Newt Gingrich on 2012

Only time will tell how historic Scott Brown’s election in Massachusetts may prove to be, but for now its effects can clearly be seen rippling through both parties, as Republicans set their sites on Illinois, while the Obama administration is being forced to cut back a number of its proposed domestic programs to counter accusations of reckless deficient spending. As today’s guest, the longtime Republican party strategist and former Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich explains, this moment is of historic significance, as it sets the stage for a series of Republican victories in the midterm elections later this year and allows him to “aim for a sweeping, decisive election in 2012.”

That democrats are having to dramatically rethink their public image is a consequence, Gingrich suggests, of the aggression of Obama’s policies, which have been carried out in such a uniquely partisan manner that they have left independents, conservatives, and the American people entirely alienated from the White House.

Gingrich identified several key mistakes that Obama has made that have spurred a reinvigorated sense of American ire: “It was an enormous mistake to allow Pelosi and Reed to write the stimulus package and to pass it without anybody who was elected having read it. “ And “It was an enormous mistake to ram through a left-wing, high tax, energy bill in the House. “

The sense of detachment that those outside the “Obama-Pelosi-Reid Machine” have felt may be providing Republicans with the fodder necessary for a transformative agenda; enabling the GOP to advance beyond their previous, negative image as the ‘party of no’ and form a movement with legitimate, position alternatives to the President’s proposals, a position that Gingrich believes will provide him and other Republican hopefuls newfound success in the coming elections.