1) He has name recognition
2) Thus, he's a placeholder for everyone unhappy with Giuliani/Romney/McCain who doesn't know the other candidates. And that's MOST people, becuase, again, FR is not the Republican Party.
3) Whatever gains Hunter or Brownback or Tancredo eventually make, therefore, will come out of Newt's support.
4) The "Fantasy" I'm referring to is Newt winning a general election against any Bipedal Hominid the Democrats run. Newt has demonstrated electability in one fairly conservative Congressional district in Georgia, NOBODY wants a president named "Newt", people don't want to see Newt's face on TV or behind Presidential podiums, and much of the country either hates Newt or thinks he's a has-been joke.
And once again, though I hate having to point this out over and over, I don't understand how people cannot distinguish their personal opinion of a candidate from their opinion of how the great mass of other voters think about a candidate - you have to at least know or be able to understand the views of other people to understand what a hopeless candidate Newt is.
Did you ever notice that those same polls that the Rudy boosters like to cite keep showing Newt in either second or third place with 15-20%. For a "fantasy" who's not running he seems to be on a lot of Republican voters minds.