“If the Republicans can’t break out of being the right wing party of big government, then I think you would see a third party movement in 2012,” Gingrich said Wednesday during a speech at the College of the Ozarks in Missouri, the local television station KY3 reported.

That’s no joke, folks. If it’s coming from Speaker Gingrich then you know this discussion is taking place at the highest levels of the conservative base. Conservative voters in America want something to vote for and everyone knows that what they want does not look like Senator John McCain (for better of for worse).

Speaker Gingrich makes an excellent point here and it follows something that I’ve been thinking for a while, namely that the two major political parties in America are too big and trying to serve too many masters. Americans like options. Right now, we don’t have any substantial options between our big political parties.

By the way, some third parties are already chomping at the bit to become the new political party of choice for conservative Americans. Some of you may remember after the election when I spent some time analyzing the voting results in my hometown. I mentioned at that time that the Constitution Party did relatively well (one or two votes, can’t remember) in one of the smaller districts that I was reviewing. Anyway, I received an e-mail from the Constitution Party talking about how they want to be that third party. They cite how they are the fastest growing political party in the country and after reading what Gingrich had to say and watching the flow of American politics on my own, I can’t say that I’m surprised.

I’ve spent some time on this blog reviewing Speaker Gingrich’s books and I think that his stance on many major political issues are in line with what the vast majority of the country wants (likely because he takes stances that 80% of Americans agree with as per his think tank research). Speaker Gingrich may not have the cleanest personal record, but he has an excellent mind for Washington politics. Here’s a line from the article regarding his simple, yet powerful new political stance:

His goal is to turn the Republicans into what he calls a “party of the American people” by linking disparate solutions whose only real relationship to one another is that they demonstrate, in surveys, what he calls “tripartisan” appeal — the broad support of Republicans, Democrats and independents. Gingrich told me he has identified about 100 ideas and positions that command anywhere from 62 percent to 93 percent support among such a cross-section of voters: giving out tax credits for installing alternative heating sources in your home (90 percent); awarding cash prizes to anyone who invents a car that gets 100 miles to the gallon (77 percent); keeping God in the Pledge of Allegiance (88 percent).

This strategy is brilliant, when you think about it. Take the concepts and ideas which form the base of “American Values” (and which most Americans agree with whole-heartedly) and use them as the base for a political platform. Seems like an easy way to victory, right?

Gingrich was fascinated and impressed by Obama’s [inaugural] address (“Those could have been our words,” he told the group), and he advised them to laminate it and keep it close by, so that they could hold the new president to his pragmatic rhetoric.

A few weeks after Speaker Gingrich made this suggestion, Republicans started carrying around laminated portions of President Barack Obama’s inaugural address. However, it is telling that Gingrich suggests that Obama’s words could have been Republican words. In many ways, I think he is correct since most inaugural addresses and State of the Union speeches are nothing more than rallying cries to core American values. Too many times the people on the far left and far right (and the political extremists) refuse to hear the simplicity of the words used during these addresses. Another piece of the article:

“He’s a total idea factory,” [Paul] Ryan said. “The man will have 10 ideas in an hour. Six of them will be brilliant, two of them are in the stratosphere and two of them I’ll just flat-out disagree with. And then you’ll get 10 more ideas in the next hour.”

This little bit refers to the fact that Speaker Gingrich is constantly putting new policy ideas out there to a select few in the Republican party. That’s what the party is missing right now – new ideas. If Gingrich can bring new ides to a stagnant, broken party, he might be able to rejuvenate the Republicans in time for the 2010 elections.

This article is a fascinating read for policy wonks and those who are highly interested in national politics. Bai does a commendable job telling Speaker Gingrich’s story and I highly recommend reading this article if you are so inclined and have the time to do so.

One Republican critic of Gingrich concedes that he has an “unlimited” energy flow and a constant stream of ideas, an important commodity in a party that appears to have run short of ideas during the Bush years. But there is widespread concern about what is described in the party as Gingrich’s deep “character flaws” that would be difficult to overcome in a presidential campaign. Nobody in Republican ranks, however, matches Gingrich’s dynamism.

This may be true, but I have to wonder how Gingrich fits into today’s political world. As detailed in this blog before, Gingrich has spent a good deal of time building his think tank around the idea of bipartisan support for certain political issues. And as all students of political history know, then-Speaker Gingrich brought a Republican majority back to Congress in 1994 with his Contract with America plan. I think this is what the Republicans are looking for in 2012, but they need more than a new Contract with America.

