Despite some minor technical difficulties delaying his long-anticipated announcement, Newt Gingrich officially jumped into the 2012 presidential campaign late yesterday afternoon by declaring his candidacy for the Republican nomination via Twitter and Facebook.
“I’m announcing my candidacy for President of the United States because I believe we can return America to hope and opportunity, to full employment, to real security, to an American energy program, to a balanced budget,” Gingrich said in a YouTube video announcing his candidacy.
He later appeared on Sean Hannity’s Fox News program.
Gingrich, then a brash young college professor, was initially elected to the U.S. House in 1978 after losing narrowly to a longtime Democratic congressman in 1974 and again in 1976. He hasn’t faced the voters as a candidate since the 1998 midterm elections when he was re-elected to an eleventh consecutive term, but resigned from Congress before taking his seat.
In joining what is expected to be a crowded field of conservative contenders for the GOP presidential nomination, the former Speaker of the House said that he will offer a new “Contract With America,” similar to the 1994 document that not only laid out the GOP’s legislative agenda and vision for smaller government, but helped the Republicans gain control of the U.S. House of Representatives for the first time in forty years.
“We’ve done it before. We can do it again,” said Gingrich, long considered one of the most polarizing and divisive figures in American politics.
Gingrich, who left Congress under a cloud of ethics violations in 1998, could be a factor in the 2012 Republican race, a contest currently without a clear frontrunner.
His fundraising prowess alone — his vast array of think tanks, advocacy organizations and political action committees took in nearly $30 million in the past two years alone — could give him the kind of staying power to remain in the race long after the Iowa caucus and the New Hampshire and South Carolina primaries.
Though not all of it’s favorable, the former Georgia lawmaker — arguably the closest thing to a policy wonk or intellectual giant the GOP has to offer in 2012, warts and all — also enjoys the kind of name recognition that most of the other candidates in the Republican field can only envy.
A Gallup Poll released Tuesday showed Gingrich’s name recognition at 84% among Republican voters, with nearly seven out of ten saying they have a favorable or very favorable view of him.
While Gingrich, 67, unquestionably carries a lot of baggage into the race — his two divorces, both of which were preceded by affairs, including one while he was leading impeachment proceedings against Bill Clinton for perjury during the Monica Lewinsky scandal, as well as his penchant for making controversial statements — it might be a mistake to underestimate his potential viability as a candidate, especially given the American people’s propensity for forgiveness and redemption.
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