Newt's 21st Century Contract with America

Some quick reaction to the bullet points from the "21st Century Contract with America" put forth by Newt Gingrich today. The full text of his framework, as he describes it, can be found here.
I think this is not a bad start. I am becoming less put off by Gingrich the more I see of him. 
1. Repeal Obamacare and pass a replacement that saves lives and money by
empowering patients and doctors, not bureaucrats and politicians.
[I believe I heard Gingrich say that his first executive order would grant a waiver to all 50 states immediately.  I can already hear the hypocrisy from the left bitching about misuse of executive power.]
2. Return to robust job creation with a bold set of tax cuts and regulatory reforms
that will free American entrepreneurs to invest and hire, as well as by reforming
the Federal Reserve and creating a training requirement for extended federal
unemployment benefits to encourage work and improve the quality of our
workforce.
3. Unleash America’s full energy production potential in oil, natural gas, coal,
biofuels, wind, nuclear oil shale and more, creating jobs, stimulating a
sustainable manufacturing boom, lowering gasoline and other energy prices,
increasing government revenues, strengthening the dollar, and bolstering
national security.
   [Here, Newt calls for doing away with the EPA and replacing it with an "Environmental Solutions Agency".  Trading one bureaucracy for another is not much of a solution in my mind.  And, the bio-fuels subsidies need to go away completely.]
4. Save Medicare and Social Security by giving Americans more choices and tools
to live longer, healthier lives with greater financial independence.
5. Balance the federal budget by freeing job-creators to grow the economy,
reforming entitlements, and implementing productivity improvement systems,
such as Lean Six Sigma, to eliminate waste and fraud. Pass a balanced budget
amendment to keep it balanced.
6. Control the border by January 1, 2014 and establish English as the official
language of government; reform the legal visa system, and make it much easier
to deport criminals and gang members while making it easier for law abiding
visitors to come to the US.
[Newt speaks of relocating half the 23,000 DHS employees in New York to the border states. To that I say "bleh".   Relocating them isn't going to make them any more effective. I say put the National Guard on the border, cocked, locked and ready to rock with workable rules of engagement.]
7. Revitalize our national security system to meet 21st century threats by
restructuring and adequately funding our security agencies to function within a
grand strategy for victory over those who seek to kill us or to limit American
freedom.
  [How about a little Second Amendment love here Newt? Which reminds me, I need to read up on where he stands on 2A issues.  I bet one of our astute readers will comment on this before I can track it down though]
8. Maximize the speed and impact of medical breakthroughs by removing
unnecessary obstacles that block new treatments from reaching patients and
emphasizing research spending toward urgent national priorities, like brain
science with its impact on Alzheimer’s, autism, Parkinson’s, mental health and
other conditions that knowledge of the brain will help solve.
     [The "brain science" thing again. This still seems a bit non sequitur to me. In addition, some of the "expediting" that's been done at the FDA has resulted in some horrific unintended consequences.]
9. Restore the proper role of the judicial branch by using the clearly delineated
powers available to the president and Congress to correct, limit, or replace
judges who violate the Constitution.
     [I'm liking this one. This would severely limit the Prog's ability to circumvent the legislative process. It probably wouldn't take more than the removal of one or two judges to get the rest to shape up.]
10. Enforce the Tenth Amendment by starting an orderly transfer of power and
responsibility from the federal government back “to the states, respectively, or
to the people,” as the Constitution requires. Over the next year, state and local
officials and citizens will be asked to identify the areas which can be transferred
back home.
So, Cain has his 999 plan, and Gingrich has his new contract, and they are rising in the polls.  Bachman's numbers are slipping, and frankly I don't expect her to be around much longer.  Perry seems to spend more time apologizing post debate than making his case. And Romney? We all  know he's the candidate the Media wants to run against Doh!Bama.  Can't let that happen.