The reason that Gingrich and his team swept into office in 1994 was because a majority of Americans never really wanted President Bill Clinton to be elected in the 1992 election and thus dissatisfaction with his first two years as Commander-in-Chief was as easy campaign rallying cry. That sentiment does not exist right now with President-elect Obama and, frankly, I’m not sure that he’s going to lose momentum as quickly as President Clinton did in the early 1990′s.

So while certain conservatives may think that Gingrich is the choice for 2012 (and, by the way, I think that he’d make a fine President), the Republicans need to remember the circumstances that brought Gingrich and the Republicans to power in 1994. Plus they have to consider that Sarah Palin has widespread support among Republicans and conservatives as well as in the Midwest states. Yes, the ultra liberal northeast and California electorates absolutely hate Palin (though none of them can offer significant reasons for that hate), but the rest of America seems to be on her side. She’ll be a tough contender in 2012 if she decides to run.

Then you have guys like Rudy, Huckabee, Romney, and Jindal who can all make waves in 2012. Until then, though, be prepare to read more speculative articles like Mr. Novak’s – I think it’s going to be fun!

The bounty would equate to $1 for every man, woman and child in the country, “a small price to pay for helping to break the back of our oil dependency,” McCain said in remarks prepared for delivery Monday at Fresno State University in California.

McCain said such a device should deliver power at 30 percent of current costs and have “the size, capacity, cost and power to leapfrog the commercially available plug-in hybrids or electric cars.”

I think everyone in America would be willing to pay $1 for such technology to be created. But why stop there? Why not make the contest aspire to even greater heights and look for a battery that can be mega-mass produced not just in America, but around the world? This type of engine could breathe life back into Detroit and make GM the number one name in automobiles once again. In fact, if every American is willing to pay $1 for McCain’s competition, then wouldn’t we all be willing to pay $3.33 so we can create a $1 billion prize? I’d be down for it.

This is the type of innovation that will put America back on top of the leading edge of science and technology. We will, however, have to rely on foreign scientists and immigrant scientists to make these discoveries, but that’s another topic for another time. Hey, maybe if we can figure out this type of automobile technology we can figure out how to make math and science interesting in our schools again!

To the brainwashed folks out there let me say no, this book is not slanted towards a conservative point of view. In fact, Speaker Gingrich spends quite some time berating the current Republicans in Congress (and the White House) as well as those from the last few years. And yes, he gives it to the Democrats pretty hard, too. And for any independent minded American out there (* raises hand *) you can’t help but know exactly what Speaker Gingrich is talking about when he dresses down both parties.

So what are some of the changes that Speaker Gingrich suggests for our future? Well let me tell you a little bit about my favorite chapter in this book. First, Speaker Gingrich suggests a massive overhaul of the education system in America. As I work with schools of choice on a daily basis, I absolutely loved reading Speaker Gingrich’s ringing endorsement for charter schools. In case you do not know, charter schools are public schools of choice that hold lotteries to determine which applicants may attend.

The innovation here is that these schools are not regulated by the local school board and can choose to teach students in their preferred manner. The students are subjected to standardized testing and their test scores are highly scrutinized by the naysayers, but time and time again charter schools meet or exceed the local district’s achievements. Charter schools (in New Jersey at least) usually have a better rate of high school seniors who go on to college than their public school counterparts. But I digress…

Newt Gingrich tells a great story about the Detroit school system and how it rejected a multi-million dollar investment because the local bureaucrats (i.e. teachers and the teachers’ union) did not want to be held to a higher standard or put to shame by charter schools. Who winds up getting hurt when these people reject such help? The students.

Speaker Gingrich suggests at many points in this book that tax-free government prizes need to be established in order to get America’s scientists thinking about the same issues that America’s people are thinking about. For example, Speaker Gingrich suggests a tax-free $1 billion (with a “b”) reward for the first person/company to design a gas-free car that can be mass produced for the public. Anyway, Speaker Gingrich talks about the need to have better space travel and for America’s needs to lead the world’s innovative breakthroughs for this century.

I highly recommend that anyone who is interested in reading about what real change can mean for America take a look at Speaker Gingrich’s book. What makes the ideas in this book so compelling is that Speaker Gingrich’s new think tank, American Solutions, backs up all of the ideas with nonpartisan poll results showing an overwhelming majority of Americans agreeing with the changes proposed. Again, this is a great read for those of us who are looking for real change that puts America on the right path.