[Preechr]

I'm saying he will run based solely on his hateability-by-max.

As THE Contract for America guy, he has great potential to attract the conservative base that's being led into disheartened (-ity? -ness?) by Rove's 5th year plans for the Bush presidency. I think the campaign machine is being steered in that direction. It's likely that Newt is going to be utilized as a booster this year to allow Republican Congressmen to distance themselves from the president without losing the GOP support structure.

He might prove to be the guy for a presidential run in 08, or maybe just a solid VP candidate. I think he's in the game again, though, and he did not come back just to help out. He's gunning for the front row. I think Kerry's attempt showed him that the old rule about Senators' glass ceilings may no longer apply in the right campaign.

I'm expecting Newt to increase his profile dramatically over the summer months, and after the elections, I think he might even team up on some level with Zell Miller, depending on what Hillary and John McCain do. Zell won't completely switch sides, and I don't see Newt and Zell running together, but they will ally, I believe, against the mutation of their respective parties from either of those angles.

I think Newt has presidential ambitions, but I only see him going as far as a VP for a solid Republican cadidate that does not yet exist. Santorum would be the Republican Hillary, and McCain... I just don't see the GOP going that way willingly. The Senators Kevin mentioned don't have the power Newt might muster to overcome the glass ceiling, IMO.

I don't think the decision has been made yet. I do believe that Dubya will keep his profile low with regard to the elections this year, and that those that are sent out to beat the bushes by the party for this campaign season will be being field tested for the top slot position in 08. By paying close attention, we'll be able to see a little deeper into the party, as they will be exposing their selection process, and thus their criterion, to observers.

There is no candidate now, and they'll need one within a year to eighteen months. Will they pick a mutable figurehead, as max suspects they did with Bush... or go with a runner from the hard-right, like Santorum? Whomever and whatever they come up with, we will probably be able to see pretty easily why he was selected, and thus be able to extrapolate the general direction of the entire campaign.

It's not about any particular candidates electibility with the Republicans, as it is now with the Dems. The Republicans back those whose election best serves the party.