If Gingrich is Serious, He's Not Serious

So Newt Gingrich might run for president.

But don't get too excited (or horrified, depending on your view of the former speaker), if he was being straight up in his comments about a presidential bid, he'd be more of a stalking horse than a real contender.

According to The Washington Post's Juliet Eilperin (also a HuffPoster), Gingrich told a Brookings Institution luncheon that he is eyeing an '08 bid.

From the Post:

In remarks that were critical of both parties' recent performance, Gingrich told a luncheon group of scholars and reporters at the Brookings Institution that he will make a decision in the fall of 2007 about running.

"If at that point there's still a vacuum . . . then we'll probably do something," Gingrich said, adding that his policy pronouncements have more weight if he is seen as a potential presidential candidate. "If you're interested in defining the idea context and the political context for the next generation of Americans, which I am, the most effective way to do that is to be seen as potentially available."

The important part of that excerpt was the latter part of the Gingrich quote. He wants to help shape the debate and context of the election, and he can do that more effectively as a presidential contender, because the press will pay him more attention.

But the days when a serious would-be candidate could wait until the fall before the New Hampshire primary before deciding to run for president have long since passed. (For those of you keeping score at home, those days were called 1992.) With primary schedules increasingly front-loaded, the cost of running for president has soared -- meaning that the serious contenders are already lining up their fundraising and grassroots networks. And they'll step it up starting November 8.