Newt: An Old Star on the Rise

Newt Gingrich has 1.1 million subscribers to his email list, 4,825 Facebook friends, and was the election's most influential voice outside the two presidential campaigns on everything from gas prices to the Wall Street bailout, Politico reports. So will the former speaker of the House run for president in 2012? “I’ll look at it in January 2011,” he says.

Gingrich still constantly emails congressional Republicans with ideas and has publicly gone head-to-head with his own party. His followers are eager to see him re-enter the political arena, but he’s coy about his public role: “I’m sort of like the guy out there taking care of the family farm. Because someday it will be their farm.” His detractors see things differently. “Newt’s ideas are about Newt,” one GOP strategist insists. 
(More Newt Gingrich stories.)