[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/images/03/06/art.gingrich.gi.jpg caption="Gingrich is mulling a White House bid in 2012."]WASHINGTON (CNN) - Newt Gingrich is talking out loud about a possible run for the White House in 2012.
“Calista and I will look seriously, and we'll probably get our family totally engaged, including our two grandchildren, probably in January 2011, and we'll look seriously at whether or not we think its necessary to do it,” Gingrich told reporters in Ashland, Virginia last night, according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
“And if we think it's necessary we'll probably do it,” he said. “And if it isn’t necessary we probably won't do it.”
The former House Speaker told the New York Times magazine something similar in a profile published over the weekend.
“I think I’m closer to Benjamin Franklin than to George Washington,” Gingrich told the magazine. “I’m a contributor to my country and to my times. If it turns out that there’s a moment when it makes sense to run, then I’ll run. But if I end up never being able to run, then it won’t devastate me.”
Gingrich briefly flirted with the idea of running for president in 2007, telling supporters that if he could raise $30 million in a three-week period he would enter the race, but ultimately decided against entering the race.
Though he’s mulling a run, Gingrich said it may be time to pass the torch to younger crop of leaders. He told the Times-Dispatch that he sees the Republican Party “moving towards a whole new generation” and predicted that Virginia Rep. Eric Cantor, the House Minority Whip, is on the path to becoming Speaker of the House.
Please Newt – It is necessary.
You'll bring the pendulum back from the far left at which it currently resides, while keeping it from going to the far right of the previous 8 years.
We now got Obama and are wanting him out that soon? And to say the least, the idiots now want Gingrich in '12? This country is on maximum overdrive at warp speed and on on autopilot to boot, to the bottom of the turlet...Dayum,,,lemme outta here!!!
This shows how low the Republican party has sunk. Maybe they can have a Newt/Rush ticket?
We wouldn't be dealing with Newt if the progressive media hadn't supported such an economically inept liberal president. Thanks alot CNN...
RUN!!!
Having heard Gingrich speak and read his books, this guy's got the right ideas at the right time. He'd be a GREAT person to run against Obama...
RUN, NEWT!
Sure, why not?
Resurrect this political cadaver and the "Contract with America" too!
We all know how well that worked out, right kids?
This miscreant left office in disgrace and is now hailed as some sort of statesman?
Oh the insanity of it all.
Ding!
At this point. Any warm body that can balance a checkbook is better than Obama.
Just what we need another serial adulterer. If his wives coud'nt trust him why should we?
Why is he talking about that now? He should have waited. Now he will be marked as the Obama fighter for 4 years. He will loose before the race even starts.
If you look at the last 40 years, there have only been 2 politicians who ever actually subscribed to, and followed to a tee, the doctrine of Reaganomics, which calls for lower taxes, and spending cuts, and Reagan wasn't one of them.
Bill Clinton and Newt Gingrich.
And for those few years in the mid to late 90's, we had lowering unemployment and Budget surpluses.
Oh, please........Adulterers belong in a confessional not the White House.....
Now that's true vision. A 'traditional values sleazebag' with a knack for dividing the country rising to the top of the Republican Party? What a deep bench. We've turned a corner.. a 360 degree corner.
Newt will lead our party to victory against the American people.
Nightmare !
Bring it ON Newt! A polarizing right wing nut-bag versus what is rapidly becoming a centrist administration. Bravo! It's WAY past time that the true majority of the country (those of us in the center) had a pragmatic administration to get us out of the lunacy of past ideological governments. I predict that your middle name will become "GOP sacrificial lamb", roasted on the spit and served with spicy couscous. Mmmm, I'm savoring that already! (I'm sure that your ex-wives are too!)
Wow, first Limbaugh is the face of th GOP and now Newt is planning to run. More gifts for the Democrats.
Newt is one of the most partisan people in the US. Were there no Republicans awake during the last election when voters were crystal clear that they were tired of the type of politics that Rush and Newt represent?
If this warmed-over political corpse is the best that the GOP has to offer, let's swear in President Obama for a second term now.
No Newt is good Newt.
This will go nowhere. By the time 2012 rolls around, no one will have any stomach for the Republicans who devised the "Contract on America" and led the nation into political chaos. The face of American politics is going to change rapidly and there will be no place for the old partisan back-biting that defined politics in the 1990s.
if it's necessary we will, if it's not necessary we won't, save yourself the time and money gingrich, it's NOT necessary.
Oh please....he is the ulimate hypocrite!
so thats the new face of the RNC. Newt Gingrich. LOL
No Newt you can't win!!! We need someone new, Not you!!! Are we ever going to learn Reps? Are we?
Concerned Republican.
You have got to be kidding! This is not the direction the GOP needs to go – not Gingrich, not Cantor, not Jindahl, not Limbaugh(even worse choice) but to Pawlenty or Crist.
ok who cares about this old man.