I don't have a dog in this fight, but...

[Lamplighter]

NEWT GINGRICH, The Politician

Newt Gingrich has spent his lifetime in politics, at local, state, and federal levels.
He is mostly known for his time, during the Clinton years, as Speaker of the House from 1994-1998.

During that time, he was effective, working with Clinton and the Senate, to approve balanced budgets.
He has a reputation (that he promotes) as being smart, intellectual, and hot tempered.
He also has a reputation as being more moderate than other Republicans,
and willing to work with Democrats on some issues.

But he still has the reputation of being the:
"most unpopular man in American politics" for his Contract for America
"the only Speaker of the House to be disciplined for ethics violations"
"the most hypocritical politician" during Clinton's impeachment proceedings.

Some of his national platform issues have been:
*replacing EPA with an "Environmental Solutions Agency"
*reopening all off-shore oil-drilling
*ensuring there are no new taxes
*abolishing the capital gains tax
*reducing the corporate tax
*abolishing the so-called death tax.
*100% deduction for business equipment in one year
*option to purchase private insurance instead of Medicare.
*opposition to Supreme Court ban on school prayer

And besides all that:

Gingrich is very confident of this abilities
In an interview, he said

He does not think he is smarter than the other presidential candidates,
only that he has spent more years— 53, he says—studying how to best lead the country.
"I don't know of anybody else who is around today who has spent
that much time," thinking about governing, he said.
"Bill and Hillary [Clinton] may be closest in the sheer length that they've thought about it."

And besides, besides all that:

Gingrich is currently challenged for his "consulting fees" from Freddy Mac and Fanny May.
He argues he was hired as a "historian" while others favor "lobbiest"
If it turns out to be the latter, Gingrich may have run afoul of federal laws on lobbying.

But Newt is very confident of his ability to change his image:

At one point during his dalliance with the Democratic establishment,
Gingrich joked that “one can gradually rebuild almost any reputation
if you pander enough to the authorities that write columns and show up on TV.”

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