Late Returns: Gingrich Takes Us Down A Familiar Path

Late Returns: Gingrich Takes Us Down A Familiar Path

At long, long last, one of the presumed contenders for the 2012 nomination is planning to formally enter the race, sort of. That person: Newt Gingrich, who is expected to "announce his intention to form a presidential exploratory committee before on [sic] Thursday in Atlanta."

I think it's worth reminding everyone that Gingrich has only done two things since leaving elected office in disgrace over a decade ago: pretend to run for president, and cash in on the publicity. Now, it's entirely possible that Gingrich is serious this time. I mean, one just doesn't form exploratory committees willy-nilly, right? Well, most people don't. But most people aren't Newt Gingrich.

Throughout 2007, Gingrich performed this same dance, stringing reporters along with announcements about when he would announce his 2008 intentions. He even went so far as to announce that he would be looking into setting up an exploratory committee, and gave every indication that he would, indeed, go through with it. And then, at quite literally the last possible moment, he reversed course and announced that he would not run, but instead focus on his non-profit group.

Obviously, there's no recently-launched nonprofit group for Gingrich to worry about now. Instead, he'll have to worry about the bullseye he'll be painting on his back for the other contenders and their surrogates to target. (POST-TUCSON DISCLAIMER: "Bullseye" is a metaphor, and the only things that will be aimed at it by rivals are rhetorical flourishes.) To wit: here's Nikki Haley, summing up Gingrich's candidacy: "There was a place and time for him."

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- Mike Huckabee says that he doesn't want any part of that whole birther mess. But how do you dogwhistle at the birthers so that you don't lose their votes? This is how. [UPDATE: A Huckabee spokesperson now says that Huck "misspoke," and "meant to say the President grew up in Indonesia." That doesn't exactly track with the context of the point Huckabee was making, however, which was a D'Souza-esque riff on Obama's attitudes of the British being shaped by the Mau Mau Uprising, which did not take place in Indonesia, obviously.] [AP]

- Virginia Senate race state of play: "A new Public Policy Polling survey finds a Virginia U.S. Senate race between former Sen. George Allen (R) and DNC Chairman Tim Kaine (D) would be a dead heat at 47% each." (Allen leads Perriello and Boucher) [Political Wire]

- Sarah Palin, who had a secret sock-puppet Facebook account that was set up so there was at least one person in the world who would always "like" the things Palin did, also had a secret sock-puppet Twitter account set up to follow Palin's real account. Again, the reason why a person would do such a thing escapes me, but what do I know? Everyone agrees that Sarah Palin is some sort of social media genius. [Wonkette]

- Palin, of course, has an army of fans willing to do almost anything for her -- like caucus for her in Iowa, maybe? Well, maybe not. But Palin fans will be showing their strength on March 13th, when they will pull off on the side of the road and have some sort of Lysistrata with their cars, or something. [Wonkette]

- Haley Barbour is the latest potential GOP contender to criticize the singular achievement of putative front-runner Mitt Romney -- his invention of "Obamacare." [Politico]

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