Newt Gingrich Leads GOP Field
ACOSTA: If the front runner wears the bull's eye, then Newt Gingrich will be the target at tonight's CNN Republican presidential debate. A new CNN/ORC poll shows Gingrich leading the Republican field for the first time with 24 percent. Mitt Romney follows at 20 percent. Herman Cain in third place. Over the years, Gingrich has gotten himself in trouble with just about every segment of voters and CNN's Joe Johns has the latest example.</s>JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): There he goes again. Newt Gingrich has long fancied himself one of the Republican Party's biggest new idea guys. His latest big idea: putting poor kids to work as janitors in their own schools.</s>NEWT GINGRICH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: They'd be dramatically less expensive than unionized janitors and you begin to re-establish the dignity of work. And in very poor neighborhoods, you have to literally re-establish the dignity of work.</s>JOHNS: Revising labor laws is a complicated debate, especially when children around the world are forced to work for pennies. This Gingrich idea may have sounded new, but it also sounded very 1990s to some. It is the same sort of things that left Gingrich claiming he was misunderstood almost two decades ago when a cartoon compared him to the Dr. Seuss holiday kill joy known as the Grinch. In 1994, Gingrich suggested that the government ship welfare children to orphanages, and then even said First Lady Hillary Clinton ought to rent the classic old movie "Boys Town" with Spencer Tracy and Mickey Rooney to see how an orphanage is run.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Four thousand boys have passed through this city of little men.</s>JOHNS: Like the "Boys Town" controversy, the "kids as janitors" idea probably strikes a chord with some in Gingrich's party.</s>STU ROTHENBERG, ROTHENBERG POLITICAL REPORT: Look, Republicans would like hearing that Newt talks about kids working hard and learning the ethic and pulling themselves up by their boot straps. But a lot of people will guard this as Newt again, one or two or three steps just too far.</s>JOHNS: No matter what you think of the merits, economist, Peter Morici says it wouldn't exactly reverse the cycle of poverty in the ghetto.</s>PETER MORICI, ECONOMIST: That's a good idea. But the notion that one master janitor is going to take care of the school for 5,000 children with an army of Mickey Rooneys from "Boys Town" is silly.</s>JOHNS: As a top tier candidate, the former speaker's tendency to talk too much could be his biggest weakness.</s>ROTHENBERG: He tends to try to make such a global point, such a big historical conclusion that even if there is a nugget of truth there and some wisdom in there -- and there's often a bit of wisdom -- it gets lost in the grandiose plan.</s>ACOSTA: And Joe Johns joins me from Washington. Joe, you covered Speaker Gingrich in Congress and it's tough to talk about Newt Gingrich because it's sort of like, where do you begin? Joe, what do you make of the fact that the former speaker is doing so well right now despite having so much baggage?</s>JOHNS: Well, I have to tell you, Jim, you talk to conservative voters obviously, as you know, who are the ones who count most during the primary season, which is now, they like what Newt Gingrich says. They always have liked what Newt Gingrich says. He has a way of crystallizing ideas, making sharp differences between him and the Democrats, particularly the Democrats and the White House. Newt Gingrich's problem has always been with the Democrats, the liberals, and sometimes the people in the middle, the independents, the swing voters, people who aren't so sure about that sharp language and those sharp definitions that always go to the right. So, people who are looking at Newt Gingrich right now have always liked him. There have been a lot of conservatives who have said to me that they're just very concerned about whether a guy like Newt Gingrich is the most electable conservative. And, obviously, that remains to be seen, Jim.</s>ACOSTA: It sure does, Joe. Thanks so much, Joe. Good to see you. And for more on the new Newt Gingrich, let's turn to Tony Blankley. He served as Gingrich's press secretary for seven years, including some time when Mr. Speaker was the I should say that Newt Gingrich was speaker of the House. Tony Blankley now the executive vice president of Edelman Public Relations. And, Tony, you've seen Newt Gingrich rise and fall and rise and fall and rise again. What's behind the surge now, Tony?