May 8, 2008 12:27
Newt Gingrich's bold plan to save the Republican Party by overhauling the Census Bureau
I'm a little late to this (it came out on Tuesday), but I just read Newt Gingrich's "Plea to Republicans: It's Time for Real Change to Avoid Real Disaster." It starts with a cogent analysis of just how bad things look for Republicans in this fall's Congressional elections. "The Republican brand has been so badly damaged that if Republicans try to run an anti-Obama, anti- Reverend Wright, or (if Senator Clinton wins), anti-Clinton campaign, they are simply going to fail," he writes.
Then Gingrich offers up "nine acts of real change" to boost the GOP before November. Now Gingrich, whatever you think of his ideology, personal life, or political tactics, is undeniably one of the great idea men of modern American politics. But maybe he's, uh, tired or something.
Most of the list consists of retreads (declare a summer gas tax holiday! bash unions! bash liberal judges!). And then there are the two original suggestions:
5. Overhaul the census and cut its budget radically. ...
6. Implement a space-based, GPS-style air traffic control system. ...
WTF?!?!?! (As this is a mainstream media blog, I should point out that the F stands for Foolishness. Or maybe Fiddledeedaddle.) I'm not much for predicting elections, and I will definitely be among the first to congratulate Gingrich if census reform and space-based air traffic control put the GOP over the top in November. But somehow or other, I just don't think this is going to do it.
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Justin Fox is TIME's business and economics columnist. This is his blog. About the Authors
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Reader Comments (10)
This is classic MBA at work. If you can't succeed within the current paradigm, you must change the paradigm. This is excellent outside the box thinking. You'll eat your words in 2012 when we elect president based on number of TomToms he's/she's personally installed on airplanes.
Posted by That Anonymous Dude | May 8, 2008 1:06 PM
Yes, these do sound like issues that will resonate with the average voter, plus inspire the GOP faithfull to get to the polls (huh?).
And de-funding the Census Bureau helps the GOP because ... maybe they don't count so many immigrants or poor people and allocate fewer congressional seats to Democrat-leaning areas? That seems like more of long-term strategy than something that helps in this election cycle.
As for a GPS-based air-traffic system, the FAA has been working on that for a while now. Its called "ADS-B". It will take 10 years to really get it going, and about 20 years to fully implement. The long time frame is not due to resistance from beaucrats or the controllers' union, but because of the need to get new electronics installed in almost every airplane in the sky (new hardware that has not been manufactured yet). And it won't solve some the main sources of airline delays: (i) the airlines schedule too many flights to arrive and depart at the same time, and (ii) more runways and gates are needed on the ground to accomodate all those flights, especially when bad weather hits. Fixing that last one would actually require spending tax money to build infrastructure, but Newt wants to squeeze domestic discretionary spending out of the budget.
Posted by Harry Fox | May 8, 2008 4:16 PM
Yup, that's my brother. Isn't he smart?
Posted by Justin Fox | May 8, 2008 4:36 PM
Or maybe I just drank some coffee and got all riled up over technical minutiae.
Posted by Harry Fox | May 8, 2008 6:02 PM
@TAD: Did you know that Tom Tom is a Dutch company?
Posted by Justin Fox | May 8, 2008 8:42 PM
Hehe... wont' be tomtom's then. will be some other overpriced underengineered product.
Posted by That Anonymous Dude | May 8, 2008 9:44 PM
He starts out by saying Republicans need to get serious on energy and the environment, but goes on to propose how great it would be if we could increase the number of airline flights by 40%.
Considering that air travel accounts for 7% of global carbon emissions (http://www.oceansatlas.org/servlet/CDSServlet?status=ND0xNzk0MCY2PWVuJjMzPSomMzc9a29z) and consumes a similar proportion of the worlds oil, a 40% increase would completely eliminate the benefits of his proposed energy and environment gestures, and then some.
Posted by Samuel | May 9, 2008 8:48 AM
Justin, you've been increasingly sounding like VP material the last couple of weeks. Better watch out, or Obama will come knocking at your door.
Posted by Ffred | May 9, 2008 12:56 PM
@Ffred: You saying I remind you of Dan Quayle? Or maybe that 'bucket of warm spit' guy?
Posted by Justin Fox | May 9, 2008 3:51 PM
Wow! Are those my kids?
Posted by Dad | May 9, 2008 10:27 PM