Ed Brayton is a journalist, commentator and speaker. He is the co-founder and president of 
I've had several people mention Newt Gingrich as a GOP candidate for president in 2012 and I've scoffed at the idea. Isn't gonna happen. Christopher Orr seems to have been reading my mind:
Look, anyone who imagines that New Gingrich is going to make a serious bid for the presidency in 2012 is nuts. (The smart money is that he'll muse endlessly about the possibility; let it be known that if the party wants him badly enough he'll allow himself to be drafted; and, when this does not happen, publicly take his name out of contention, explaining that he's abruptly found himself far too busy with some new organization with the word "Future" in the name.
Bingo.
Politics
Comments
I'm getting a kick out of how Mr. Gingrich, the conservative politician who was unfortunately successful at making 'liberal' a pejorative term back in the mid-1990s, is now considered a RINO by the GOP base. And that's in spite of his also leveraging his title as a historian to promote Christianist propaganda regarding America's founding and founding ideals.
Pretty soon Rush Limbaugh will be eaten for not being Christianist enough. After that? Forget religious tests, you'll need to fail a sanity test to be considered a solid member of the GOP.
Posted by: Michael Heath | October 30, 2009 9:39 AM
It's kind of like the French Revolution, but without Guillotines ... would it be a good idea to buy them a couple of Guillotines?
Posted by: dogmeatib | October 30, 2009 9:51 AM
NPR just did that this morning - referred to Gingrich as a GOP presidential candidate. My head went pop when I heard that. I am glad you posted this - I was afraid that I had slipped over into some alternate reality. On the other hand - that means I really did hear it and they really did say it. The ever increasing levels of cognitive dissonance in society are truly alarming.
Posted by: pHred | October 30, 2009 9:55 AM
I think he's constantly referred to as a candidate because it's plain that he wants the presidency bad and (for some reason) is still viewed as one of the leaders of the party. But, despite being a breathtakingly dishonest person both personally and politically, he's not stupid. I think he may not run, but the only reason he wouldn't run is because he has to realize he has virtually no shot of winning. Not in the primary and certainly not in the general election.
Despite that though, I wouldn't be surprised at all if he did enter the primaries. No one thought McCain would win the primary, his campaign was virtually dead. So, he might run, sort of just in case the other candidates destroy themselves. If you want to win the lottery you have to at least buy a ticket.
Now, the reason I think he's being more viewed as a RINO is because even more than ideology, he values winning. He knows party unity is more important that ideological purity. Thus, his support for the moderate republican over the conservative third party candidate in NY. Of course, to the hard right base of the party now, ideology *is* more important than party or country. In fact, it's even more important than winning and to them, that makes Gingrich a traitor.
Posted by: MyPetSlug | October 30, 2009 10:43 AM
bogmeatib, I'm starting a collection to buy a couple guillotines to donate to the GOP.
Who's in? =)
Posted by: FastLane | October 30, 2009 10:50 AM
OT but of interest to Dispatches readers. Federal Judge David Carter in California gave whackjobs Orly Taitz and Gary Kreep the heave ho, tossing out their birther lawsuit.
http://scienceblogs.com/authority/2009/10/orly_taitz_gets_slapped_around.php
Posted by: SLC | October 30, 2009 11:00 AM
I agree.
Gingrich is not a viable candidate for '12, but you can't tell me him getting his ego stroked by his fans doesn't light him up inside.
Posted by: CHV | October 30, 2009 11:08 AM
...that makes him sound like exactly the kind of republican we need; the kind who, though he may be a lying, cheating, unprincipled, underhanded sneak, at least has enough sanity to know what winning elections looks like and has a half a clue about how to get there.
the kind who might be able to make the GOP into a viable, credible opposition party, instead of a free-range lunatic asylum.
i honestly don't know what to think about that sort of view on Gingrich. it's giving me a distressing case of mixed emotions.
Posted by: Nomen Nescio | October 30, 2009 11:31 AM
If indeed Newt decides not to run, that's the only thing that will convince me he isn't a hyped-up, ill-read, empty mediocre stupid. For then I will conclude he is simply an ill-read mediocrity, but not stupid.
Posted by: impal | October 30, 2009 11:36 AM
There is no way Newt would be a viable presidential candidate because he couldn't stand up to the intense scrutiny of a long campaign. Plus he has a nasty habit of insulting half of the population every couple of months.
Posted by: Iason Ouabache | October 30, 2009 11:46 AM
Interesting. I'd agree with MyPetSlug #4: "Wait Until Everyone In Front Of Me Screws Up" seems like a particularly viable strategy in a Republican nomination fight that may include one or more of Palin, Huckabee, Romney, and Jindal.
Posted by: chancelikely | October 30, 2009 12:19 PM
I agree that Gingrich desperately wants to be president, and I have no doubt that he also believes he would make a far better president than anyone else currently eying the GOP nomination. It's extremely likely that his conversion of Catholicism was a cynical attempt at making himself more palatable to the religious right, but he's probably realized by now that it's not working.
