Our republic as our Founding Fathers created it is under assault from extremists outside our country and anti-constitutionalists inside our country. Combine that with the flailing American economy and global markets and you see that Western civilization is on the brink, as experts and all the GOP presidential candidates agree.

President Barack Obama has tried and failed miserably to fix our economy, deepening us and our posterity into more than $6 trillion of additional national debt -- something he criticized former President George W. Bush for as "unpatriotic" and "irresponsible." Yet the unemployment rate remains at a higher level than it was when Obama was elected, and the dollar is as unstable as the Middle East.

Now is not the time to be mincing through minutiae and fighting with fellow party members. Rome is burning, and we need to appoint the best firefighters possible to rush in and put out the fire. What's critical at this point is to appoint a commander in chief who can clearly lead America to a more solvent and secure future.

No man or candidate is perfect. We all have skeletons in our closets. If buried bones become unforgivable bones of contention, the world will never know another Benjamin Franklin or King David. We must remember that we're electing a president, not a pastor or pope. The mainstream media and a billion-dollar campaign coffer are on the president's side, so we need a veteran of political war who already has fought Goliath, because he will be facing Goliath's bigger brother.

In the past few editions of my weekly column, I detailed 10 questions to find our next president, in no particular order of importance. I proposed that the name of the candidate that fills the majority of the answers deserves readers' votes.

1) Who is most committed to follow and lead by the U.S. Constitution?

2) Who has the greatest ability to rally, unify and mobilize citizens across political and societal spectrums?

3) Who has the best working comprehension of America?

4) Who has the best ability to influence a volatile world away from the brink of destruction?

5) Who has clear and present moral fortitude?

6) Who has the best chance of beating President Obama, in and outside of debates?

7) Who has the best abilities to lead Washington politics and politicians?

8) Who has the best plan and leadership ability to restore America's economy?

9) Who is the most fiscally prudent?

10) Who has demonstrated the highest regard for human life?

My wife, Gena, and I sincerely believe that former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is the answer to most of those questions and deserves our endorsement and votes.

We agree with our friend and governor of the great state of Texas, Rick Perry, who suspended his campaign and endorsed Gingrich. He said Newt "has the heart of a conservative reformer." We believe that Newt's experience, leadership, knowledge, wisdom, faith and even humility to learn from his failures (personal and public) can return America to its glory days. And he is the best man left on the battlefield to outwit, outplay and outlast Obama and his campaign machine.

I would only challenge and call on Newt to fulfill the rallying strategy he outlined in South Carolina in November by utilizing the expertise and skill sets of the other GOP presidential candidates (even those who have bowed out) in his future administration. Newt explained:

"I do approach this whole campaign, I think, differently from everybody else. We have a number of friends who are also running. We have no opponents except Barack Obama. I think that's very important. I think (Abraham) Lincoln was very wise, as was captured in a book called 'Team of Rivals.' ... Literally everybody who was his opponent ended up in the Cabinet because he needed all of them in order to be able to put together the political power during the crisis that we faced. I would say the same thing. I don't know of a single person currently running who wouldn't be a very effective member of an administrative team and who doesn't have real talent and, in some way ... a unique strength. So I don't have any opponents on the Republican side."

As Gov. Perry said during his "strategic retreat" (citing Gen. Sam Houston) from the GOP presidential race, "this mission is greater than any one man."

I'm tired of watching our country be torn to shreds by those who think the answer is more government debt and control. I'm tired of being in bondage to a tax system that robs U.S. citizens as the king of England did before the Revolution. I'm tired of watching our sovereignty be sold by foreign loans and loose borders. And I will not sit back and merely watch this decay and degradation of the U.S. and then hand it over to my children and grandchildren to deal with.

That is why Gena and I have committed the rest of our lives to help Old Glory rise again to its heights of splendor. And that is why we are endorsing and standing with Newt Gingrich, because we believe he can lead all of us who have committed to the same.

If you're ready to keep fighting the good fight and once and for all restore our republic, then I invite you to join Gena and me by endorsing, rallying behind and voting for Newt Gingrich as GOP nominee and then president of the United States.