Newt Gingrich is not good at quoting movies

(via LA Times)

Gingrich mocks Obama's algae energy comments as 'Cloud Cuckoo Land'

Newt Gingrich, whose well-developed sense of sarcasm always goes over well with his Republican supporters, was on a roll Monday evening as he regaled a ballroom of supporters near Knoxville with his account of President Obama's energy plan, and his own vow to reduce gasoline prices to $2.50 a gallon, which has evolved into a campaign slogan.

Really, Newt? Do you really think anyone is stupid enough to think that you could lower gas prices to $2.50! No one could possibly be that dumb. . .

About 200 supporters filled the airport Hilton hotel ballroom, some holding signs that said, "Newt=$2.50

Oyyyyyyy. . . .Can we give this guy back to the Baptists?

Gingrich also delighted the crowd with a riff on a recent speech the president delivered at the University of Miami. On Feb. 23, Obama said that gasoline and diesel fuel are being developed from algae. "If we can figure out how to make energy out of that, we'll be doing all right," Obama said. Gingrich has been having fun with that ever since.

Okay, Newt, you do know that this is a real thing, right?  There really are algae that excrete diesel fuel. This is a fact. As of now, they aren't really a viable fuel source, but someday, maybe. So, what's so funny about this?

"Do you all remember in the movie, 'The Graduate,' the moment where Dustin Hoffman is just graduating and he goes to a party welcoming him home and this older gentleman comes over to him and says, 'I have a word that will change your life,' and the word was 'plastics?' And Hoffman spends the rest of the movie, going, 'I don't quite get this?'

Yes, I remember The Graduate. Apparently, you don't.

And Mr. McGuire was right, by the way. There was a lot of money to be made in plastics. Companies like Dow, DuPont, BASF, and Mitsubishi have made billions from plastics. So what's so funny?

There's at least a couple mil right here!

Also, Dustin Hoffman does not spend the rest of the movie going "I don't quite get this." Can you imagine how shitty a movie the Graduate would have been if it had been a movie about a young man trying to decipher an older man's career advice? Have you even seen the Graduate?

"Well, the president the other day in Florida had a word that I thought was a quite magical one. Does anyone here remember his solution?"

Many in the crowd yelled: "Algae!"

"Algae," Gingrich confirmed. "I think this is a 'Saturday Night Live' skit. You don't often get presidential speeches that could literally be delivered on 'Saturday Night Live' and you wouldn't realize it was a fake. But presidents are supposed to, like, run the country today,"

Yeah, what a doofus! Why can't he concentrate on something more realistic, like a moon colony?