Newt Gingrich defended his moon colony idea Tuesday against Mitt Romney's heavy criticism, telling a crowd of Georgia supporters that Romney "is the kind of guy who would have fired Christopher Columbus.”
The former Speaker of the House was referring to a comment Romney made last month in which he painted Gingrich's idea for a lunar colony as ludicrous.
"I spent 25 years in business," Romney said during last month's CNN Florida debate. "If I had a business executive come to me and say they wanted to spend a few hundred billion dollars to put a colony on the moon, I'd say, 'You're fired.'"
While the Columbus jab came from a supporter in Tennessee, Gingrich fired back Tuesday, labeling Romney as a 'realist' incapable of thinking outside the box.
"You either believe we have vision — you know Lincoln had a vision of a transcontinental railroad," Gingrich said. "The Wright brothers had a vision that they could fly, Edison had a vision that we could have electric lights ... we've been a nation of visionaries. And while the cynics and the 'realists' ridicule vision, I believe in the Bible's 'Without vision the people perish.' "
While GOP presidential rivals Rick Santorum and Romney are in a dead
heat going into Tuesday's Arizona and Michigan primaries, Gingrich spent
the day in Georgia with his sights set on Super Tuesday.
