Newt Gingrich Leaning Toward Presidential Run: I'm 'Much More Inclined To Run Than Not Run'

WASHINGTON -- Former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich continued to tease the media on Sunday, saying that he is now leaning toward running for president in 2012, although he won't make a final announcement until spring 2011.

"We're much more inclined to run than not run," he told "Fox News Sunday" host Chris Wallace, and pointed to Mike Huckabee and Mitt Romney as the current GOP frontrunners.

Nevertheless, all of this may be nothing but hollow rhetoric. As Salon's Justin Elliott notes, Gingrich "has a history going back to 1996 of making empty presidential campaign threats. They are a great way to get free publicity, especially when you're in the political fundraising business, as Gingrich is. And journalists play their part too, repeatedly asking Gingrich the same question, despite his crystal-clear, oft-repeated position."

In recent weeks, Gingrich has been ramping up the fundraising activity of his American Solutions PAC, outraising Romney's committee and coming in just below Sarah Palin's PAC.

Gingrich has also been trying to increase outreach to Latino voters, a growing constituency that helped Democrats win close Senate contests in Colorado, California and Nevada.

"We are not going to deport 11 million people," Gingrich said Thursday at his forum on Latino issues. "There has to be some zone between deportation and amnesty." He also said some parts of the DREAM Act -- which most Republicans have resisted supporting -- are "useful," but didn't like the fact that some people who came here illegally would be able to jump ahead of people waiting to go through the legal process in their own countries.

Gingrich, however, is also serving as an informal adviser to House Republicans and has advocated some of the movement's more extreme positions, such as another government shutdown, similar to the one he orchestrated in 1995.

Comments

[Anthony D Butler]

08:32 PM on 01/27/2011

Can someone please throw a bucker of water on this guy..Don't worry the flying monkeys ca find another job.

[sourceview]

07:55 PM on 12/20/2010

The high unemployment rate is a direct result of Republican corporate greed and the coporate welfare afforded banks, who can borrow billions for zero interest and turn around AND BUY GOVERNMENT BONDS AT A PROFIT. The incentive to loan to small businesses is not there. It just like two faced Gingrich, who was a major cause for the Nation's problems when he was in the house, and resigned for a pattern spanning decades of adultery. Who can trust this snake but other snakes?

[jwilson1]

04:57 PM on 12/12/2010

Please don't you old dog.

We need to find some real leadership this time. Vet Vet vet the next candidates and make sure the can stand up to the task.

How about and Independent candidate???

[gtalkspolitics]

01:29 PM on 12/08/2010

Newt Gingrich saying that he is now leaning toward running for president in 2012 HE WON"T WIN, too much dirty laundry...

[Anthony D Butler]

08:42 PM on 01/27/2011

Your kidding right, Republicans are excited about the prospect of getting to vote for Sarah Palin, They'd vote for a sack of turnips if it was evil enough, or they could get their hand far enough up its butt to make its mouth move.

[devilirium]

12:57 PM on 12/08/2010

Newt's suggestions about the President's "Kenyan, anti-colonial" worldview were false, hateful and toxic, and they were designed to inflame and to attract media attention. (Which they did, sadly.)

He obviously covets the celebrity of "The Nincompoop" (to paraphrase Peggy Noonan, and, yes, I'm scaring myself for doing it) as well as the wealth that comes with it. But you can't make irresponsible comments one day and be taken seriously as a "policy wonk" the next.

[Clos]

01:31 PM on 12/07/2010

Regarding the last Presidenti­­al election and a now famous Republican female celebrity.­­..

Answer:
Obama
McCain and
Sarah Palin

Question: Name a HOPE a NOPE and a DOPE

[redgramma]

11:21 PM on 12/06/2010

Who would be more irritating to listen to - Newt or Sarah?

