WASHINGTON (CNN) – Newt Gingrich is talking out loud about a possible run for the White House in 2012. “Calista and I will look seriously, and we’ll probably get our family totally engaged, including our two grandchildren, probably in January 2011, and we’ll look seriously at whether or not we think its necessary to do it,” Gingrich told reporters in Ashland, Virginia last night, according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
“And if we think it’s necessary we’ll probably do it,” he said. “And if it isn’t necessary we probably won’t do it.” The former House Speaker told the New York Times magazine something similar in a profile published over the weekend. “I think I’m closer to Benjamin Franklin than to George Washington,” Gingrich told the magazine. “I’m a contributor to my country and to my times. If it turns out that there’s a moment when it makes sense to run, then I’ll run. But if I end up never being able to run, then it won’t devastate me.”
Gingrich briefly flirted with the idea of running for president in 2007, telling supporters that if he could raise $30 million in a three-week period he would enter the race, but ultimately decided against entering the race.
- Lift the rock
- Place the newt back under
“And if we think it’s necessary we’ll probably do it,†he said. “And if it isn’t necessary we probably won’t do it.â€
Newt is a piece of work. Just what would be the criteria for it to be “necessary” for him to run for president? I can’t think of any.