RE :”It would be a rocky road for Gingrich to the nomination,...”
While I respect him greatly, he is very smart and revived the party 93-94, he had a flaw in that democrats with lots of help from the media were able to successfully demonize him in 1995, and revived Clintons after failures of 1993-1994. (BTW: republicans never thought of demonizing Pelosi in 2007, DUHHH). Newt would say something we would agree with but in a way the libs could characterize as being extreme,over and over, It was how Clinton regained his job approval rating (GWB never thought of trying that, DUHHH). So Newt who is now a regular on FNC and Hannity needs a lead role that is not easily demonized,NOT PRESIDENT!
You can only do that if you own the Nightly News and the front pages of four or five major "papers of record" e.g. The New York Times. You need a certain critical mass to your echo chamber -- you need an echo chamber -- to make those kinds of things happen.