Gingrich closer to presidential run

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

WASHINGTON (AP) - Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich intends to take a formal step toward entering the 2012 presidential race within the next two weeks, Republican officials said Sunday, after months spent traveling to important primary and caucus states.

These officials declined to say precisely what type of announcement the 67-year-old former Georgia lawmaker would make, but added they expect him to make clear his determination to run.

If so, he would be the first Republican to do so in a slow-to-develop field of potential challengers to President Barack Obama.

Gingrich became the first Republican speaker in 40 years after he led his party to control of the House in the 1994 elections. He left Congress two turbulent terms later, intensely controversial and under pressure from disillusioned one-time supporters in the rank and file.

In the years since, he has developed something akin to a one-man political brand, speaking out on health care and other issues, building a fundraising operation, traveling widely and offering advice privately and publicly to Republicans in office.

Among the other potential Republican presidential contenders are former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, who worked closely with Gingrich in the mid-1990s as party chairman. Also considering candidacies are Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann and the party's 2008 vice presidential nominee, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.

Once the epitome of the Republican establishment, Gingrich in recent months has worked to align himself with tea party adherents who challenged the GOP hierarchy and provided much of the political energy behind the party's 2010 electoral gains.

"Two years ago today, Americans from all across the nation and from all walks of life began a movement on a national scale," he wrote Sunday on his Facebook page. "Fed up with a Republican Party that forgot its reformer roots and a Democratic Party where every solution involved more government, tea party rallies began brewing in over 50 cities with an estimated 30,000 people attending."

Gingrich also has sought close ties to Christian conservatives who are particularly influential in Iowa and in Southern states that often prove pivotal in Republican presidential primary campaigns. He has been divorced twice.

The officials who described his plans did so on condition of anonymity, saying they were not authorized to discuss them publicly.

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D9LLHLOO0&show_article=1

[Ban Hammer 13,352]

a newt today, a gecko tomorrow.

[^_^ 5,021]

Good news. This man will tear Palin and Bachmann and Huckabee apart in the debates. Rip them to freakin' shreds.

Romney or Daniels will emerge victorious if this is true. Either of those two would make acceptable Presidents in the minds of this left wing librul.

Edited February 28, 2011 by \

[Danno 1,228]

I could vote for Newt.

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

Good news. This man will tear Palin and Bachmann and Huckabee apart in the debates. Rip them to freakin' shreds.

Romney or Daniels will emerge victorious if this is true.

Daniels then. Obama is working hard to make sure Romney isn't running against him.

This is how Obama is robbing Romney of any chance to get the GOP nomination:

Obama gives props to Romney on health care

(CNN) - In a moment that Mitt Romney's future GOP opponents couldn't have scripted better themselves, President Obama Monday issued a full-throated embrace of the former Massachusetts governor's stance on health care.

"I know that many of you have asked for flexibility for your states under this law," Obama said during a speech to a governors meeting at the White House. "In fact, I agree with Mitt Romney, who recently said he's proud of what he accomplished on health care by giving states the power to determine their own health care solutions. He's right."

The universal health care plan administered under Romney's reign is among the former governor's biggest vulnerabilities as he weighs a second presidential bid. Critics maintain it will be difficult for Romney to attack the president on the health care law deeply opposed by most conservatives when he himself instituted a similar plan.

But Romney has defended the Massachusetts law, saying it was meant to be a solution for his state only.

"We addressed a problem in Massachusetts that was designed to solve problems for the people of Massachusetts," he said recently. "But it is wrong and unconstitutional to take what is designed for one state and say we are going to apply that in every state."

Still, the president and his surrogates aren't passing up the opportunity to tie Romney – considered among the early frontrunners for the GOP nomination – to the issue that has proven so unpalatable among Republicans.

In addition to Obama's comments Monday, current Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, a longtime Obama supporter, told ABC Sunday that "One of the best things [Romney] did was to be the coauthor of our health care reform, which has been a model for national health care reform."

And earlier this month former top Obama advisor David Axelrod said of Romney, "We got some good ideas from him."

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

I could vote for Newt.

Talk about stating the obvious...

[Danno 1,228]

Daniels then. Obama is working hard to make sure Romney isn't running against him.

This is how Obama is robbing Romney of any chance to get the GOP nomination:

Romney is like 3 decades too late, he would have been an ideal candidate for the GOP back in the 70's.

[^_^ 5,021]

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich will launch a presidential "exploratory" campaign this week, becoming the first big-name GOP candidate to take a formal step toward a White House bid.

A senior Republican official confirmed the news, first reported by ABC, to National Journal.

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2011/03/gingrich-will-launch-presidential-exploratory-committee/71880/

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich will launch a presidential "exploratory" campaign this week, becoming the first big-name GOP candidate to take a formal step toward a White House bid.

A senior Republican official confirmed the news, first reported by ABC, to National Journal.

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2011/03/gingrich-will-launch-presidential-exploratory-committee/71880/

So, it is official that he will start raising money to see if enough big bucks come his way. I don't think Newt can afford to self-finance his campaign.

[^_^ 5,021]

So, it is official that he will start raising money to see if enough big bucks come his way. I don't think Newt can afford to self-finance his campaign.

I think Newt is someone elses stalking horse.