Perry's last hope; his Wife

     In Concord, New Hampshire, Anita Perry, the wife of Rick Perry went to a retirement homing area where she related with older New Hampshire voters.  She spoke mainly about her family, her relationship with her husband, and also the view Rick Perry stands for.  She told the audience about Perry’s humble backgrounds growing up and many questions were asked regarding his stand as the Governor of Texas especially on issues, such as immigration, the death penalty, and how these laws should be enforced.  Anita stumbled over questions that were in the realm of taxes and the proposals for a flat tax.  Governor Perry was away campaigning in Iowa, aimed towards the evangelical voters.  Sadly, he is currently holding only ten percent of the vote in Iowa now.  Criticisms were directed towards Anita’s poor knowledge of taxes and an audience member, Mr. Schoefflier, commented that the tax plan of Rick Perry is not ideal for New Hampshire.  Governor Perry also had an issue about brochures placed in the chapel were Anita spoke.  It said to make America a “super power,” once again, which raised the question of military support.  Why should soldiers stay in Iraq or be kept abroad?  Anita ended the session with pleading voters to select the “right guy,” the “true conservative” within the pack.  This article affects the outlook of Rick Perry as a candidate.  It shows that his goals to men issues lack in planning and are not strong enough to seem that they will get the job done.  The article is definitely of a liberal bias since it focuses on the negatives of how Anita represented her husband.  There were unclear views and not enough details to make a positive impact for Perry in New Hampshire.

Concord Monitor

Perry's wife meets retail politics

Havenwood residents pitch sharp questions            

Photo by Alexander Cohn and Alexander Cohn/ Monitor staffAnita Perry, wife of presidential candidate Rick Perry, visits the chapel at Havenwood-Heritage Heights retirement community in Concord;

Monday; December 19, 2011.

By Tricia L. Nadolny / Monitor staff

December 20, 2011

                                           Larry Gates greets Anita Perry, wife of presidential candidate Rick Perry, to Havenwood-Heritage Heights retirement community in Concord; Monday; December 19, 2011. Perry spoke about her family and hr husband's bid for the Republican nomination in the chapel.

After Anita Perry talked about her husband's humble roots, a Concord audience yesterday turned to her - in the candidate's absence - for details on Texas Gov. Rick Perry's approach to war, stance on immigration and defense of the death penalty. Anita Perry soldiered through the pointed questions, but at times struggled to expand on her husband's policies.
"Twenty percent for GE, too?" Sid Schoefflier, a resident of the Havenwood-Heritage Heights retirement community, asked in response the candidate's flat tax proposal.
The first lady paused, looking to a campaign aide in the back of the room before someone in the audience offered up, "General Electric."
"Oh, close those corporate tax loopholes. I'm not sure how it would do that. He doesn't believe in government bailouts," she said slowly before pausing and turning to another section of the audience. "Ladies, no questions?"
Anita Perry's visit yesterday came as her husband continues a 14-day bus tour across Iowa, a swing aimed at socially conservative, evangelical voters whose support is paramount for a strong showing in the Jan. 3 caucus. The governor is polling with 10 percent there, according to the Public Policy Polling center, and hoping for at least a fourth place finish. New Hampshire numbers released by the group yesterday show Perry pulling at 2 percent here.
Schoefflier, a former economics professor who posed yesterday's question on taxes, surmised that the flat tax proposal might be contributing to the candidate's weak Granite State support.
"There are places in the country where that would be very popular," he said after Anita Perry left for her next event in Manchester. "But I can't imagine that happening in New Hampshire. . . . The idea of a flat tax, meaning that millionaires pay the same tax as poor people as a percentage, is probably not popular anywhere. So I'm surprised that she emphasized that. I hope for Perry's sake that their market research is better than mine."
Paul Young, a local campaign spokesman, said he expects the candidate to be campaigning heavily in Iowa before the caucus there, and then turn his attention to New Hampshire before the state's Jan. 10 primary. Young said businessman Steve Forbes, who worked on Perry's flat tax proposal, will be visiting New Hampshire for the candidate sometime next week.
Yesterday's event, held in the community's chapel, was attended by 15 people who filled about half of the room.
"This document says he wants to restore America to its rightful place as the world's greatest superpower," resident Reid Tauber said, reading from a glossy brochure placed on each chair. "Does that indicate that the troops who are exiting Iraq could expect to go someplace else under his administration?"
"We don't like war. And we're very, very close to members of the military," Anita Perry responded. "He wants there to be a clear mission with an exit strategy. And with the best advice of the people in the military who will tell him and advise him on the best way to do that. No, to go into a war that is not necessary and unfounded, he would not be for that."
In her prepared remarks, Anita Perry focused heavily on her husband's character, detailing his time in the Air Force and his small-town upbringing.
"On either side of the school where he went was a Methodist church and a Baptist church so you could go to either one, and if you got mad at one or the other you could switch and go to the next one the next week," she said. "And really, people did that."
At the end of her speech, the Texas first lady made a direct request for votes, a more forward approach than she used on a previous visit to New Hampshire in November.
"You can reach behind the confines of the beltway and chose a bold, conservative leader that's a true outsider from Washington," she said. "I'm going to ask you for your help. I'm going to ask you for your vote so that you can help Rick get America working again."

