# Newt Gingrich for POTUS in 2012 **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [April 14, 2009, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newt-gingrich-for-potus-in-2012/493100 "2009-04-14T18:26:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Projammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/projammer/32/559_2.png) [@Projammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Projammer)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2009, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newt-gingrich-for-potus-in-2012/493100/1 "2009-04-14T18:26:15Z")
Wha?? [Gingrich eyes possible White House run in 2012](http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hGxKJGpoy-DMwaefjesJAn3jSSAQD97IBOJ00) I thought he had faded into the mists a decade ago. I really don’t remember much about his politics except that most of my reactions to him were of the WTF variety. The article also mentions Palin as a possible candidate so I’m wondering if this is some elaborate hoax that’s just too late for April 1. Or maybe the GOP has finally lost whatever grip on reality they might have once had. Or it’s all a red herring to distract the Dems and put them off their guard while they groom a real candidate in the background somewhere. And people wonder why I tend to be apolitical. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2009, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newt-gingrich-for-potus-in-2012/493100/2 "2009-04-14T18:30:38Z")
With the Republicans in disarray, all sorts of names will be put forth. The Democrats were in a similar position after Reagan was reelected. It’s still almost three years until the next primary. Lots of names will be mentioned. Some may run; others may decide to wait (assuming no disaster, Obama will be very difficult to beat in 2012). Gingrich and Palin have name recognition. They’re also fresher (Romney, for instance, couldn’t win the nomination, which will hurt). Mick Huckabee might also have a shot. But it’ll be at least a year before the field will even begin to take shape. Meanwhile, everyone speculates. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2009, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newt-gingrich-for-potus-in-2012/493100/3 "2009-04-14T18:33:19Z")
Sending this off to Great Debates. Gingrich talked about running in 2008, too, and he’s trying to maintain a high profile. He does not accept the fact that he’s long since become irrelevant. ---
**Author:** ![Projammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/projammer/32/559_2.png) [@Projammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Projammer)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2009, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newt-gingrich-for-potus-in-2012/493100/4 "2009-04-14T18:39:49Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > Sending this off to Great Debates. Thanks, but I hadn’t really intended this for debate material. More of a hold it up and point and laugh a bit. Kind of a Hey look! I just gave my Great Dane a poodle cut! But if someone wants to actualyl debate the merits of a Gingrich run on the house, they’re more than welcome to start a suitable thread. Can you kick it back over the fence please? ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2009, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newt-gingrich-for-potus-in-2012/493100/5 "2009-04-14T18:40:05Z")
Newt? Newt? Newt! Now, Universe, I know I haven’t been a very good pantheist… ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2009, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newt-gingrich-for-potus-in-2012/493100/6 "2009-04-14T18:41:58Z")
Consider that at this point in Bush’s second term, Obama was still an Illinois state senator, most of us were reacting to predictions that Hillary Clinton would run with a “WTF?!” and John Edwards was still the losing VP candidate. Nobody knows what the ground is going to look like in three years. No one. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2009, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newt-gingrich-for-potus-in-2012/493100/7 "2009-04-14T18:51:06Z")
Newt’s been getting a lot of talk lately, and not just on April 1. I have pretty much the same reaction you do, but I think what’s happening is that there just isn’t a clear and obvious choice for the Republicans right now, so they’re sort of running in every direction at once. Gingrich, Palin, Jindal, Huckabee, and the rest all seem unlikely prospects, but all for different reasons, and nobody has really stood out from the crowd. My guess is that it’ll end up being some dark horse that nobody right now has heard of. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2009, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newt-gingrich-for-potus-in-2012/493100/8 "2009-04-14T18:56:30Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > Gingrich talked about running in 2008, too, and he’s trying to maintain a high profile. He does not accept the fact that he’s long since become irrelevant. When things go badly, you can either come up with something new, or fall back to what has worked in the past. Republicans these days seem to be doing the latter. No one can run on Bush’s coattails. Who’s their most recent success before that? I could see Gingrich running on a cut-taxes, build-the-military, ban-abortion platform. He might even resurrect the flag-burning debate. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2009, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newt-gingrich-for-potus-in-2012/493100/9 "2009-04-14T18:59:04Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > When things go badly, you can either come up with something new, or fall back to what has worked in the past. Republicans these days seem to be doing the latter. No one can run on Bush’s coattails. Who’s their most recent success before that? > > I could see Gingrich running on a cut-taxes, build-the-military, ban-abortion platform. He might even resurrect the flag-burning debate. Heck, maybe he’ll try to impeach Clinton again and cheat on THIS wife! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2009, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newt-gingrich-for-potus-in-2012/493100/10 "2009-04-14T19:00:23Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > …My guess is that it’ll end up being some dark horse that nobody right now has heard of. The Bachmann (R-Batshit) groundswell is building. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2009, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newt-gingrich-for-potus-in-2012/493100/11 "2009-04-14T19:18:23Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > Heck, maybe he’ll try to impeach Clinton again and cheat on THIS wife! 😃 Seriously. When the word really gets out about the sordid circumstances of his two divorces, to say nothing of rehashing all of his mid-Nineties tantrums, I expect his presidential dreams will just fade away. ---
