Newt Gingrich Is In For 2012

Last week, Newt Gingrich said he would make his decision on whether or not he would be running in 2012. He's made his decision and has formed an exploratory committee which is a required step in the process of becoming a candidate to run in a presidential election. He will announce his candidacy via Twitter and Facebook on Wednesday.

Newt Gingrich has quickly been assembling his team together: 

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich will tap Rob Johnson to manage his GOP presidential bid.

Rick Tyler, Gingrich’s long time communications aide who will be campaign press secretary, said Johnson will get the top campaign post. Johnson became an adviser to Gingrich about six weeks ago.

The 36-year-old Johnson is well known in Texas GOP circles, but running Gingrich’s presidential drive is likely to be considerably more challenging than his previous experience. Johnson ran Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s successful re-election campaign last year. Earlier he served as campaign manager for Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst in 2002 and then became his chief of staff.

Tyler said Johnson’s “special strength is how to harness the Internet for modern campaigns. He did that in Texas and he will have the same capability for Gingrich nationally.”

Gingrich will formally enter the race for the Republican presidential nomination by May 13.

Newt Gingrich will be a formidable candidate in 2012. He has the name reconition. People remember him fondly for the Republican surge in the 1990s in which he ended 40 years of democratic control of the House. People also know him well from the various articles, books, lectures, stories and media appearances that he makes. He is admired for his creativity and intelligence in coming up with innovative ways to resolve issues that face America. He's also well known for managing various different advocacy and for-profit groups which will help him indirectly in 2012.  

Running in 2012 won't be easy for Newt. He's a polarizing and controversial figure both on the right and on the left. He's undoubtedly controversial among many conservatives. For example, his recent religious conversion from being a Baptist to a Catholic has people praising or criticizing him for his new found faith. However, some people think his conversion to Catholicism will help him in 2012:

Some observers believe Gingrich’s newfound Catholicism, which came as he ought public forgiveness for his marital infidelity, could help his appeal among Christian voters by demonstrating that he has been “spiritually reborn.”

"Newt's conversion could affect his candidacy in an indirect way by helping him explain some of his decisions," Brian Burch, president of CatholicVote.org, said of Gingrich's three marriages and confessed affair with a Capitol Hill staffer, who later became his wife.

Although I am supportive of Newt's decision to become a Catholic, I highly doubt that his recent conversion will help him in 2012 in the way that people think it will. I don't think his conversion will help explain some of his controversial decisions politically or personally. For example, he claims his unfaithfulness as a husband was the result of working too hard for America. 

There’s no question at times of my life, partially driven by how passionately I felt about this country, that I worked far too hard and things happened in my life that were not appropriate. And what I can tell you is that when I did things that were wrong, I wasn’t trapped in situation ethics, I was doing things that were wrong, and yet, I was doing them. I found that I felt compelled to seek God’s forgiveness. Not God’s understanding, but God’s forgiveness. I do believe in a forgiving God. And I think most people, deep down in their hearts hope there’s a forgiving God.

Somebody once said that when we’re young, we seek justice, but as we get older, we seek mercy. There’s something to that, I think. I feel that I’m now 67 I’m a grandfather. I have two wonderful grandchildren. I have two wonderful daughters and two great sons-in-law. Callista and I have a great marriage. I think that I’ve learned an immense amount.

And I do feel, in that sense, that God has given me, has blessed me with an opportunity as a person. Forget about all this political stuff. As a person, I’ve had the opportunity to have a wonderful life, to find myself now, truly enjoying the depths of my life in ways that I never dreamed it was possible to have a life that was that nice.

Donald Trump made that same argument explaining that his marriages didn't do very well because he was working so hard as a business man.

While people have a hard time accepting Trump's explanations for his failed marriages, liberals and conservatives just completely roll their eyes when it comes to Newt's explanation of why his marriages have failed. Perhaps the explanation fails because he has a bad habit of cheating and then divorcing women who are in the midst suffering a terrible medical crisis: 

Let's remember, Newt famously dumped wife #1 for wife #2 while wife #1 was in the hospital recovering from cancer surgery. As in literally went to the hospital to present her with divorce papers while she was recovering from surgery for uterine cancer.

He eventually dumped wife #2 for wife #3 shortly after wife #2 was diagnosed with MS back in 1999. And he was having the affair on wife #2 with wife #3 while he was turning the country upside down trying to drive Bill Clinton from office over his affair with Monica Lewinsky.

That puts Newt Gingrich in the camp as John Edwards who cheated on his wife while she was fighting cancer. Both men are despicable douche bags for cheating on their wives like that. Which is why one conservative thinks Newt Gingrich shouldn't even run in 2012 at all.