watch out for the GOP

     Speaker John Boehner with other Republican representatives just agreed to extend Social Security payroll tax cuts as it was highly opposed by Democratic congressmen.  This legislation does not raise taxes or destroy job opportunities, but protects Social Security.  Democrats argued that this bill only helped benefit the wealthy, and Harry Read claimed that the GOP was trying to impress tea party supporters.  Congress then voted on extending tax cuts but not yet increasing the tax on wealthier citizens to give their share in improving America.  A jobs program that Obama wanted to be dealt with in September includes significant parts of Obama’s plan to create new jobs.  Payment cut to doctors who have Medicare patients would be avoided.  Republicans also want an almost 200 billion dollar oil pipe to be built of 1700 miles which would pass by rare environmental habitats.  The pipe would start in Canada and travel all the way to the Texas Gulf Coast.  This deal will be settled in 2012.  A trillion dollars is set aside to fund a majority of government agencies but there are still negotiations to where exactly this money will go.  Democrats want an income tax on wealthy Americans, but Republicans do not agree, however a House bill passed that stopped higher pension for a year, and Medicare expenses for citizens about eighty thousand dollar income.  The GOP’s plan does not seem promising in protecting the struggles families face today.  This affects the Republican primaries highly.  The GOP represents all of the candidates and if the popularity of the Republican Party is not in good spirits then the movement to vote for a Republican president goes down the drain.  The GOP has to accomplish something with the president, and since they have the majority in the House, they must be able to settle some deals and improve their approval rating in congress.  The article is unbiased since it GOP and Obama have caused gridlock in Washington.  The GOP has offered impractical ideas and there no sense of compromise between the two parties in the House to offer helpful suggestions.

The Tennessean

GOP pushes oil pipeline, tax cut 

through House                                         

 Dec. 14, 2011  

Speaker of the House John Boehner, R-Ohio, is joined by Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, talking to reporters after passage of legislation to extend Social Security payroll tax cuts. / J. Scott Applewhite / Associated Press

WASHINGTON — Defiant Republicans pushed legislation through the House on Tuesday night that would keep alive Social Security payroll tax cuts for some 160 million Americans at President Barack Obama’s request — but also would require construction of a Canada-to-Texas oil pipeline that has sparked a White House veto threat.

Passage, on a largely party-line vote of 234-193, sent the measure toward its certain demise in the Democratic-controlled Senate, triggering the final partisan showdown of a remarkably quarrelsome year of divided government.

The legislation “extends the payroll tax relief, extends and reforms unemployment insurance and protects Social Security — without job-killing tax hikes,” Republican House Speaker John Boehner declared after the measure had cleared.

Referring to the controversy over the Keystone XL pipeline, he added, “Our bill includes sensible, bipartisan measures to help the private sector create jobs.”

On a long day of finger pointing, however, House Democrats accused Republicans of protecting “millionaires and billionaires,” and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., derided the GOP-backed pipeline provision as “ideological candy” for the tea party set.

After the House vote, the White House urged Congress on in finishing work on extending the tax cuts and jobless aid. Press Secretary Jay Carney issued a statement that didn’t mention the pipeline but renewed Obama’s insistence that the legislation be paid for, at least in part, by “asking the wealthiest Americans to pay their fair share” in higher tax levies.

Lawmakers “cannot go on vacation before agreeing to prevent a tax hike on 160 million Americans and extending unemployment insurance,” he said.

Voting in favor of the legislation were 224 Republicans and 10 Democrats, while 179 Democrats and 14 Republicans opposed it.

