Reported by Shock And Awe Corespondent Angry Patriot.
I arrived early to the Newt Gingrich event at the Airport Hilton in Blount County today, around 3:09pm. The parking lot was already getting packed and a lot of the other media personnel were unpacking just the same. No more than few feet outside of my vehicle I was approached by a man with a sign that read “DON’T BELIEVE THE LIBERAL MEDIA!”, I knew I was at the right place.
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| The crowd getting pumped for a visit by Former Speaker Newt Gingrich |
Conservative leader Mr. Lloyd Daugherty was up at the podium before anyone else. He had some good things to say about Ol’Newt and compared him heavily to Reagan before explaining how important it is that we continue the Reagan Coalition. I have to say Newt got one thing right, as I took my perch upon the media riser I noticed a gigantic power T flag hung on the wall to the right of the podium. Score 1 point for Newt.
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| Newt speaking to an enthused Knoxville/East TN crowd |
Newt was running a little late, we were told it was because his plane was held up briefly for weather, OH and Sean Hannity refused to let him off the phone…Thanks Sean, not that I didn’t enjoy my trip but it was amazingly hot standing up there smashed up with the other media people.
Rep. Tony Shipley decided to take the stage after we had some chanting and whistling in a failed attempt to summon The Newt, who had yet to actually land. He talked a little about Newts campaign and where he had been and was going, after leaving us he was headed straight to Chattanooga.
Rep. Shipley also made mention about a speech Obama recently gave where he was roughly quoted as saying that Republicans think the answer to the oil problem is to “Drill, Drill, Drill”, the crowd erupted in laughter when Rep. Shipley said, “Well Duh!”. Rep. Shipley decided it was time to turn the Podium over because Newt had at last arrived!
The crowd chanted “Newt, Newt, Newt!” and out came Callista Gingrich, Newt had to “freshen up” some. Callista was very pleasant to listen to, and talked some about Newts family dynamic. She also made note to mention that her husband is who we need to have as the next President of the United Stated of America, and stated “Our only opponent is Barack Obama”.
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| Callista Gingrich speaking to the energetic supportive crowd in Knoxville |
There was about three hundred or so people crammed into the conference room at the Airport Hilton at this point then suddenly there was music, the crowd applauded, Rep. Shipley took the Podium back, then coming from behind that big power T, was none other than Newt Gingrich himself! He took a quick sweep through the front of the buffer zone and shook some hands before taking the Podium. There were ton’s of people holding up $2.50 Newt 2012 signs, referencing his promise to decrease gas costs to $2.50 as President. There were also several signs reading “DON’T BELIEVE THE LIBERAL MEDIA!” that were floating around.
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| Knoxville News Sentinel Political Reporter Georgiana Vines holding one of the rally signs. |
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| One of the rally signs, referring to Newt’s pledge to have $2.50 per gallon of gas if he is elected. |
Below me I noticed an officer move through the crowd, he had spotted what a few of us had already seen but dismissed! A white guy probably in his early twenties with semi baggy pants, a white shirt and…Wait for it a Ron Paul hat! He had a handful of Ron Paul handouts and was generating a nice little buzz around himself as he tried to hand them. Anyway, said officer swept him to the side and then peacefully asked him to leave.
My attention was quickly directed back at Newt after I helped pull one of the national media girls back up onto the media riser from where she ran to tell a guy to move his sign, I was thankful she did, he was blocking all of my shots. Newt really pushed his $2.50 gas promise, and his general plans for ending our energy crisis. Newt injected fair bits of humor into his speech and got the crowd plenty riled up when he mentioned that his $2.50 promise is probably a little higher than gas will actually be during his administration, but $2.50 is what he was advised to promise. He also brought up a point which I completely agree with, and that was “We need fundamental rethinking in Washington”. He mentioned that fundamental rethinking, is even more important than just beating Obama (Of course if we have such rethinking, I would imagine Obama losing would be a given) . He brought up other points in stating that we do not need to be having debates about Syria and how to handle it, but we need to completely rethink our involvement.
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| Another view of the crowd prior to Newt and Callista’s arrival |
He pulled Pakistan in too, saying they hid Osama Bin Laden for seven years, then got mad at us because we found him! He apparently was only a mile from their university of defense in that nice compound he had. Newt brought up some big points about leadership and not being timid or indecisive, saying that we have leaders now who are afraid of the truth. Really? We have leaders afraid of the truth! I thought with all their scandals, fraud, and tax issues that they loved the truth. Newt, I have to completely agree with you there, a good recently classic quote could sum up our officials in Washington “You can’t handle the truth!”.