**Author:** ![ITR\_champion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c67d28/32.png) [@ITR\_champion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ITR_champion)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2009, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newt-gingrich-for-potus-in-2012/493100/12 "2009-04-14T19:50:22Z")
The reason why some Republicans are turning to Newt on this point seems pretty clear to me. He retired in 1998, hence he’s the only powerful Republican who had no role in the disastrous decisions of 2000-2008. ---
**Author:** ![Icerigger](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/icerigger/32/432_2.png) [@Icerigger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icerigger)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2009, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newt-gingrich-for-potus-in-2012/493100/13 "2009-04-14T19:54:21Z")
Remember Newt is now a born again Catholic so he has had all of his past sins washed away for the next election cycle. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2009, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newt-gingrich-for-potus-in-2012/493100/14 "2009-04-14T20:03:01Z")
> [@Projammer](#): > > Wha?? > > [Gingrich eyes possible White House run in 2012](http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hGxKJGpoy-DMwaefjesJAn3jSSAQD97IBOJ00) > > I thought he had faded into the mists a decade ago. I really don’t remember much about his politics except that most of my reactions to him were of the WTF variety. > > The article also mentions Palin as a possible candidate so I’m wondering if this is some elaborate hoax that’s just too late for April 1. Or maybe the GOP has finally lost whatever grip on reality they might have once had. > > Or it’s all a red herring to distract the Dems and put them off their guard while they groom a real candidate in the background somewhere. > > And people wonder why I tend to be apolitical. Newt can run if he wants to, but I have no idea who he thinks is going to get excited about his candidacy. Liberals obviously hate him, but what they overlook is, there’s nothing about him that should appeal to conservatives, either. Liberals always ASSUMED that, because he was a Southerner, he was a leader of the Religious Right. Nope. He’s always proclaimed himself a “Rockefeller Republican.” Economics matter deeply to him. Abortion and gay marriage? Nah, not really. He’d sometimes vote the way the Religious Right wanted, but he’s never been one of them, and both sides are all too keenly aware of that. MIGHT the Religious Right reluctantly embrace him if he won the nomination? Sure just as they reluctantly embraced John McCain in 2008. But he’s not their first choice ,or even their third, fourth or fifth choice. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2009, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newt-gingrich-for-potus-in-2012/493100/15 "2009-04-14T20:04:59Z")
> [@Icerigger](#): > > Remember Newt is now a born again Catholic so he has had all of his past sins washed away for the next election cycle. This is neither funny nor insightful. The Southern Protestants who make up most of the Religious Right tend be to vocally anti-Catholic. If Newt converted, it most definitely is NOT because he was hoping to win votes from the evangelical crowd. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2009, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newt-gingrich-for-potus-in-2012/493100/16 "2009-04-14T20:07:12Z")
> [@](#): > > The Bachmann (R-Batshit) groundswell is building. Nah, everyone’s heard of her. I wouldn’t put it past her to run, but I just can’t see any way that she might conceivably win. At any level above a congressional district, you have to be crazy _for_ something, not just plain crazy. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2009, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newt-gingrich-for-potus-in-2012/493100/17 "2009-04-14T20:15:20Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > …But he’s not their first choice ,or even their third, fourth or fifth choice. At this point in the election cycle, I think Newt would be very happy indeed to be the GOP’s second choice! ---
**Author:** ![Death\_of\_Rats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a6a055/32.png) [@Death\_of\_Rats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Death_of_Rats)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2009, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newt-gingrich-for-potus-in-2012/493100/18 "2009-04-14T21:10:11Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > The Bachmann (R-Batshit) groundswell is building. Oh, HELL NO! Minnesota elected her, they are stuck with her. No fair dumping her on the rest of us! ---
**Author:** ![Projammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/projammer/32/559_2.png) [@Projammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Projammer)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2009, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newt-gingrich-for-potus-in-2012/493100/19 "2009-04-15T00:24:33Z")
So long as we’re serving up nutcases, how about [Betty Brown](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=513706)? Then she can introduce her initiative to rename all Asians at the ferderal level. ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2009, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newt-gingrich-for-potus-in-2012/493100/20 "2009-04-15T00:52:32Z")
Per the below I think his admitted adultery would blow him out of the water re being a national candidate. From wiki > [@](#): > > [edit] Personal life > Although college peers noted Gingrich’s preference to discuss politics more than his personal life,[8] Gingrich’s personal life has been the subject of much attention from both the media and his political opponents over the years. > > Gingrich has been married three times. He married Jackie Battley, his former high school geometry teacher, when he was 19 years old (she was seven years his senior at 26 years old).[9][10] They had two daughters and divorced in 1981. She claims he “discussed divorce terms with her while she was recuperating in the hospital from cancer surgery”,[11] an action that would later be used against him; in 1992, his Democratic opponent, Tony Center, ran an ad pointing out this fact. > > In 1981, six months after his divorce was final, Gingrich wed Marianne Ginther.[12] He remained married to Ginther until 2000, when they divorced. Shortly thereafter, Gingrich married Callista Bisek, with whom he later admitted to having had an affair during his second marriage,[13] at approximately the same time that he was leading the Congressional investigation of Bill Clinton’s affair with Monica Lewinsky. > > Newt and Callista currently live in McLean, Virginia.[14] > > A Baptist since graduate school, Gingrich converted to Catholicism, his wife’s faith, on March 29, 2009.[15] [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newt-gingrich-for-potus-in-2012/493100.md?page=2)