Gingrich is popular despite no campaign

[Ron Burgundy]

AP - Conservative stalwart Newt Gingrich has done nothing to lay the foundation for a presidential run except talk, yet he ranks third among Republicans in most national polls.

The former House speaker from Georgia was addressing GOP activists Saturday at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference.

Over the past few weeks, at least four polls have put Gingrich behind only former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Sen. John McCain (news, bio, voting record) of Arizona. Ex-Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts came in fourth.

The ranking reflects Gingrich's status among the party's right wing as well as the Republican base's discontent with Giuliani, McCain and Romney.

Unlike Gingrich, all three are actively campaigning for the nomination and are considered the party's strongest contenders so far. Conservatives, however, are wary because they do not trust any of the three to sincerely champion their causes.

"A lot of Republicans are still searching," Wendy Nanney, chairwoman of the GOP in Greenville County, S.C., said recently. Her counterpart in Iowa's Henry County, Robin Malmberg, agreed: "Gingrich may be one that people can rally around."

Beloved by conservatives, Gingrich helped develop the "Contract with America" manifesto of 1994 and end four decades of Democratic power in the House. He abruptly resigned as speaker after a rocky four years and following the GOP's poor showing in the 1998 elections.

Now an author and lecturer, Gingrich remains popular in the party but has thus far spurned calls to seek the presidency. He insists he will wait until late September to make a final decision on running.

In the meantime, he has spent more than a year traveling the country and talking up policy proposals laid out in his 2005 book "Winning the Future: A 21st Century Contract with America."

He has said he hoped "to create an entire wave of new ideas" that the party or a presidential candidate could adopt as "big solutions" to problems such as health care, energy, education, national security and immigration.

Should the race appear locked up by fall with a candidate who is embracing such cures for the nation's ills, Gingrich has said he probably will stay out of the way. But if that is not the case, he has said he very well could jump in as a "last resort."

"If no one in the existing field has staked a strong claim on conservative voters by next fall, a Gingrich candidacy would turn the entire field upside down three or four times over," said Dan Schnur, a GOP strategist in California who is neutral in the race.

"If he does decide to run, conservatives will have been taking a look at this field for almost a year and not found anyone with whom they're comfortable," Schnur added.

While Giuliani, McCain and Romney have been busy, Gingrich has not taken any of the steps that traditionally lead to a presidential run. He has not formed an exploratory committee, which would help him raise money and gauge support. He does not have a national campaign headquarters or a campaign staff.

Still, Gingrich is clearly a favorite for some, and he could be counting on a groundswell of conservative support if he gets in the race.

So far, there's an online effort to encourage him to run, http://www.draftnewt.org

Last week, a presidential straw poll of members of Citizens United, a conservative advocacy group, found Gingrich getting the most support.

"This poll suggests that if he were to enter the presidential race, Newt Gingrich could be the heir to President Reagan whom conservatives are looking for," said the group's president, David Bossie.

If he does not get in, Gingrich could benefit from a year's worth of speculation about a possible White House run.

He now heads a consulting company in Washington, but all the buzz could help him lay the groundwork for a political second-coming. At the very least, the talk could be profitable — boosting both book sales and demand for appearances on the lucrative lecture circuit.

source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070303/ap_on_el_pr/conservatives_gingrich [link]

[ballz2wallz]

That's what I'm talkin bout...