For a time, Gingrich was the face of the guess handbags Republican Party, for better or worse. He survived a coup attempt by some of his lieutenants in 1997 guess handbags. He stepped down as speaker after his party suffered embarrassing losses in the 1998 midterm election and later left Congress. That could have ended his public career. But he resurrected himself and has become the CEO of an idea-generating mini-conglomerate that is uniquely his.
Gingrich's move toward the 2011 fashion trends race came Thursday, with the announcement that he will begin testing the waters for a potential campaign. That is a legal nicety, given federal election laws, that keeps him one step short of a candidacy. It will also allow him to conclude whatever business obligations he has from his various enterprises before formally announcing a bid.
But unless there is some hiccup in the next month or two, Gingrich will be in the forefront of the race for guess handbags the GOP presidential nomination. His rivals do not underestimate his intelligence, creativity and political acumen, nor should they buy guess handbags online. He will be a major force in defining the direction of the party at a critical time in its history.
Gingrich's attributes could take him a considerable distance in the race. He should be able to raise the money necessary to compete. He has a network of connections built over decades of grass-roots work. He has able advisers who have been loyal to him through his long career and who understand his weaknesses and his strengths.
He would excite Republican voters with his nonstop ideas and his knowledge of history. He would impress them with his big-picture view of the country and its politics. He would be fierce in debate, showing a command of the details of domestic programs and the world's hot spots. He would have a global view shaped by his long experience and his conservative philosophy.
All this comes naturally to a politician with an insatiable appetite for information and an ability to process it and turn guess handbags into his own message. He understands the Republican base, though he has never been slavish in following its every desire. He understands presidential power, having jousted with Clinton in the mid-1990s enough to absorb what made the president such a worthy adversary.
Over his career, Gingrich has been a brilliant provocateur. It is his natural stance as a politician, owing to the battles that shaped his early years in the House. He has railed for so long against what he once called "the corrupt liberal welfare state" that he easily slips into overdrive in his condemnations of the left.
That may rouse the base, but it has rarely been a winning formula in a presidential campaign. His passions and exuberances are clear. More pertinent is whether Gingrich could show the steadiness, the calm and the maturity that voters seek in a president - both in his public words and comportment and in the way he would allow his campaign to be run.
His success depends on many factors, some beyond his control. But if there is a single quality likely to determine his fate, it is one that has sometimes been missing in his public career: discipline.
Does Gingrich have the discipline required of all successful presidential candidates - the discipline to keep his guess handbags focus, to avoid meaningless fights, to ignore barbs from his guess handbags critics, to show statesmanship? The answers will soon be forthcoming.