Jobs program

At its core, the measure did include key parts of the jobs program that Obama asked Congress to approve in September:

The Social Security payroll tax cuts approved a year ago to help stimulate the economy would be extended through 2012, avoiding a loss of take-home income for wage-earners.

An expiring program of unemployment benefits for the long-term jobless would remain in place, although at reduced levels that the administration said would cut off aid for 3.3 million.

A threatened 27 percent cut in payments to doctors who treat Medicare patients would be averted, a provision Republicans added to appeal to conservatives but one that the White House and Democrats embrace, too.

While the tax and unemployment provisions were less generous than Obama sought, he and Republicans clashed principally over steps to cover the estimated $180 billion cost of the measure, and on the proposed 1,700-mile Keystone XL oil pipeline from Canada through environmentally sensitive terrain in Nebraska to the Texas Gulf Coast.

Obama recently delayed a decision on granting a permit for the pipeline until after the 2012 election.

The payroll tax legislation was one of three major bills that Congress was struggling to finish before adjourning for the year, and by far the most contentious.

A measure covering Pentagon spending was ready for passage, and, separately, negotiators said they were close to a deal on a $1 trillion measure to fund most government agencies through the end of the budget year.

That deal was in limbo, though, with Obama and congressional Democrats using it as leverage to keep House Republicans at the table negotiating a final compromise on the tax and unemployment measure.

It was the final showdown of a year that once brought the government to the brink of a shutdown and also pushed the Treasury to the cusp of a first-ever default.

Obama and most Democrats favor an income surtax on million-dollar earners to pay for extending the Social Security tax cut, but Republicans oppose that, saying it is a violation of their pledge not to raise taxes. Instead, the House bill called for a one-year pay freeze and higher pension costs for federal workers, higher Medicare costs for seniors over $80,000 in income, as well as other items to cover the cost.

Obama’s veto message focused on economic issues, accusing Republicans of putting the burden of paying for the legislation on working families “while giving a free pass to the wealthiest and to big corporations by protecting their loopholes and subsidies.”

Obama?

     President Obama also has to keep the concentration on him instead of total attention on the Republican debates.  He realizes that his re-election will not be as easy as he expected due the poor state the economy is in.  Obama is concerned with those still unemployed and has said that issues like Iraq and health care are not nearly as important to those Americans struggling.  Obama is still unsure of who will run against him, since it is so close between the Romney and Gingrich.  Obama’s campaign officials are expecting a long hard fought primary competition that would hurt the Republican nominee.  David Axelrod claims that the candidates have to appeal to a more conservative view on issues, but in the general, the candidate must be more moderate.  Republicans still say that Obama has not held to his promises from 2008 and that a new president can restore the hope in Washington.  With Gingrich and Romney leading the pack, the GOP has to keep Obama suppressed and they blame him for the poor economy.  Obama still has to fulfill what his promises and will be likely the case for his campaign for his second term.  Obama has to fend off these attacks, and his fundraising of 150 million dollars will help him in the year to come.  Obama must keep his spirits up and his progress moving forward.  Hope and change must come in order for him to keep his job for a second term.  If his status remains where it is, it will be likely that a Republican might just win in the General election.  This article is of a conservative slant, since it portrays Obama as a man who has given up, not stuck to his promises.  On the other hand, it commends Romney and Gingrich for running successful campaigns.

The Houstan Cronicle

Obama beseeches supporters to stick with him

KEN THOMAS, Associated Press

Updated 03:36 p.m., Tuesday, December 13, 2011

• 
  President Barack Obama pauses during his news conference with Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, Monday, Dec. 12, 2011, in the South Court Auditorium on the White House complex in Washington. Photo: Carolyn Kaster / AP

WASHINGTON (AP) — Imploring supporters to stick with him, President Barack Obama acknowledged Tuesday that his re-election is not "a slam dunk" because of understandable public skepticism over the economy but said his campaign would put forward a vision aligned with the mood of the country.

The president, addressing donors at a hotel near the White House, drew attention to his efforts to heal the economy, end the Iraq war and overhaul health care but said "all those things don't mean that much to somebody if they're still out of work right now or their house is still underwater by $100,000. So, yeah, this is going to be tough."

"We're going to have to fight for it. It's not going to be a slam dunk," he said. Obama said the campaign would pursue "the vision that is truest to our history and most representative of the core decency of the American people."

Obama spoke hours after his top campaign advisers said they were uncertain about which Republican will emerge to challenge him next year but predicted a long GOP primary contest that they say will produce a weaker opponent in 2012.

