Newt Gingrich States The Obvious

Republican Newt Gingrich, in a jab at President Bush, warned on Friday that the GOP will lose the White House and Congress in 2008 if the nominee is perceived as a continuation of the Bush presidency.

Well no shit. The President's recent job approval rating was at 33%. If people see the next candidate as a continuation of that, why would they vote for that person?

The only things that can bring Bush's approval ratings up (which I'm glad he's doing the right thing instead of the popular thing), would be the following:

Capturing or killing Osama Bin Laden and his top guys.

Finding WMD's in Iraq.

Pulling troops out of Iraq.

Putting Iran's nuclear program to bed.

Getting North Korea's nuclear program eliminated.

Putting together a program that eliminates the nations debt (ie. laws that mean a mandatory balanced budget unless of emergency.)

But of course, Newt isn't going to just criticize, he's going to offer us a few ideas of his own.

He would shut down public schools that aren't performing and offer a $20 billion reward for the first private company that successfully completes a Mars mission.

The public schools one I can kind of see. However, there are repercussions to that. If you close one school, then those children need to be bused to another school and the staff at that other school now need to deal with an influx of more children, thus, possibly strain those schools to the point of breaking.

How's this for an alternative: fire teachers who aren't performing.

Stop keeping teachers on who's students are failing time and time again. That's not to say that students aren't stupid. Some people just aren't as smart as others, but if you have a teacher who's not up to snuff, don't keep him/her simply because they have tenure.

That's how it works in the real world. If I wasn't performing my best in my job, I'd be fired and would be forced to look elsewhere for a job.

But that's what I'm talking about when you ask for differences between Republicans and Democrats. Newt just offered us a plan for a problem that we all face. I don't agree 100% with his solution, but it's at least a start and not some babbling on about vague ideals like you see from Democrats (Barack Obama is the worst offender).

The point is is that both Congress and the President have low approval ratings and that Newt is pointing out the blatantly obvious: If you're like the guy before who I didn't like, don't expect my vote.