Former House Speaker forecasts nation's fate

Former Speaker of the House of Representatives Newt Gingrich gave a grim picture of America's future last night in the Simon Forum. Best known as the author of the "Contract with America," which enabled the return of Republicans as the majority in the House in 1994, Gingrich addressed the 2008 presidential election and the need for a smaller government and less bureaucracy in the United States.

President Bob Weisbuch welcomed Gingrich, whose schedule at Drew University included teaching a class in Brothers College, filming a video interview for Drew Magazine and an interview with Fox News show "Hannity and Colms" in addition to his talk in the Forum. Former New Jersey Gov. Thomas Kean, for whom the series is named, attended the lecture with his family.

One of the four challenges Gingrich cited as facing the country was the inefficiency of the government. He compared the shipping company FedEx with the government to illustrate his point. "In the world that works…it's a fact that you can track millions of moving packages a day in real time on the Internet," Gingrich said. "In the world that fails, the federal government cannot find somewhere between 10 and 20 million illegal immigrants that are sitting."

Some of his ideas elicited laughs from the audience but conveyed his view about how bureaucracy cost the government money. "The government estimates $13 to $15 billion is needed to complete the census," Gingrich said. "My idea is to place the census on sites like Ebay and Facebook and pay you $10 to get you to do it yourself. It costs $65 to pay an employee, so you'd be saving money."

"We may be the generation that gives our grandchildren a country that is poorer and less safe than the one our parents gave us," Gingrich said. Gingrich presented education, the world market, and radical Islam as the other three realities he believed Americans needed to understand to set the country on a better path.

In terms of education and the economy, Gingrich emphasized India and China, both producers of high numbers of scientists and engineers, as the country's key competitors.

He said that humankind's span of scientific ability was wider than any other time in the past. "But in our worst schools, nothing's changed," he said. "One big fact is that we need more students succeeding in math and science."

Gingrich spoke of how the United States needs to embrace globalization. He described the global market as a force that could reward the U.S. if it cooperated or punish it if it does not, but withdrawing from the market was not an option. "China and India are our first real competitors since Great Britain," he said. "These are billions of people who believe they've been endowed by their creator with the right to pursue happiness and they're willing to roll their sleeves up to get it."

"If we want to compete with them, we need to roll up our sleeves, too. We need to make fundamental changes." Gingrich said.

He also said that the U.S. had to enhance security against the actions of radical members of Islam. "There is a irreconcilable sect of Islam, a wing of Islam that is determined to destroy our civilization," Gingrich said. "I think that the U.S. is in more danger now than it ever was before."

Gingrich confessed that a year ago, he could not have imagined writing the events that led up to the current presidential race in America. "A year ago, I thought Clinton had locked the Democratic nomination and that Obama would have a nice run but lose," Gingrich said. "I thought McCain was gone."

He had advice for the Democratic candidates. "If Obama is disciplined enough, he has a better chance than Clinton," he said. "If voters decide he's elitist, attending the best private school in Hawaii and Columbia [University], Clinton has a higher chance."

Gingrich also foresaw a special challenge for Senator John McCain. "Some people are calling McCain the third-term Bush," he said. "McCain needs to become distinct from other Republicans. He needs to be a non-Bush but not anti-Bush."

Students for a Democratic Society member Joe Coyle ('10) was one of the few non-Republican supporters who asked Gingrich a question during the Q-and-A session. "I asked him if he thought there was a relation between government cuts in social welfare programs and the general intelligence or education levels of Americans," Coyle said.

Gingrich claimed that cutting welfare programs was the most successful method of encouraging people to stop relying on the government and begin supporting themselves by working. "Virtually every successful person I've met started working between [ages] 9 and 13," he said. "You learn how to work and save money."

When asked before the lecture how he would run a liberal arts university as president, Gingrich wasn't eager to jump into Weisbuch's shoes. " [I'd run in it] badly. I like to read and teach. The president has a difficult job, dealing with faculty, etc. Liberal arts institutions like this are fabulous," he said. "They're intimate enough to create a community of learning. There's time to have conversation."