Politics

Potential presidential candidates Gingrich, Santorum, Bachmann and Trump slam Obama during first day of CPAC

Matthew Boyle Investigative Reporter
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A slew of possible 2012 Republican presidential candidates including former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann and businessman Donald Trump took the stage at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) on Thursday, and all took jabs at President Barack Obama.

Gingrich said Obama is more than welcome to keynote CPAC next year if the president completes his seven-step plan to move toward the political center – with signing the repeal of Obamacare at the top of the list.

Referencing Time Magazine’s recent attempt to compare Obama to President Ronald Reagan, Gingrich said Obama doesn’t even come close.

“I want the elite media to know something,” Gingrich told the crowd. “I knew Ronald Reagan; Barack Obama is no Ronald Reagan.”

Gingrich focused much of his speech on energy policy and what he thinks the United States should be doing with private sector energy.

Gingrich recommended Obama do away with the Environmental Protection Agency and replace it with the “Environmental Solutions Agency,” in an effort to “cut through all the red tape.”

“How do you invest, and how do you create jobs, and how do create energy production when you know that the next left-wing, ideologically committed, anti-business bureaucrat is trying to take away every single thing you could,” Gingrich said. “We should also go back to a streamlined process with less bureaucrats so we can actually build nuclear power plant[s].”

Santorum criticized Obama’s handling of the political crisis in Egypt, and his foreign policy in general.

“Barack Obama doesn’t believe we have the moral authority anymore to make treaties into other countries to help spread this objective truth that Reagan and Bush believed in,” Santorum said. “Well, there are real consequences to what Barack Obama did and we’re seeing them play out on the world stage today. We saw it in its basic stage in the early part of his administration when we turned our backs on the Poles and the Czechs. We turned our backs on the Israelis, we turned our backs on the Brits. We turned our backs on almost every one of our allies.”

Trump ripped into Obama’s economic policies, specifically on the national debt and budget. Speaking hypothetically about a presidential candidacy, Trump said he would “fight to end Obamacare and replace it with something that makes sense for people in business and not bankrupt the country,” adding that he pledges to not raise taxes if elected. Trump said he’s pro-life and against gun control.

Trump took a dig at Texas Congressman Ron Paul, too, saying he has “zero chance” of getting elected, though he thinks Paul is a “good guy.”

Bachmann slammed Obama over the recent visit of Chinese President Hu Jintao, saying Americans should be asking Obama, “Hu’s your daddy?” She also focused on repealing Obamacare.

Former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld received the American Conservative Union’s “Defender of the Constitution” award, and took the stage following an introduction from former Vice President Dick Cheney. Cheney and Rumsfeld both recalled the days when fighting socialism was something they did outside of the United States, not inside, as they’re forced to do now.

Tea Party star Sen. Rand Paul, Kentucky Republican, ruffled some feathers when he called for entitlement reform and military budget cuts. He also called for abolishing the Department of Education and other federal agencies that aren’t specifically provided for in the U.S. Constitution.

Big names to look for on Friday include former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson, Tennessee Rep. Marsha Blackburn, South Dakota Sen. John Thune, Utah Sen. Mike Lee, former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, Texas Gov. Rick Perry, former Godfather’s Pizza CEO Herman Cain and Texas Rep. Ron Paul.