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Newt: An Old Star on the Rise

Former House Speaker muses on his political future

By Drew Nelles, Newser Staff

Posted Dec 21, 2008 3:25 PM CST

(Newser) – Newt Gingrich has 1.1 million subscribers to his email list, 4,825 Facebook friends, and was the election's most influential voice outside the two presidential campaigns on everything from gas prices to the Wall Street bailout, Politico reports. So will the former speaker of the House run for president in 2012? “I’ll look at it in January 2011,” he says.

Gingrich still constantly emails congressional Republicans with ideas and has publicly gone head-to-head with his own party. His followers are eager to see him re-enter the political arena, but he’s coy about his public role: “I’m sort of like the guy out there taking care of the family farm. Because someday it will be their farm.” His detractors see things differently. “Newt’s ideas are about Newt,” one GOP strategist insists.

[Images (3)]

[Videos (1)]

[Quotes (3)]

In this Sept. 27, 1994 file photo, then-House Minority Whip Rep. Newt Gingrich, D-Ga., addresses Republican congressional candidates to pledge a new "Contract with America." (AP Photo/John Duricka, File)

"When he speaks, people listen. But if he were to run for office, his flaws have already been exposed," a GOP strategist says. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

Newt Gingrich has not ruled out a 2012 presidential run. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

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Newt Gingrich's influential YouTube clip, "3 Ways to Lower Gas Prices." (milliondollardude)

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There was a lot of nastiness that went on in the 1990s, between the Clintons and Gingrich. I’m not sure that that’s an ideal way to enter into a primary in a presidential campaign. - Tony Blankley, Gingrich's former communications director

[Gingrich] has 10 ideas an hour, and six of them may be brilliant, two may be decent, and two you don’t agree with. - Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.)

Republicans are gazing at the Reagan model and can’t get off it, and Newt provides a way to break the mold and start anew. The vitality of his ideas ultimately makes him effective. - Republican strategist John Feehery

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Newt: An Old Star on the Rise