During an interview last night on Sean Hannity’s Fox News show, former Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA) floated a possible plan to mobilize around health care repeal in the 2012 campaign cycle.
“At American Solutions we’re looking very closely at launching petition drives in every state that has a Democrat up for reelection in 2012,” said Gingrich, further listing states with key Senate seats up for election in two years: “You start looking at Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Florida, Virginia. There are a lot of states out there where you have an absolute majority in favor of repealing Obamacare.
“And then frankly, if they didn’t get it through the Senate looking at doing a national petition to try to get 50 million to sign a petition to the president saying, please sign the repeal.”
This might seem a bit ambitious for Gingrich to pull off on his own. But look at this way: This could potentially function as a clever way of getting his hooks into the sort of Tea Party activists who would serve as a natural volunteer base for the petitions.