Newt Gingrich at The Norfolk Forum

Last night at The Norfolk Forum, the guest was Newt Gingrich, former Speaker of the House and now member of the professional speaker circuit, author and health/health care transformer. Mr. Gingrich, a self-described "passionate American", honored Hampton Roads by referring to us as a "region of enormous import". (agreed, Newt!)




His main point(s)? that the U.S. needs to understand a few things about ourselves:

• Science and Information Technology (IT) is developing at exponential rates, and we'll see 4-7 times the number of discoveries in the next 25 years vice the last 25 years. (IMO: this may be an underestimate!)
• China and India are not our friends, they're our competitors on the global market.
• Our infrastructure needs to be addressed or we're faced with decay.
• Energy is important to us and we must do everything (wind, solar, nuclear, conservation, oil, coal, etc.), including Drill Here-Drill Now-Pay Less (also the title of his recent book).
• If our health system is healthier, our citizens will be healthier.

Mr. Gingrich directed us all to the 2Million Minutes website for a must-see film comparing 2 high school students each from the U.S., China and India, driving home the point that our educational system requires fundamental reform for the U.S. to compete on a global level. The students from China and India see themselves as citizens of the world (world-centric) while U.S. students are more concerned with what is immediately going on around them (me-centric).

Here is a snippet of last night's speech (albeit given at another venue at another time) re: federal bureaucracy in comparison to the efficiency of FedEx and UPS:



Mr. Gingrich espoused the application of metrics to bring about fundamental change for our success, such as those employed by Rudy Giuliani when he brought NYC to be the safest city in the U.S., improving the crime rate by 75%, also outlined in Giuliani's book "Leadership". Giuliani's metrics allowed his team to track improvements and make appropriate changes.

A brief history lesson took us from the Revolution for U.S. independence from England to the Jeffersonians to Andrew Jackson's frontier politics, to Lincoln's Civil War to the progressivism of American presidents Theodore Roosevelt, William H. Taft, Woodrow Wilson, and Franklin D. Roosevelt to Reaganomics. Gingrich's point is that the U.S. is now in the position for another wave of sweeping change.

His point was driven home that healthier citizens who live longer are cheaper than unhealthy ones, as Medicare costs 5 times what Social Security does. Saving Lives = Saving Money. Mr. Gingrich is promoting a national system on electronic, paperless health records which could be paid for by the savings from fraud prevention. He has founded an organization, Center for Health Transformation, working towards a 21st century solution for a healthier populace and health system, explaining that with the right incentives, a healthy change in behaviors can be affected.

Gingrich pointed out that the U.S. is a culture dominated by bureaucrats and trial lawyers which are strangling the change that is needed.



The Q&A, unfortunately, devolved into an Obama/Biden and McCain/Palin comparison, pointing out that, in his opinion, John McCain would not have chosen Sarah Palin as VP if Hillary Clinton had been part of the Democratic ticket. But, like Palin or not, she is a good contrast with Joe Biden, Obama's VP pick.


He added that, if asked a year ago, he would have said McCain would have been out of the race and the Democratic ticket would have been Clinton/Obama.

Gingrich closed with his assessment of the election as the "most fascinating 60 days in American history" and that the McCain-Palin ticket has triggered something in the American public.