Newt Gingrich promises moon base by the end of his second term - Polidicks

[QUOTE][IMG]http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2012/1/25/1327534135889/Newt-Gingrich-Coral-Sprin-007.jpg[/IMG] 'By the end of my second term we will have the first permanent base on the moon and it will be American' ... and this big? Photograph: PAUL J. RICHARDS/AFP/Getty Images There are two givens in any election campaign: 1) the candidates will make grand promises that they can never keep and 2) they will pander to their audience at every opportunity. But on Wednesday, Newt "grandiose is my middle name" [it isn't] Gingrich took those truisms on to a whole new, extraplanetary level. Speaking to an audience on [URL="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/florida"]Florida[/URL]'s [URL="http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/space"]Space[/URL] Coast ahead of the state's primary next week, the big-thinking Republican hopeful turned his science fiction fantasies into a hard and fast campaign promise. "By the end of my second term we will have the first permanent base on the moon and it will be American," he said. According to [URL="http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/updates/4715"]Talking Points Memo[/URL] Gingrich went on to say that the base would be used for "science, tourism, and manufacturing" and to create a "robust industry" modelled on the airline business in the 20th century. And from there, how could a president ever top that? Well, that would be a mission to Mars obviously, said Gingrich - or Newt Lightyear as my colleague Richard Adams has now dubbed him. Some reporters in the room undoubtedly would have known that they were witnesses to a historic moment. Of course, Newt has aired his space musings in public before. In December, he [URL="http://www.space.com/13920-gingrich-moon-mining-republican-debate-romney.html"]defended his policy in favour of lunar mining[/URL] during one of the live televised debates. Then of course there are his repeated warnings over the dangers to America from an [URL="http://news.discovery.com/space/is-newt-gingrichs-emp-doomsday-a-reality-111212.html"]electromagnetic pulse (EMP)[/URL] caused by a nuclear warhead detonating in space. By all accounts, Gingrich's promise drew huge applause on the Space Coast. On Twitter, a far more forbidding place at the best of times, the response was more sceptical. But while the small-minded, earthbound mainstream media may mock, Gingrich can be sure of one thing. If he can pull off a feat as unlikely as winning the Republican nomination, beating Obama in November and going on to secure a second term, anything is possible.[/QUOTE] Fuck fixing Earth. Brb, moon. [URL]http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2012/jan/25/newt-gingrich-moon-base[/URL] [video=youtube;Hv6RbEOlqRo]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hv6RbEOlqRo[/video]

Worry about your first term first, numbnut.

The funniest thing is not him making this claim, but that there are plenty of people who seriously believe he'll be able to pull this off.

AKA not gonna happen.

Yeah, i'd love my tax money to be funneled into a moonbase that will be abandoned within a year.

Seriously doubt it.

A second bloody term? Well that ain't gonna happen now, is it? Once people see how self-centered and ridiculously vindicative a person Gingrich is, they aren't going to bloody vote for him again! ...Or at least, the smart ones won't. Though I have to wonder if Gingrich was just reading some democratic blog to see if he could reel in some liberal voters, and he was just all like "Wow! These people [I]really[/I] want to go to the moon! I don't even know how we'll afford all the garbage bags to store the oxygen in, but by golly I want people to vote for me!"

By the time it's complete he'll make a clone of himself (even though running on an anti-clone platform while running for re-election) and then immediately hold the world for ransom. On the bright side, he might solve America's debt problems, as long as he asks for the money we need instead of just a million dollars.

Sane people: "Let's fix the shithole we've got." Newt: "TO THE MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON"

Is this like some sort of a weird nudge at getting "closer to God"?

Haha.

If only...

okay, he can take all his nutjob asshole crazy people to the moon and the rest of us can use our brains to figure shit out down here sounds good gingrich, leave the planet for the best interests of everyone

Let's let them make a moon base, and fly all of the politics there, so we can fix this country without them being in the way. Newt should take some inspiration from Patrick Star.

I would love to start colonies but I don't think that is going to happen with Newt.

If he actually isn't being a lying fuck about this, the resources up there could allow us to pay most of our debt back, but we probably won.t

Hold on tight, The Cheat — we're blastin' offa TO THE [i]MOOOOOOOON![/I]

Slow down there tiger, worry about your first term first.

At this point Obama or somebody else might as well promise world peace.

"And by the end of my first term, at least four nations will have declared war on us!"

aeiou

I... I just... In literally every thread where someone suggests cutting the NASA budget everyone is all up in arms over it. Now Gingrich suggests expanding it, and everyone is all up in arms over the exact opposite thing. Nice double-standard facepunch has got going here.

Iron Sky v2 lmao in 3001 when the world is at peace and all liberal AMERICAN SPACE CONSERVATIVES

[QUOTE=Morcam;34400760]I... I just... In literally every thread where someone suggests cutting the NASA budget everyone is all up in arms over it. Now Gingrich suggests expanding it, and everyone is all up in arms over the exact opposite thing. Nice double-standard facepunch has got going here.[/QUOTE] Because he's not actually planning on doing shit, it's an empty promise to fish votes within the science community. Then add the fact that he says "..and it will be American" which shows that his understanding of how grand scale space projects are undertaken these days (strong international cooperation) is nonexistant.

Didn't the Soviets wanted to build a base on moon/mars as well?

[QUOTE=Wikipedia]Gingrich is interested in space exploration, originating in a fascination with the United States/Soviet Union Space Race during his teenage years. Gingrich wants the U.S. to pursue new achievements in space, such as sustaining civilizations beyond Earth. He advocates relying more on the private sector and less on NASA to drive progress.[/QUOTE] Pretty cool that he at least acknowledges space exploration.

nice try gingrich

[QUOTE=Morcam;34400760]I... I just... In literally every thread where someone suggests cutting the NASA budget everyone is all up in arms over it. Now Gingrich suggests expanding it, and everyone is all up in arms over the exact opposite thing. Nice double-standard facepunch has got going here.[/QUOTE] The problem is he is promising this but being the fact that he is Newt Gingrich there is absolutely no way in hell he is going to cut defense spending for it.

He makes all his staff read Asimov when they start working for him.

[img]http://i.imgur.com/K1Nwb.jpg[/img]