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Subscribe to RSSRepublican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich said on Florida's space coast that if he is elected president he will create a moon colony by 2020.
COCOA, Fla. -- Newt Gingrich promised Wednesday on Florida’s space coast to create a moon colony by 2020 if elected president.
"By the end of my second term, we will have the first permanent base on the moon. And it will be American," Gingrich told the crowd of roughly 700, taking them to their feet in applause.
The former House speaker said the current space program in the country is a "tragedy" and believes his "grandiose" ideas can help fix it.
"I am sick of being told we have to be timid and I'm sick of being told we have to be limited to technologies that are 50 years old," he said, noting that by 2020 he wants to be capable to go to Mars.
Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney seemed to question Gingrich’s desire to put lunar mining colonies on the moon during a debate last month but the speaker says these are bold ideas the governor doesn’t understand.
"I was attacked the other night for being grandiose. I would just want you to note: Lincoln standing at Council Bluffs was grandiose. The Wright Brothers standing at Kitty Hawk were grandiose. John F. Kennedy was grandiose. I accept the charge that I am grandiose and that Americans are instinctively grandiose," Gingrich said.
Stan Honda / AFP - Getty Images
Republican presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich, center, speaks at a Space Coast-Space Industry roundtable Wednesday at Brevard Commnunity College in Cocoa, Fla.
Speaking about space is not new for Gingrich. In stump speeches, he often references his ideas to change the struggling American program, but this was the first event he completely dedicated to the topic, hoping this is "the second great launch of the adventure John F. Kennedy started."
"At one point early in my career I introduced the northwest ordinance for space and I said when we got -- I think the number is 13,000 -- when we have 13,000 Americans living on the moon they can petition to become a state," Gingrich said, telling the crowd this was the "weirdest" thing he has ever done. "And I will as president encourage the introduction of the northwest ordinance for space to put a marker down that we want Americans to think boldly about the future…"
Gingrich finished off his public schedule for the day with a Space Industry Roundtable at Brevard Community College.
More about space, politics ... and the moon:
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Maybe Newt can be mayor or king. I will pay any price or bear any burden to enable Newt's dream as long as he promises to emigrate. Perhaps he can find some metal munching moon mice to hump.
jkh
I'm not Newt supporter, but people clamor that there is no space program, there's not enough incentive for space exploration, that our initiative to go beyond our atmosphere is going to be surpassed by the Chinese. And yet when something is proposed everyone says it's stupid?
You can't have it both ways.
Do you not realize that the comment he made had no scientific merit? If he would have said we should land a person on Mars, that would be reasonable, even a long term goal of inhabiting Mars would have been reasonable, but the moon is one of the most dangerous places to build a colony, it has no atmosphere, it's constantly hit by meteors, no one knows the impacts of long term exposure to that little gravity, there is an onslaught of nuclear radiation coming from the sun and nothing to stop it
Where is the money coming from? Is Newt going to stop the military confilcts we pay for to police the world? Is he is going to raise taxes on the wealthy?
I would happily vote for Gingrich for president of the moon.
You guys shut up, Im voting for him...
Me too!
He is by far the smartest man to run in a long, long time. He even has a ...birth certificate...yes, I said it.
A lot of people lost their jobs in Florida because President Obama decided to stop the space program.
Leftist are all the same. You can tell by reading their stupid post missing the whole point of the message the speaker is saying. What happened to the American where we go beyond what we are doing, aim high, and if we fail, we keep trying. Liberals/progressives you are the lazy ones who don't ant to work wanting only to continue doing the same old thing as others pass you (us) by.
I'm pretty left of center when it comes to my own views but even I can see the hypocracy in everyone's complaining about the proposal. Both right and left whine about our lack of a program to explore space. It's not just leftists. It's both sides just as vocally. And both sides are complaining about this proposal.
the complaints are utterly hypocritical. We need our American pioneering spirit back instead of being a bunch of complacent couch surfers who want everything done for them. And that's for both left and right.
