook group has grown faster than any other group in facebook history.

Excerpt:

“What amazed me the most was how [Barack] Obama’s 1 Million Strong Group took more than 8 months to get about 380,000 members, but Colbert’s 1 Million Strong Group took less than a week to get 750,000 members,” he wrote in an e-mail message Wednesday.

By Sunday, the group had grown to more than 1.13 million, making it easily the fastest-growing political group in Facebook’s four-year history.

It's 9:24pm, Friday night, October 12th.  I'm in the passenger seat of my car on the way up to NJ to visit my parents for my father's birthday.  My lovely wife is driving and thinks I'm mildly weird for posting this entry right now.  The paint on this 1995 VW Cabrio long ago faded from red to pink and the dashboard lights blew out a few days ago.  I checked the fuses and can't find anything wrong.  Add that to the list of little things wrong with the car (air conditioner, driver's side power window).  Guess we'll be taking her back to the dealer...again.  At some point we'll decide that pouring money into the old girl just isn't worth it anymore.  But the engine still works and she rides like a dream so it's hard to rationalize getting an new car. 

Our Cabrio stands in stark contrast to the old newt.org, or Newt.org 2.0.  (How's that for a ham-fisted segway!) They have one similarity - neither are pretty to look at.  But unlike our sweet, sweet ride, 2.0 had long outlived its ability to get us from point A to point B.  (Point A being a place for Newt to have a living repository of all his writings and speeches.  Point B being the major hub of a nationwide movement to win the future by insisting on real change from our government.)  

This new site you're seeing right now - 3.0 - went live approximately 3 hours ago without a hitch.  Well...maybe a hitch or two.  Or a two half hitches.  In any case, it's up and working well.  And it has so, so much to offer.  I'm excited to see that we have our first user profile created by someone who was not on the beta test team (welcome aboard Floyd! - exactly what is that you're holding in that picture?!).  And I see a few more now that I check again so I'm pretty excited.  We also have issue groups and will gradually role out more functions in the coming weeks. 

Anyway, I speak for Newt and his entire team in saying how excited we are to have this site finally launched.  We actually went and hired a full-time Director of Online Communications to manage this site and many more opportunities in the future.  His name is Matt Scofield, be sure to check out his profile.  The entire team is looking forward to seeing the creativity and ingenuity of the Newt.org community come to full fruition in the coming months.

This is Joe DeSantis, Communications Director for Gingrich Communications signing off just past exit 33B on I-95 North in Maryland.  More soon. 

Those of you participating in the beta test are offering tons of great feedback.  It's funny - I've been knee deep in this website for 3 months now so there are all sorts of obvious things that I missed.  Other items that made total sense to me and the developers turned out to be completely counterintuitive. 

Thanks for all your hard work.  Next step - public beta!

I'm writing this entry as much to test our blog aggregator as anything else, but I might as well give a short update.  The look and feel of the site is coming together well - hats off to the guys at iBelong and their designers.  They've also been very creative and flexible in finding ways to meet all of our various demands for how the site should function.  Getting this blog aggregator to work was one example. 

Pretty soon our online store will be filled out with all your favorite items from the old site and a few new ones, including buttons and some collector's edition books.  Also, the issue groups should come together soon and we'll be able to demonstrate arguably the most innovative aspect of this site - how to give you, the newt.org users, the power to become the primary publishers of the site.

Still plugging along.  It's amazing how many details have to be worked out.  Plus, this is a much more intricate site than the current iteration and there is lots to be learned on our end before we can reveal the site. 

I'm hoping we can launch a beta site after the July 4th holiday.  We'll open it up to all you premium subscribers first, and then after a week put a link on our current homepage inviting everyone to check it out and start playing around. 

This is the first update about our brand new website, or as I like to call it Newt.org 3: Return of the Blog-i.  I like to call it that because beneath my cocky, athletic good looks lies a real nerd who grew up on Star Trek and Tolkien.  I'm writing this in my personal newt.org 3.0 blog before the site launch and will cross post it into the Staff blog at our current site Newt.org 2: The Clutter Strikes Back. 

The first thing you'll notice about the new website will be how completely different it looks compared to our current site.  But I urge you to keep exploring; the differences are far more than skin deep. 

This new website will turn you - members of the Winning the Future community - into active publishers on the site. 

Don't worry - the same great content available on current newt.org will also be available on the new site.  We'll have Newt's white papers, his op-eds, news articles, and multimedia like Newt's speech clips and radio commentaries.  In fact, we'll have more. 

But in addition, each of you will have your own profile where you can maintain a blog of your own, post your favorite media clips and tell us about yourself.  You can take part in chat rooms and discussion boards that fully integrate into the website.  You can create feeds that integrate into your chat rooms. You'll play an active role in how the site is organized.  Users can rate Newt and eachother's articles, tag them, and offer comments.  

You'll also be able to cutomize your email updates to control the content you recieve.  Not only will you be able to just receive info on, say, immigration, but you'll be able to subscribe to the writings of other members of the site.  You'll even control when you recieve those updates - daily, weekly; at 2am or 2pm.  It's all up to you. 

The key word here is "you."  Stay tuned.