Posted on 05/01/2007 5:20:08 AM PDT by areafiftyone
OKLAHOMA CITY --Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said Monday he is still eyeing a run for president and can't explain polls that show him ranked near the top-tier candidates for the Republican nomination although he has not formally announced.
"It's sort of frightening sometimes," Gingrich said. "Sometimes the guys who aren't running are doing better than the guys who are running. Why would you want to start running if you're doing better by not running than you would if you were running? I can't explain it."
Polls in some states show Gingrich, speaker from 1995 to 1999, running behind former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, U.S. Sen. John McCain of Arizona and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, but ahead of U.S. Sen. Sam Brownback of Kansas and Fred Thompson, an actor and former U.S. senator from Tennessee.
Gingrich said the 2006 elections in which the GOP lost both houses of Congress are a sign of disappointment among Republicans, and that his relatively high poll numbers may indicate that many people remember the 1994 Contract for America that he co-authored and his highly publicized spats with President Clinton.
Gingrich, 63, said he will not decide whether to enter the race until October following a nationwide Solutions Day workshop on Sept. 27 - the anniversary of the Contract for America.
"There are 511,000 elected officials in the U.S., from school boards to city councils to county commissions to state legislatures," Gingrich said. "To get the scale of change we need to successfully compete with China and India ... we need to have change across the whole system, not just in the Oval Office."
Gingrich, in Oklahoma City to speak to business executives about health care, said he supports the concept of executive roundtables "to really start learning how complex health is."
"I would say health is 30 times more complicated than national security," he said. "You have to move toward more prevention, more wellness, more early testing. If you manage your diet and your exercise, you can really have dramatic improvement in your outcomes."
On the issue of illegal immigration, Gingrich said he believes President Bush "is gradually moving in the right direction" on developing a policy that would control the nation's borders, enforce immigration laws on employers who hire illegal immigrants and create an identification system for immigrants run by a private contractor that would allow a person a swipe of a card to reveal their immigration status.
"The American people strongly want something along this line," he said. "I don't blame anyone for coming to America to earn a living. I blame America."
Gingrich also commented on former CIA Director George Tenet's new book, "At the Center of the Storm," and said Tenet should have resigned in the summer of 2001 if he believed he could not tell President Bush during their daily briefings about intelligence indicating that al-Qaida terrorists were planning a major attack on the U.S.
"If what he says in the book is true, then he should have resigned. And if what he said in the book is not true, then he shouldn't mislead the American people," Gingrich said.
Gingrich said he has grown weary of former administration officials who suggest that others were responsible for intelligence breakdowns that led to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
"They're covering their own ego and their covering their own reputation at the expense of the United States," he said.
Unfortunately I CAN explain the polls.
Newt Gingrich is an Intellectual Giant - and - a Political Newt.
Know what I mean?
That said - I welcome him - but mostly his ideas into the campaign.
He will force others to debate and confront his ideas - and that will be a good thing for all Americans.
His ideas YES - Newt, NO
I think with Newt in the Race the polls will be very very tight. It should make the race interesting to say the least!
8% in the latest Rasmussen Poll isn’t exactly a ringing endorsement to run. Fred Thompson is at 14%. The only way I see Newt running is if Fred doesn’t. Otherwise they split the conservative vote and allow Rudy to get the nomination.
((((((PING))))
I think Newt will run. He’s was actually the fist to take a laid back approach even before FT was even an idea.
fist-first
I know this might sound odd - but Newt might run just to get his ideas heard and to get them into the arena.
I think Newt is smart enough to know he won’t win - so he has to have other motives.
Does that make sense?
I realized he was running about a year or so ago. His last book from the Gettysburg trilogy was promoted almost exclusively in the primary states.
Actually I am all for him and FT getting into the race. It should be more fun that way. Now it is kinda dull.
Yep. If nothing else, he will make the debates interesting.
The more the merrier.
Newt's appearance with that jerk Senator from Massa chewedshetts (the one what ain't got the dead girl in the car) effectively takes him outa that argument.
Go away Newt. Work behind the scenes. Become the new Karl Rove and keep your face offn the TV>
I think thats an over reaction. Newt won’t win the GOP nomination, but he will add to the debates.
You never know what can happen if he gets in. Its’ a new era now. It’s no longer the 1990’s or 2000 anymore. The world is changing rapidly.
Thompson-Gingrich 08?
Never happen. Thompson/McCain will be more likely. They are very good friends. I think Thompson would clash with Newt.
It would be very boring if you could predict it accurately this far in advance.
Newt is the Green Conservative.
If the GOP is Dole-ish enough to nominate Gingrich, we will have either President Hillary or President Obama.
Gingrich couldn’t carry his out baggage nor a half-dozen states in the general election.
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