AIKEN -- Nearly 600 people gathered at the Houndslake Country Club in Aiken to hear former U.S. Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich speak on his 2012 presidential campaign tour.

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“This is a truly exciting evening,” Sen. Greg Ryberg told the crowd. Guests waited more than an hour for Gingrich, who was running late from a previous engagement.

Ryberg said it was good to see that many residents concerned about the state of the nation.

“So many people involved in national politics, it’s encouraging,” he said.

Gingrich came to the dinner from Greenville, S.C., where he had been at a gathering of more than 400 people at a meet-and-greet in a Chik-fil-A restaurant.

Melissa Steinkuhl, who attended the Aiken dinner, said she was eager to hear Gingrich speak although she probably won’t vote for him in the Republican primary.

Herman Cain is her current favorite, she said, but she hopes to see someone tap Gingrich as a vice president or Cabinet member.

“He’s a very smart man, and I want to see him as secretary of state. I’m adamant about that,” she said.

Gingrich’s popularity probably peaked in his time as speaker of the House,
she said, but she still hasn’t ruled out voting for him entirely.

“I don’t want to discount him,” she said. “The jury is still out.”

Gingrich highlighted his experience and knowledge of how to get things done in Washington.

“Barack Obama is a very unique combination of radicalism and incompetence,” Gingrich said. “I believe this is the most important election in our lifetime, and I believe we have the opportunity to turn it into a historic election.”

The current economic climate and health care situation is not acceptable, he said, and he plans to enact a brain research initiative that will both boost the American economy and take care of a number of illnesses that account for a large percentage of health care now.

Through research on autism, Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s and mental illness, the American medical research community can conquer those illnesses as they have conquered other debilitating diseases in the past.

“Once upon a time, we had cholera. Once upon a time, we lived in fear of malaria and typhoid,” he said. “We are on the edge of a revolution, and it is imperative that America is at the front.”