The man clearly has a brain. I have seen him make a number of speeches on less political stages where he comes across as intelligent and reasonable, but the next time I see him he's making the most inane, asinine comments on Fox News -- things you're almost 100% certain he doesn't actually believe to be true.
I think Newt's problem is that he simply doesn't have any empathy. When he's debating policy, that's not much of an impediment to him, but in political life it's an utter catastrophe -- he's left without the touch and feel that empathy would provide him, causing him to say and do stuff that leaves people shaking their heads in disbelief.
I don't know if he'll run in 2012. Probably not, but it may depend on whether he can find someone else to be "king-maker" for (or perhaps "queen-maker"). After reading some of the wing-nut comments on him, it seems that the biggest knock against Gingrich isn't that he's a RINO, but that he had the temerity to lose to Bill Clinton. There are many who still have not forgiven him for doing that.
Posted by: tacitus | October 30, 2009 1:09 PM
Not to mention he's a serial philanderer. I can't imagine the gentleman's agreement not to publish the depositions from his second divorce would hold if he became a serious candidate.
Posted by: Shay | October 30, 2009 2:13 PM
Yeah, well that's where his lack of empathy really hits home.
Posted by: tacitus | October 30, 2009 2:26 PM
Re: The guillotine.
Perhaps it would be a good idea to get them with a mocked-up window and then tell the GOPrayers that if they look through the window they can see Sarah the Impalinator riding a SkiDoo--nekkid!
Posted by: democommie | October 30, 2009 3:09 PM
Tactitus @ 14:
One would think that Newt's troubled personal life would exclude him from any serious consideration for a 2012 run.
However, the right (like the left, quite often) is capable of ignoring anything it doesn't wish to acknowledge even if said condition (e.g. Sarah Palin's lack of qualifications for being a heartbeat from the presidency in '08) is staring them in the face from three inches away.
Posted by: CHV | October 30, 2009 4:20 PM
In other words, another Richard Nixon.
Although I agree that a "New Nixon" would be necessary to transform the POG [1] into a viable political party, the irony is that the modern Republican Party is largely Nixon's creation. It was his cynical appeal to Southern bigotry and class-warfare know-nothingism as a cover for the older Republican plutocratic agenda that led to the situation today.
[1] Party of God
Posted by: D. C. Sessions | October 30, 2009 5:26 PM
Gingrich has three primary characteristics that should make him unelectable for any sort of executive office:
1) He has absolutely zero executive/administrative skills. The man is pure chaos. We shouldn't forget his own party fired him from being House Speaker, partly to due to this attribute (though mainly because of his on-the-record integrity failures).
2) Somewhat related to #1, Mr. Gingrich's policy passion is for whatever provocative statement he either last heard or last conjured up himself. The man is unable to envision a set of worthy respectable objectives, create a project plan to achieve those objectives and then execute that plan. Instead he's always trying to come up with an aesthetically attractive idea and selling it prior to it ever being vetted. He blew his wad with Contract with America. To consider the exact opposite of this approach - see Barack Obama.
3) His business is not competent public service and never has been. His business is getting people to pay him to influence the public square. While he's certainly smarter and more far more informed than Ms. Palin, they are very similar in terms of their objectives and why they appeal to people (though their messages and demographics do not completely overlap). Of course they seek power, but I think both of them also realize their chances at national electoral office are iffy while being a talking public head pays far better without having to bear the burden of being held accountable.
I do not want to compliment Ms. Palin by claiming she figured this out, instead I'd argue she's backing into it. That's why she was incapable of providing a cogent reason for quitting as Gov. in order to get the moolah from a book sale. It was a brain-stem reaction.
Posted by: Michael Heath | October 30, 2009 5:34 PM
Gingrich reminds me of this quote about conservatives:
"Conservatives are much like paleontologists. They dig through prehistoric garbage heaps and anything they discover they define as a new find."
Indeed, Gingrich's "new, refreshing ideas" are nothing more than repackaged nonsense from his political past. His hypocrisy, extreme views on social issues, and complete and utter political insanity would all prevent me from voting for this man.
Posted by: Matt | October 30, 2009 8:35 PM
Last I heard, Huckabee was polling stronger v. Obama than any other prospective candidate from the right, but '12 is a long ways off, so it's a bit early for that to mean anything.
And who would his running mate be? Somebody down-to-earth, you know, to fire up the base...got it!
Huckabee & Wurzelbacker, 2012!
Rt
Posted by: Roadtripper | October 31, 2009 1:21 PM
As one who has lived in a Gingrich district and has even met with (and talked with) the man, I can say without any hesitation or doubt that as the proceeding posts are too nice to that dishonest fucker.
Posted by: ursa major | October 31, 2009 2:06 PM