Gingrich Critiques Obama Speech
September 13, 2009
From: Politico
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) said Sunday that President Barack Obama's health care speech to Congress was detached from the details of the actual congressional proposals and that Democrats were making too big a deal about the outburst by Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) during the nationally televised address.
"I can go through the president's speech and find a lot of things I like," Gingrich said on NBC's "Meet the Press" with David Gregory, but none of those things are in the House bill. "The House bill has no resemblance to the president's speech."
Gingrich said that's because Obama hasn't had enough leverage over House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and congressional liberals. "I'm not convinced that as president, he can lead his own party," Gingrich said.
On the controversial outburst by Wilson, Gingrich said Democrats have done similar things to presidents in the past. "You may recall that in 2005, Democrats booed President Bush when he proposed Social Security reform," Gingrich said.
Meanwhile, Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) said Wilson's comments weren't appropriate. "There's a time and place for everything, and that was not the time or the place for that kind of comment," he said.
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