Democrats have been targeting former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney as the most likely GOP nominee but noted that former House Speaker Newt Gingrich's surge in the polls has made the Republican contest very unpredictable.

Obama campaign officials said during a briefing in Washington that they expected a lengthy primary contest that would eventually hurt the party's nominee. They noted that only 15 percent of Republican convention delegates will be awarded by the end of February, making it likely that the contest will continue well into the spring.

"They're being tugged to the right every day. I think they're mortgaging themselves for the general by tacking as far as they are," Obama campaign strategist David Axelrod said of the Republican candidates. He said that would make it more difficult for the nominee "to scramble back" to the center and appeal to a broader base of the electorate for the November general election.

Republicans said Obama and his advisers keep talking about his "vision" for the country but that all he has offered are empty promises.

"After three years of Obama, Americans want results - not more of his vision that has lost jobs and created record deficits," said GOP spokeswoman Kirsten Kukowski. "Americans know the truth: This president is full of empty promises and has taken our country in the wrong direction, which is why the Obama's job approval continues to slump in battleground states across the country."

Romney and Gingrich remain locked in a close contest in early Republican voting states like Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina with less than a month before voters begin assessing the GOP field. The Republican field repeatedly has blamed Obama for the nation's economic woes and said his policies have failed to jumpstart the economy.

Obama campaign officials said the president's speech last week in Kansas offered a glimpse of what his message will be next year: His argument that the middle class has faced numerous challenges during the past decade and that the country's economic policies must give everyone a "fair shot and a fair share."

Obama made that case again in his remarks to donors, telling them "we're all in this together."

"That vision can contrast to a vision that basically says you are on your own," he said. "It's what this election was about in 2008; it's what this election is going to be about in 2012."

The campaign officials also claimed an organizational advantage over the GOP. They said they have more staff on the ground in Iowa than the Republicans and have had about 1 million conversations with supporters and about 90,000 in-person meetings with volunteers since Obama launched his re-election campaign in April.

Obama's campaign outlined several potential paths to victory that would build upon states that Democrat  John Kerry won in 2004 and winning in Western states like Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada or holding onto Southern states Obama captured in 2008, such as Virginia and North Carolina.

Obama's session with top campaign donors came ahead of the Dec. 31 deadline for the current fundraising quarter. Obama has raised more than $150 million for his campaign and the Democratic National Committee through the end of September.

Mitt must stay strong

     Romney’s supporters and people running his campaign have been attacking Gingrich openly and with strongly, while Romney’s path to taking down Gingrich is through criticism of less zeal.  He now has to act with the presence of Gingrich right on his heels.  During a campaign event on December 9^th, Romney mostly hurt Obama with his disagreement, but just lightly attacked Gingrich by saying that Speaker Gingrich did not embrace the plan proposed by the GOP House majority regarding a plan to take down Medicare.  Saturday all will be tested in the Debate in Iowa’s capital.  Romney’s add features his strong marriage, which contrasts with Gingrich’s three wives.  Congressmen, like Senator Richard Burr said that Gingrich has “the attention span of a one-year old.”  In the millions of dollars Romney has raised, a new ad is to premier on television, citing Gingrich’s lobbying past by receiving large sums of money from Freddie Mac.  Gingrich has ignored these attacks and does not want to be caught up in the negativity in which he was portrayed.  This, however, could backfire in Romney’s face for being too harsh and insensible.  Romney has kept 2008 supporters and has been able to spend plenty of time traveling around Iowa, while Gingrich recently cancelled a signing session.  Ron Paul, on the other hand, has taken plenty of shots at Gingrich that are more callous.  Paul is ruthless in the negative ads he puts in place and Gingrich has to worry more about Paul then Romney’s slight attacks.  The race appears to be between Gingrich and Romney and whatever back and forth combative rhetoric occurs it has the potential of success and failure.  This is the battle ground, and what is said is put under a microscope mostly to highlight the faults that lie within the candidates.  This is Romney’s best strategy and if it holds without potent Gingrich retaliation, then Romney might just be in the White House.  This author has a liberal bias by saying the Republicans disorganization and no true candidate leading the polls puts Obama in an ideal position.  Romney and Gingrich need a strategy that they stick with until the end, and currently no clear plan has been put into effect by either.

   The Wall Street Journal

December 11, 2011

Romney Keeps His Attacks Muted

By SARA MURRAY And PATRICK O'CONNOR

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa—While Mitt Romney's campaign and supporters have begun launching sharply negative attacks, Mr. Romney on Friday maintained his more muted approach to criticizing Newt Gingrich, his top rival for the Republican presidential nomination.