[CarlIII]

03:51 PM on 12/12/2010

I've heard both. Palin is a moronic uneducated bigot. Gingrich is a brilliant, highly educated bigot. I think the Witch from Wisilla is a thinned skinned hate filled reactionary. Gingrich has proved in the past to be a thinned skin hate filled reactionary. I'd say their irritating quotant is equal.

[tinka]

08:46 PM on 12/06/2010

Newt Gingrich-Clip Notes
As Speaker 84 ethics charges were filed against him
’96 as Speaker shut down government for lack of funds
During House Banking Scandal he bounced 22 checks
’97 House voted 395/28 to reprimand & fine him $300K
Had a mistress while questioning the Clinton affair
Married 3 times and converted to Catholicism in ‘09
Believes in permitting prayer in public schools
Locking in Americans, believes in total border control
Stated in an interview that water boarding is not torture
Avoided the Vietnam War through family deferments
Used subsidies for his partisan college campaign course
Forced to resign as House Speaker & Congressman ‘98
Believes the GOP can be taken over by 3rd Party (Tea?)
Thinks he is too intellectual to be a natural leader
Thinks political leaders should focus on building a majority first

[nutty4tahoe]

04:43 PM on 12/06/2010

Are we on Candid Camera??

[nutty4tahoe]

04:40 PM on 12/06/2010

Oh joy. Oh joy. Just what we need, another blare arsse all over the TV. Hopefully the media won't find him quite so titillating as Sarah Palin.

[Bronxdude]

02:17 PM on 12/06/2010

John Ensign (adulterer), Mark Souder (adulterer), David Vitter (adulterer), Mark Foley (soliciting boys for sex), Larry Craig (soliciting men for sex), Dick Cheney (querulans paranoia), Rush Limbaugh (addict), Ann Coulter (confabulation psychosis), Chuck Grassley (imbecility), Glenn Beck (hate monger), Sarah Palin (narcissistic pathoneurosis), Newt Gingrich (adulterer), John Boehner (homophobic), Mark Sanford (adulterer), Duke Cunningham (convicted felon), Tom Delay (convicted felon) and  Bob Ney (convicted felon): The meltdown of the racist, misogynistic, homophobic and xenophobic GOP brain trust charged with restoring America’s “traditional values,” which is code for resurrecting Jim Crow, continues unabated. While touting their morally superior Christian values, and simultaneously promoting themselves as the self-appointed messianic saviors of America, these holier-than-thou, self-righteous buffoons underscore the toxic hypocrisy and caustic ignorance that undergirds conservatives—the party of perverts, birthers, tea klansmen, liars and double standards. It would seem that in order to be republican, one must willingly abandon independent thought and never stray from the fear mongering script provided by Limbaugh—de facto GOP leader. Because republicans are a wholly owned subsidiary of Fox News, no matter what concessions democrats offer, republicans will never support the middleclass. Using McCarthyism fear tactics, republicans will label as socialist any initiative that benefits working-class Americans. Historically, republicans have never wavered in their opposition to social security, Medicare, Medicaid, public education, school lunch programs and housing for the poor, just to mention a few.

[eric steven]

02:16 PM on 12/06/2010

"Nevertheless, all of this may be nothing but hollow rhetoric."

Will they show the videos of him in the Senate screaming, telling off Democrat senators where the camera cuts and you see that there is actually NO ONE THERE!!! ..total hollow rhetorical grandstanding...

[Northwestgirl]

02:12 PM on 12/06/2010

Wow- talking about ego - does he seriously think he has a chance, or is he writing a book and needs the publicity?

[SabeWhat]

02:19 PM on 12/06/2010

Repeat show - a new book is coming out. He has done this during how many presidential elections now? When will his public catch on?

[timetraveler2039]

01:55 PM on 12/06/2010

If he's leaning forward, he needs a better girdle!

[Biscuit]

01:53 PM on 12/06/2010

What a dream... Newt Gingrich versus Hillary Clinton. She'd crush him, and relish it.

I'm not saying that I don't want Obama to run. I'm just saying I'd love to see those two fight.