FACT CHECK: History flubs in Republican debate

[mfcorey1]

*snip*

GINGRICH: "Under Jimmy Carter, we had the wrong laws, the wrong regulations, the wrong leadership, and we killed jobs. We had inflation. We went to 10.8 percent unemployment. Under Ronald Reagan, we had the right job — the right laws, the right regulators, the right leadership. We created 16 million new jobs."

THE FACTS: Sure, inflation was bad and gas lines long, but under Carter's presidency unemployment never topped 7.8 percent. The unemployment rate did reach 10.8 percent, but not until November 1982, nearly two years into Reagan's first term.

Most economists attribute the jobless increase to a sharp rise in interest rates engineered by then-Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker in an ultimately successful effort to choke off inflation. Unemployment began to fall in 1983 and dropped to 7.2 percent in November 1984, when Reagan easily won re-election.

The economy did add 16 million jobs during Reagan's 1981-1989 presidency. Gingrich's assertion that "we created" them may have left the impression that he was a key figure in that growth. Although Gingrich was first elected to the House in 1978, his first Republican leadership position, as minority whip, began when Reagan left office, in 1989.

http://news.yahoo.com/fact-check-history-flubs-republican-debate-034637464.html

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[liberal N proud]

1. Does anyone really expect the republicans to adhere to facts?

They never have, we sure can't expect them to now!

[Shankapotomus]

2. So Reagan gets credit for jobs

and, according to Mittens, unemployment is dropping "despite" President Obama.

[JHB]

5. Maybe we need to bring up Newt's comparing Reagan to Chamberlain bit...

...from back in the 80s for negotiating with Gorbachev. Sainted Ron was straying from the conservative Party Line, and Newt was taking it upon himself to (respectfully) yank the old coot back into line.

1985 Gingrich calls Reagan's upcoming meeting with Mikhail Gorbachev ''the most dangerous summit for the West since Adolf Hitler met with Chamberlain in 1938 at Munich.''
http://www.wnyc.org/articles/its-free-country/2011/dec/05/guide-gingrich/

It can be a little hard to find, but Newt never hesitated to upbraid the Gipper, back before the conservatives went pagan and deified him. (and apologies to actual pagans, just for the association)

[Shankapotomus]

6. Nice find

He's always been engaging in these types of extreme political exagerations. Last night the Obama administration was the most dangerous thing to happen to this country. Yea. Ok.

[JHB]

7. Oh, that's just the easiest to find...

...even the Ron Paul campaign used it recently.

Even more here, from a Mark Shields column:

Just like when Gingrich went to the House floor during the Gipper’s second White House term and declared his Soviet policy a “failure.” Here is what Gingrich said: “Measured against the scale and momentum of the Soviet empire’s challenge, the Reagan administration has failed, is failing and without a dramatic, fundamental change in strategy will continue to fail. ... The burden of the failure frankly must be placed first upon President Reagan.”

This was after Gingrich, as reported in the Congressional Record, had found Reagan responsible for our national “decay”: “Beyond the obvious indicators of decay, the fact is that President Reagan has lost control of the national agenda.” Students of Gingrich-speak will recognize that by “decay,” Gingrich was generally referring to factors such as crime, illegitimate births and illiteracy.

These blatant contradictions between what Congressman Gingrich actually said at the time about President Reagan and what Candidate Gingrich now offers as fictitious reminiscences of his unwavering allegiance to Reagan remind me of one of the former speaker’s own broadsides against Washington, D.C. “In this cold and ruthless city,” he once said, “the center of hypocrisy is Capitol Hill.”

http://www.noozhawk.com/article/121711_mark_shields_gingrich

I'm sure there are people who could go through Newt's congressional record and press history from the 80s and find all sorts of the young firebreather resolutely criticizing his party's administration for its compromise and weakness.

[JHB]

3. Or to name that tune in two notes: "Same as it ever was"

Newt has never let facts even slow him down from making assertions that will rouse whatever audience he's playing to.

It's his MO. It's what he has done for the entire time he has been a public figure, from his first congressional run, on.

Newt is not a scholar or historian, who might actually be concerned that he's gotten something right or wrong. He's a gunsmith of weaponized partisanship. That's all he does.

[Owlet]

4. With Newt it's the "historic 'We'" encompassing every good thing every Republican has ever done

Just wait. Once he clears South Carolina he'll be taking credit for winning the Civil War.