Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich will begin next week to seek financial commitments from donors for a presidential-nomination bid, the Georgia Republican told The Washington Times yesterday.
If he can get pledges for $30 million over the next three weeks, he will join the Republican presidential-nomination race — a prospect he had been downplaying until yesterday.
But the prospect of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York winning the Democratic nomination and the presidency is moving more voters to seek him out, he told The Times.
"As people have grown more worried about the Clinton machine and the prospect of a second Clinton presidency, more and more people have been approaching me about running," Mr. Gingrich said.
"Next Monday, Randy Evans, my friend and adviser since 1976, will hold a press briefing and explain how he intends to review whether it is realistic for me to consider running," Mr. Gingrich said.
"I am happy to compete in the world of ideas, but to compete in modern campaigns you have to have at least a threshold of donations," he said. "We believe that threshold is about $30 million."
"If Randy reports back in the next three weeks that there are that many people who want a strong advocate to debate Senator Clinton and present new solutions and new approaches, then Callista and I would have a real duty as citizens," he said, referring to his wife.
Can you say The Oral Roberts Fundraising Strategy? If Newt doesn't raise his $30 million, will God call him home? Will Ronald Reagan call him home? Are Republican voters this gullible to where they will respond to this crass Gingrich pitch of "Give money to my campaign, or else?" This disturbing sales pitch has been done before with television evangelist Oral Roberts, asking his audience to give $8 million, or God will "call him home," which is a euphemism for death. So Gingrich has decided to revive this idiotic sales pitch, asking his GOP voters to give his presidential campaign $30 million up front, or else Hillary Clinton will become president. Or maybe it is not idiotic, but rather selfish on Newt Gingrich's part. Newt Gingrich may want to become president, but he didn't want to spend the time and effort campaigning for the GOP nomination as the other candidates have done. But when you had a July 17, 2007 AP-Ipsos poll showing Republican candidates picking "None of the Above" over the top-tier candidates, it is no wonder that Newt Gingrich is licking his chops now for jumping into the race as the latest GOP "white knight." The problem for Gingrich is that he doesn't have a campaign staff or money to finance a campaign this late (or early?) before the Iowa caucus in January. So Gingrich is demanding a huge infusion of campaign cash from Republican voters before he would even consider entering the race. And if the GOP voters don't pony up the $30 million needed for Gingrich to enter the presidential race, well Gingrich scares the voters with some "Or else Hillary Clinton will become president" statements. I don't think I've seen anyone express such blatantly crass presidential ambitions than I've seen with Newt Gingrich here--not even John McCain, who certainly has some blatant presidential ambitions, has stooped as low as Gingrich has in practically demanding that the GOP voters hand him the nomination on a silver platter.
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