We on the left and who grasp the technoligical problems and costs involved KNOW newt is fulll of crap. In the 1960's it cost somethin like 3-4% of the ENTIRE federal budget per year to design and execute a program that put FOURTEEN GUYS on the moon, killed THREE and ALMOST killed three more.
Newt is saying that he can put 13,000 PEOPLE on the moon in PERMANENT Habitats in EIGHT YEARS. The cost would have to be a trllion dollars at least, and thaat is not even considering the running costs of continuing supplies of food, water, air since we STILL cannot recreate a selfsustaining environment (Earth Two failed).
His proposal is nothing but the silliest and most cynical form of pandering, and it would come to nothing.
It was Democrats, Kennedy & Johnson, who supported the reasearch to get us on the moon. Now, the GOP and its teabaggers want to stop federal spending except when it comes to wars. They want no domestic spending programs and have no proposals to encourage job creation except to cut taxes for the wealthy. How do you propose that we pay for an expanded NASA program?
Don't knock him, he's an expert on outer space...lol
My only question is, WHY?? Why the Hell do we need to spend money we don't have on a Moon Colony? Is it going to be a Playground for the Wealthy? These Damn politicians can find more way's to spend our money. What's he going to do, take money from Social Security and Medicare to build his Colony on the Moon? This Nut isn't even President yet and he's spending our money.
Tarzan
Can you say SCIENCE?? How do you think we got PCs so cheap? How do you think our Technology has grown so much? CAN YOU SAY SPACE PROGRAM???
Yeah. Can you say Stupid?? I think Newt, That's a Salamander isn't it? and you have been reading too many Comic book's. We don't have the Trillions to throw away on the moon, at least not while we have people living on the street's.
We got PC'S so cheap because they are made in China by nine year old kid's.
Tarzan
So you think that Chinese kids are why PCs are cheap. Seems to me that a Mac is made in China how cheap is that device compared to a PC?? PCs and Mac are cheap because the Technology has grown and new methods of manufacture were developed. Can you say FOOL???
Slodon, any thinking person knows newt is full of crap. To do something in the SAME amount of time it took to put 14 guys on the moon, but scaled up to 13,000 who will stay for MONTHS and YEARS, as opposed to 3 or 4 DAYS, and to do it largey from scratch, is simple ludicrous.
Conservatives and GOP supporters have loudly complained that the Government is spending their tax money at far to high a rate. Now they appear to be ready to elect a President that will spend billions on a Moon Base. Something that is certainly not needed at a time when the US needs to stop spending money. All effort should be focused in bringing manufacturing back to the US - in providing jobs - not - useless pipe dreams.
LOL - we can either get the DREAMER(Newt) - spending more money than Obama or the Romney Care President. What have conservatives brought us?
This is the dumbest thing to mention in a campaign, not only does no one want this to be a top priority, but also intelligent people won't vote for you. A person hasn't been on the moon since 1972, space travel for humans has proven not be consistent for neither the U.S. or any other country, simply put we do not have the technology yet. To put a permanent civilization on an object that has no atmosphere, and enough radiation from the sun to eat through metal like acid, is one of the dumbest things you can do. It would be more realistic to have a permanent civilization on Mars than the moon, because it has an atmosphere and it's environment is stable, yet no human has ever walked on Mars, ot has ever been sent to Mars.
Exactly what will be the purpose of this moon colony? My guess is a giant government jobs program to get Newt a Florida primary win! It's hilarious when these "conservatives" who whine nonstop about big government go to Florida and suddenly they can't promise enough to NASA. Of course, once we fools vote them into office these "conservatives" discover they can't both protect tax breaks and do moon colonies. So they make empty speeches about big space plans, then just don't fund them. (See Bush, George W.)
and those conservatives go to farm states and give farmers welfare and complain about food stamp recipients...you can't make this stuff up
ENTP
Can you say SCIENCE AND EXPLORATION?? How about finding new supplies of minerals or Rare Earths??
Slodon, please stop, you just sound silly and rather sad.
"Let's see what's out there!" I can't believe the lack of imagination of the self-centered folks slamming Newt for this dream. Where is the pioneering spirit? Are there still Americans out there? We need this as a nation! Let's get back in space and explore...and leave the negativity behind.