Mitt Romney continued his anti-Newt Gingrich barrage Friday with a new web ad that portrays the former House speaker as a conservative apostate. The video, "With Friends Like Newt," looks at Gingrich's criticism of the sweeping House Republican budget plan. (Video: MittRomney.com)

The tone of the election has turned harsh in recent days as Mr. Romney responds to Mr. Gingrich's surge in national opinion polls and in several states that vote early in the nominating process, including Iowa. Mr. Romney has the larger campaign account and staff, and Mr. Gingrich's rise has come as a surprise.

On Friday, Mr. Romney criticized Mr. Gingrich gingerly during a campaign event here. He directed most of his fire at President Barack Obama, but noted that Mr. Gingrich had initially criticized one of the centerpiece policy proposals of the newly elected House GOP majority, a plan to overhaul Medicare that was written by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan of Wisconsin.

"This is a place where Speaker Gingrich and I disagree,'' Mr. Romney said.

Mr. Romney's muted posture may be tested Saturday night, when GOP candidates will appear at a debate in Des Moines, Iowa.

Politics Counts

Enlarge Image

• The Rise of Gingrich and the Electability Question

Meanwhile, his campaign this week began running television ad in Iowa highlighting the candidate's 42-year marriage—a not-so-subtle contrast with the thrice-married Mr. Gingrich.

While Mr. Romney takes a muted tone in his personal appearances, sharper attacks are coming from his campaign and its supporters.

On Friday, the Romney camp released a series of criticisms of the former House speaker from people who had served in Congress with him. Among them were comments from former Rep. Susan Molinari (R., N.Y.), saying that Mr. Gingrich "has these visions of grandiosity,'' and from Sen. Richard Burr (R., N.C.), saying he has "the attention span of a one-year-old.''

Enlarge Image

Getty Images

GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney, center, hugs a supporter Friday at a meeting in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, as his son, Josh Romney, left, looks on.

An independent group supporting Mr. Romney, Restore Our Future, has reserved $3.1 million in TV airtime for ads ahead of the caucuses. A negative ad by the group targeting Mr. Gingrich was to begin airing on Friday night. In a version posted online Thursday, the narrator cites the money Mr. Gingrich was paid by mortgage giant Freddie Mac, the ethics violation he incurred as a congressman and a TV commercial he filmed with Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) to push Congress to approve climate-change legislation.

Mr. Gingrich and his campaign have ignored negative attacks in recent days, opting instead to direct most of their attacks at Mr. Obama.

Gingrich supporters held a conference call Friday evening to say that Iowa voters will sour on Mr. Romney and other candidates who campaign through attacks.

"This negativity is going to backfire," said Linda Upmeyer, an Iowa state representative supporting Mr. Gingrich. "What we're hearing from Mitt Romney in Boston is desperation and panic."

Mr. Gingrich held no campaign events Friday, after canceling a planned book-signing at a bookstore in Washington's Union Station. His campaign sent out a note from the bookseller saying the event was canceled due to security concerns.

Campaign surrogates in Iowa insist Mr. Romney retains a core of loyal supporters from his 2008 campaign, when he finished a distant second place in the caucuses. Mr. Romney built his career on turning around enterprises, said Iowa state Rep. Renee Schulte, an Iowa campaign co-chairwoman.

"Eastern Iowa's always liked him," Rep. Schulte said of Mr. Romney's supporters who have stuck with the candidate since 2008. "The same people that liked him then like him now. But they love Ann Romney," Mr. Romney's wife.

Other Republicans are also taking aim at Mr. Gingrich. Rep. Ron Paul (R., Texas) began broadcasting a 60-second spot earlier this month that criticizes the former House speaker. Texas Gov. Rick Perry has an ad up in the state criticizing both Messrs. Romney and Gingrich.

"If the headline out of Iowa says 'Results Inconclusive,' that's a victory for Mitt Romney," said Craig Robinson, who writes the Iowa Republican political blog. "But the only way that happens is if Paul wins, and it's close," he said.

Raynette Beatty, who is leaning toward supporting Mr. Romney, said he needs to make his case more decisively.

"He's got to come out a little stronger," she said. "I don't want to hear him attacking other Republicans. I just want him to come out and tell me how he's going to undo all of the horrible things this administration has put into place," she said, referring to the Obama White House.

