Newt Gingrich Resorts to Charging His Supporters to Take Pictures

For the record, I just want to say that I do not necessarily support Newt Gingrich for President.  That said, when I had the opportunity to go and cover his rally in Lafayette for KPEL, I knew it was a chance to do something interesting with my son.  He would remember meeting and talking with someone that people know well many years later.  So with that in mind, I asked him to come with me and he was excited to do so, in spite of the picture that you see here.  The interesting thing about it was that we got the opportunity to take a picture with Speaker Gingrich before the event was over.  Boy was I glad we took advantage of the opportunity, because now, it seems like things are changing.

An article from National Journal says that Gingrich's campaign is now going to start charging people $50 to take a picture with him.  Little did I know that the picture that was taken with my phone would be that valuable to people.  I don't know about you, but for the picture we got, I'm not sure it was worth that much.

Overall, I think that this is a sign of sheer desperation and gall on the part of Newt Gingrich and his campaign.  You are essentially putting a price tag on the memories of people that you want to support you.  It shows a distinct value of the dollar over the vote of people.  But then, that seems to be what the Gingrich campaign is about at this point.  They know they can't win, so they are raising money to put a stop to Mitt Romney just because Speaker Gingrich doesn't like him.

I can't imagine that too many people will be happy to fork over cash just for a picture with someone who will not be President, at least not this time around.  For my own purposes, I am thankful that we were able to meet him and get a picture, but to be asked for that much money, particularly to support a candidate that I don't support, count me out.

Still, all things considered, it was a fun night.  Just glad I didn't have to pay the Speaker for the picture to remember it by.