Newt...

Newt announced his candidacy for President in 2012 yesterday.

Since his departure from politics, and specifically his role as Speaker of the House, I can't say I have entirely dissapproved of Newt's role. He has maintained himself rather well, has developed a far more pro-active style of presentation to his views, and has adopted (or reinforced) a very impressive ability to present an historical perspective to his ideas and goals.

I'm still not sure he has a shot, though.

What does it say of the GOP today that the best "conservative" candidate running (and I do mean that... he's probably got the best plan of them all) is also a former Speaker that beat all the Democratic "mudslinging"... but resigned because of Republican resistance to his efforts? Gephart, Boehner, DeLay and Armey gave him an honest-to-God ultimatum: resign or be voted out. The man that beat 83 of 84 ethics charges leveled by DNC leadership members gets run out of the third-highest office in the land by his own party members.

Add to this the fact that there was no louder or prouder champion of the effort to impeach Clinton than Gingrich, and I think you have all the ingredients called for in the recipe for defeat. The mainstream American Democrat and most of the moderates still unregistered in this country are going to look back on the Clinton era as the "good ol' days", and a name like Newt Gingrich is not going to bring pleasant memories back for those old enough to remember that winter of 1998. He presided over the 1995 shut-down of the Federal goverment... unpopular then, so what can that mean today?

{sigh}