Newt scored another point specifically related to Tennessee when he mentioned that we had a great asset in Andrew Jackson, and referenced how he was a great leader who was not afraid of the truth, timid, or indecisive.
Being the Angry Patriot I am the next part of Newts speech got me riled up some. He said “I will never apologize” to those who hurt America, he then went into a spill about Obama apologizing to the radical Muslims. He then made a reference to Fort Hood and the Major that decided to go on a little rampage, he noted that the Major had in fact been contacting a Radical Cleric once a week, had converted over to being a Radical Muslim and carried a card on his body saying he was a Soldier of Allah, which is also apparently what he screamed when he started shooting our American troops, though I can’t know that for fact. He made mention of how on the official report from the Army the fact that he had been carrying said card, converted to being a radical and had been in contact with aforementioned Cleric was left out, even though that could prove all of those things.
He went on talking about terrorist and the like for a bit before finally changing topics and making a statement I thought was worth quoting in reference to the politicians in Washington, he said “At some point the children’s hour needs to end and adult supervision needs to begin” score another one for Newt.
He got back on the topic of energy and talked about how he plans to end our need for Middle Eastern oil. He quoted a his “Drill here, drill now, pay less” philosophy and went on to point out three points to end our dependence; 1 the Keystone Pipeline, 2 Drilling in Texas and Louisiana, 3 drilling in Alaska”
He talked briefly of how Obama was so proud of his natural gas, and the huge reserve they found that allowed them to bring down the prince of natural gas, he then asked the question “Do you think that maybe that natural gas was found by drilling?” and if it worked for natural gas why not oil!.
He half joked that he had invited President Obama to join him on a field trip to North Dakota where they found a HUGE well of oil on private land that he couldn’t stop the drilling of, it in fact was twenty five times bigger than they originally thought and would be enough oil to over double the national reserve. He posed the question if we could find this much oil on private land in North Dakota what about Alaska, or off shore? He stated North Dakota has a 3.5% unemployment rate which he mostly attributed to the jobs created by such large oil wells being found. He talked about how North Dakota’s government revenue was up and they were able to cut taxes seven times! Oh yeah they also have a multi-billion dollar “Rainy Day Fund” for a state that only cots a little over 2 billion to operate. He mentioned some numbers on barrels of oil we could produce if we used his three previously mentioned ideas and started drilling more. The numbers were large enough that if we became an exporter of oil we could make 14-16 trillion dollars collecting royalties and selling oil, while reducing our own fuel costs greatly.
He poked some fun at Obama and his algae plan to solve our oil problem, which could take years upon years. He made a great comment there “Presidents should focus on running the country today” I certainly agree! Newt said he had friends in the algae sector and it could become a viable solution in the future, but does little to help us now. He is no doubt referring to blue petroleum which is created using algae. He noted how when he was speaker gas was $1.13 a gallon and when Obama was sworn in it was $1.89 a gallon.
He plugged his online campaign at this point telling people to go to Facebook and post Newt = $2.50 as their status, and to do the same on Twitter #2.50gas. He then plugged his website and said if anyone wants to get involved they should check out Newt.org, and noted that you could “give” a gallon of Newt gas. Which I must admit, is pretty amusing, and just fun enough in my opinion to get people to give.
A few of our local politicians were around, and some of our local candidates one of them being Gary Loe who is running for State House District 13, I took a bit and chatted with Gary, I happen to like him a lot so here is my shameless plug for Gary.
Over all the experience was good, Newt was good even if he was late and that is about that. This is the Angry Patriot singing off for Shock and Awe.
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| Republican State Representative Candidate Gary Loe visiting with Newt supporters. |
Early predictions for Tennessee will be a win of the general primary for Ricky Santorum, with delegates divided proportionately among Romney, Gingrinch, and Paul, with Santorum winning but only collecting a few uncommitted delgates.
The message in Tennessee will be that conservative republicans are flat tired of the Haslam political machine which fosters inept and indecisive Republican office holders, unqualified Republican office holders, and Republican office holders who put currying favor withe the Haslam fundraising capability rather than doing what is in the best interest of their constituency, their community, and their state.
The only difference between Knoxville and Chicago is there is no professional baseball in Knoxville and the political strong arms are Republican in nature, not Democratic.
Hey Georgiana, don't look so sad Hon, it wasn't like it was a secret. We had you figured out long ago. You haven't fooled anyone in decades.