</s>TONY BLANKLEY, FORMER NEWT GINGRICH'S PRESS SECRETARY: Well, I think the fundamental intelligence and passion of Newt is being seen again. I was listening to the set-up piece. Washington establishment, both the Republicans and the Democrats, have sneered at Newt for 25 years and some of the pundits you were quoting will continue that. Let me give you one quickly example of I remember, he came back in the early '90s to get laptops to inner city kids, because middle class kids in the suburbs, their parents were getting them computers and he was afraid it would be a gap that would break up. People made fun of him then. A few years later, all the different computer companies recognized the digital divide, and they're flooding the inner city with computers.</s>ACOSTA: Yes.</s>BLANKLEY: So things that have made fun of because Newt is a little ahead of the curve turned out very often to be very useful.</s>ACOSTA: He's also been an innovator. That's absolutely true. But, you know, Tony, he's made some controversial statements in the last few days saying poor kids should work as janitors in their schools. You know him well. Is he serious when he makes these statements?</s>BLANKLEY: I think -- I mean, look, you say it's controversial.</s>ACOSTA: That's controversial, isn't it, to put kids working as janitors in schools, I would say, right?</s>BLANKLEY: Work study is something that millions of kids in college have done. You work part-time on the campus and you earn money to pay for part of your tuition. To bring that down to the high school level makes a lot of sense for the kids and for the budget of the school. I don't think there's anything controversial. It's innovative, but whether you need one or two master janitors to oversee x number of kids, if that's the only criticism they have, work that out in the operational detail. But to simply reject an idea that makes so much sense both for the school and for the kids is typical Washington cynicism.</s>ACOSTA: And critics of the former speaker say, you know, he has a tendency to self-destruct. You know this well, Tony, from the way he's conducted his personal life, to the shutdown of the federal government, which a lot of voters have not forgiven him for. More recently, the story over the summer about the Tiffany's credit account, you know, the list goes on and on. Does he learn from these mistakes, do you think? Do you that think we're seeing now is just a politician who's reinvented himself cleverly?</s>BLANKLEY: No, I don't think Newt has reinvented himself. I think it's the same fundamental Newt that I knew when I started working for him in 1990. But it's 20 years later. He's got more experience both on policy and in his personal life. I think he's a better experienced Newt than he was 20 years ago.</s>ACOSTA: Is he ready to be president, do you think?</s>BLANKLEY: Oh, I think with the first eight months of a Gingrich presidency with the Republican Congress would sort of be like the first eight months of Roosevelt in 1933, except it would be the other direction, back to free markets.</s>ACOSTA: Let me ask you this last thing, Tony, because one of the -- I covered him last week on the campaign trail, and the thought occurred to me that he is almost sort of like the new Nixon in many ways, a politician who was left for dead, who is trying to climb back into the highest office of the land, and I'm just curious, you know, is this doable for Newt Gingrich, do you think, realistically speaking? Do you really think he could be elected president?</s>BLANKLEY: Well, we'll see. He is now, as your poll shows for the time being, ahead of the pack on the Republican side. I think if you look at the polls that will come out late December, the notion of head to heads, Newt and Obama, Romney and Obama, if newt is competitive, well, then, you know, seven points, plus or minus of margin of error, then yes, I think it's a very doable thing. We'll see. But he's certainly qualified, more qualified than I think most people otherwise being considered.</s>ACOSTA: Tony Blankley, good to see you this morning. Thanks for that perspective on the former speaker. We really appreciate it. Good talking touch you.</s>BLANKLEY: Thank you.</s>ACOSTA: A reminder that the CNN national security debate is tonight. The stage is set for the Republican presidential candidates at Constitution Hall in Washington. Wolf Blitzer moderates tonight at 8:00 p.m. Eastern, right here on CNN. "Consumer Reports" is out with its naughty and nice holiday list. It's a breakdown of companies with good and not so good shopping policies. Here are some of the nice ones. Amazon.com made the list for taking a stand against hard-to-open product packaging. I appreciate that one. Costco for automatically extending the product's warranties on TVs and computers. And get this, REI for accepting returns or exchanges at any time for any reason. Now, can you guess the companies that made "Consumer Reports'" naughty list. They might get a lump of coal in their stocking. They're coming up next.