Now Harold Camping, the evangelical king will have a place to send the right wing evangelical radical cracked teanuts on the next Rapture Day. The Children of the Corn that back these repuke dunces will all be gone to meet and stay with the man in the moon. Groper Nutquist and his boys will have their own colony to teach everyone Creationism.
Hopefully, they take the party centralists with them also-the abortion doctor killers, abortion clinic bombers, federal building bombers, The Baptists that protest at dead soldiers funerals that they deserved to die and the radical right wing southern anthrax spreaders.
GET NEWTERED FOR AMERICA 2012.
If I could afford a car that would be my bumper sticker.
There he goes again...the borrow and spender newt the spaceman...lmao
and one of thse days Alice......BAAAMMMM RIGHT TO THE MOON!!!
must-be-nice - "Fly me to the moon and let me play amongst the stars" Frank Sinatra
That headline looks hilarious. It got me laughing.
Maybe it's true. Maybe it's possible,...but I am just imagining them coming up with this in a campaign think tank of what BS to publicize next to gain votes by any means possible,...and it just sounds "whacky"!!
"Vote for the slimy philandering lobbyist and win a house on the moon" !! It'll be just like 1969 all over again. Yippeeeee,...
I don't like Newt, but I do love the space program. He's right - right now the state of the space program is a mess. But what would be the purpose of having a colony on the moon? Thank about it.
What's the purpose of the space station? It seemed like a good idea, but what do we do with it? Well, some idiot made the decision as soon as the space station construction was done, the shuttle program would end. So we built the space station, and as soon as it was done - we have no way to get to it! That's pretty stupid. So why did we build it? What's it doing for us?
Again, I love the space program - but lets have a plan that makes sense. The problem is, no plan survives the next incoming president, who immediately cancels his predecessors idea.
He needs a healthy moon-wife!
I donot know if anyone has said this yet but what a great place to hide his future mistress.
AWESOME man
Um... okay, cool. I'm down. But, how are we going to PAY for it? O_o
Newt, your ego is already circling your anus--er, Uranus.
Remember now, you're a Republican. How do you pay for this?
WOW A COLONY ON THE MOON???who the hec does he think he is???jfk reincarnate??? that came from left field i guess in desperation to be cool
While I don't like Newt Gingrich, I respect the fact that he wants to push further ventures into space.
The greatest minds of this world can do amazing things if we just give them the proper funding, would you guys rather have them working on military projects finding the best way to kill people?
On the other hand, with the economy the way it is it would be best to be conservative about such plans.
You people are funny, I think its a great idea what Newt is proposing. Don't you all know if we had advances in science and also reaching beyond earth we are creating more jobs for students? Like Newt said, give them things to do and places to go. Its all this hogwash of war and religion that is holding back humanity. If we bring troops home and cut the military down to protecting our borders from threats we could focus on advancing American culture with these opportunities. Easy to understand really.
But it isn't serious, it fantasy. A serious proposal would be sending 20 people to Mars inthe next 15 years. Sending 13,000 people to the moon is simply beyond the means of ANY country and current technology in terms of time.
Geez Newt!!!!!!
Yup. Typical Newty trash comment. Promise something that will require more out of control spending than Obama has done in his entire tenure as President. That will absolutely create more deficit than Obama created. All the while condemning Obama for 'creating a deficit' and 'out of control spending' and for 'being out of touch with America'.
How you gonna pay for it Newt?
You gonna make take that out in taxes on the half of Americans that make so little that they don't currently have to pay taxes (Median income of the 'half that don't pay income tax' is around $23,000). That where you gonna get the money clown boy? You've told us you aren't going to raise taxes on the rich - so where you gonna get the trillions that creating a moon colony is going to cost?
Where's the money coming from Newty boy? Where's the money coming from? We can't even afford to send anything bigger than satellites and small probes to Mars up - and you wanna break the bank to create a moon colony in a just 7 years???? Are you a complete loon????
Republicans - Are you really, truly wanting a person like this as President????????