The latest issue of National Review offered little to recommend Newt Gingrich as a potential Republican presidential nominee. If the cover illustration of Newt as Marvin the Martian didn’t offer a big enough hint, the series of anti-Newt articles inside the magazine certainly left no doubts.
But today, National Review Online features Lawrence Kudlow‘s take on Gingrich’s recent endorsement from “supply-side founder Art Laffer.”
Art Laffer believes the Gingrich plan would help jolt the economy to 4 or 5 percent growth. And he also is impressed that Gingrich has been talking about King Dollar on the campaign trail along with his supply-side tax strategy.
Was Gingrich actually one of the original supply-siders? Well, no. But he did hang around with Jack Kemp and others during the early 1980s in what became known as the Opportunity Society. So Newt’s bona fides are there.
Laffer also is impressed with Gingrich’s bipartisan abilities. He noted that Newt worked with Bill Clinton during the “Contract with America” 1990s to get welfare reform and a lower capital-gains tax.
What about the inevitable criticism from Obama that a flat tax is a huge tax cut for the rich? “Listen,” Art told me. “We want to make the poor, rich. And you can’t love jobs while hating job-creators.”