Write to Sara Murray at sara.murray@wsj.com

Gingrich has to watch what he says.

     Gingrich made a terrible error in an interview, calling all Palestinians “an invented” people.  Gingrich has recently tried to clarify what he said and explained the reasoning behind the terminology he decided to use.  His rebuke was that, “The fact is, the Palestinian claim to a right of return is based on a historically false story.”  This made a slight difference, and his claim of a faulty war in Israel did not bide well as forgiveness.  Romney scolded Gingrich for this harsh perspective, but agreed that most of it made sense, and the war is silly.  Gingrich did not apologize for them being invented, and reinstated that the Palestinians and Israelis have to battle it out and eventually agree on mutual terms.  In addition, the Speaker does not want further US intervention into the country.  Gingrich said, “…there was no Palestine as a state.  It was part of the Ottoman Empire.”  Paul commented that Gingrich is “stirring up trouble” and “neither did Israel have a state” back then.  Gingrich qualifiers are just making the hole he has dug deeper.  Santorum also criticized Gingrich, but included the truth must be spoken clearly, and not be over embellished.  Perry, however, dropped the argument, and the crowd offered him a round of applause.  At this particular time the silent primary is still treading on, almost to its end, but even if the finish is near, everything spoken must be spoken with care and caution since no candidate knows which supporters they are discouraging with blatant and not necessarily true claims.  Gingrich especially has said some ignorant quotes about other races and groups of Americans which is very ignorant.  Gingrich is hurting himself and it is unclear why the other candidates to not want to capitalize on this inaccurate claim.  The article evidently has a liberal shift because Gingrich does not make amends to his false statement.  Palestinians are real people, have real opinions, but if their opinions do not make sense towards Israel there is no reason to name call.  They are what they are.

The Chicago Tribune

Newt Gingrich defends calling Palestinians 'an invented' people

By Kim Geiger, December 10, 2011

• Related
• Republican presidential candidate former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich makes a point during the Republican Party presidential candidates debate at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa.
• Newt Gingrich: Palestinians are 'an invented' people [video]
• Mitt Romney's $10,000 bet could come back to haunt him
• Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich spar over moon mining, child labor

After sparking controversy when he said that the Palestinians are “an invented” people, Newt Gingrich doubled down on the comment Saturday despite being scolded by rivals.

”The fact is, the Palestinian claim to a right of return is based on a historically false story,” Gingrich said. " 'Palestinian’ did not become a common term until after 1977. This is a propaganda war in which our side refuses to engage and we refuse to tell the truth when the other side lies.”

Rival Mitt Romney chided Gingrich for the “incendiary” comment but didn’t object to the premise.

“I happen to agree with most of what the speaker said, except by going out and saying the Palestinians are an invented people,” Romney said. “That, I think, was a mistake on the speaker’s part. I think you – I think the speaker would probably suggest that as well.”

No, Gingrich nodded, he still didn’t think it was a mistake.

“Ultimately, the Palestinians and the Israelis are going to have to agree on how they’re going to settle their differences between them,” Romney said. “And the United States of America should not jump ahead of Bibi Netanyahu and say something that makes it more difficult for him to do his job,”

Gingrich made the comment in an interview with the Jewish Channel that was aired on Friday.

Referring to the early 20^th century, Gingrich said: “I believe that the commitments that were made at the time – remember, there was no Palestine as a state. It was part of the Ottoman Empire. And I think that we’ve had an invented Palestinian people, who are in fact Arabs and were historically part of the Arab community. And they had a chance to go many places.”

Ron Paul said Gingrich was “just stirring up trouble.”

“Technically and historically, yes, you know, under the Ottoman Empire, the Palestinians didn’t have a state, but neither did Israel have a state then, too,” he said.

Still, Gingrich stood by the comment.

 “It’s fundamentally the time for somebody to have the guts to stand up and say, ‘Enough lying about the Middle East,' '' Gingrich said, drawing applause from the audience.

Former Sen. Rick Santorum refused to say whether he agreed with what Gingrich had said, but he too scolded Gingrich for saying it.

 “I think you have to speak the truth, but you have to do so with prudence,” Santorum said. “…This isn’t an academic exercise. We have an ally, and the policy of this country should be to stand shoulder to shoulder with our ally.”

Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s response drew the most praise from the crowd.
 “Let me just say that I think this is a minor issue that the media is blowing way out of proportion,” Perry said. “...This president is the problem, not something that Newt Gingrich said.”