Gingrich Launching PAC, Talking About 2012

Reid Wilson has the details of a National Journal interview with Newt Gingrich in which the former speaker of the House — resigning 12 years ago, Democrats like to point out, after an election defeat and several scandals — mulls a presidential run. He’s also launching a PAC, becoming a skin-in-the-game political player (as opposed to a floating wise man and commentator) for the first time since, I think, 1998, when Democrats used his unpopularity to beat up on Republicans.

As he reflected on the arguments of a potential campaign, Gingrich mused, “I think that the three questions are: who are we [as a country], what do we have to do to compete successfully with China and India, and what threatens us and how do we stay safe?” If a GOPer could effectively organize a campaign around those themes, Gingrich said, “You’d be a [Ronald] Reagan or bigger majority coming together to say, ‘Yep, that’s the direction I want to go in.’”

Ronald Reagan’s majority or bigger! No one’s going to chasten Gingrich for his lack of self-confidence. I’ll just point out that Gingrich remains a fairly unpopular politician, a fact that his omnipresence in the Beltway and on Fox News sometimes obscures.