Newt Gingrich has come out on top in several Republican presidential polls since mid November. The former House Speaker has climbed from the low single-digits in October. In a nationwide Fox News poll Gingrich received the backing of 36 percent of GOP primary voters, Mitt Romney came in at 23 percent, and Ron Paul got support from 12 percent.
A Washington Post/ABC News survey in Iowa shows Gingrich commanding 33 percent followed by Romney and Paul at 15 percent each. Last month, a Rasmussen Reports poll in Iowa gave Gingrich the lead over Romney by a margin of 32 percent to 19 percent so Gingrich is pulling away. A poll of South Carolina Republicans this month by Winthrop University had Gingrich leading Romney by nearly 17 percent.
In a CNN/ORC International Poll conducted Nov. 18-20, Gingrich got the support of 24 percent of Republicans and GOP-leaning independents. Romney received 20 percent backing. Herman Cain received 17 percent support and was followed by Rick Perry at 11 percent. Those polled said Gingrich was the most likely to understand complex issues and the best qualified to serve as commander in chief.
Gingrich also came out on top in a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll conducted Nov. 13-17. He edged out Romney for the lead among Republicans and GOP-leaning independents by a margin of 22 percent to 21 percent. Texas Governor Perry was the choice for only 8 percent of Republican voters.
Recent statements and Gingrich’s past may damper his frontrunner status once GOP voters learn more about him.
On Friday in an appearance at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, the former Speaker of the House called child labor laws “stupid.” On Saturday, Gingrich said Occupy Wall Street protesters should “take a bath” and “get a job.”
Gingrich has faced questions over his role as a consultant for Freddie Mac. From 1999 to 2007 he was paid at least $1.5 million for strategic advice. While Gingrich has disputed that he was ever a lobbyist, in a separate incident the Washington Examiner found that he tried to convince Capitol Hill Republicans to add a prescription drug benefit to Medicare while being paid by drug companies. Clients of Gingrich have also included Microsoft, General Electric, I.B.M., the US Chamber of Commerce, and the pharmaceutical trade group PhRMA.
In 1998, Gingrich was forced out as Speaker of the House and resigned from Congress due to mounting ethics scandals and widespread concern that his personal life had become a political liability. During his term as Speaker, eighty-four ethics charges were filed against him. There were also allegations of tax improprieties. After he resigned, most of the charges were dropped.
Gingrich has been married three times. His first wife, Jackie Battley, told the Washington Post in 1984 that the divorce was a “complete surprise” to her. Battley told the newspaper that in September 1980 Gingrich brought up divorce with her while she was in the hospital recovering from cancer surgery.
Gingrich also received criticism for leading Republican impeachment proceedings against President Bill Clinton in the 1990′s while he was simultaneously cheating on his second wife, Marianne Ginther. Gingrich divorced Ginther in 2000. Soon thereafter, he married his third wife, Callista Bisek, a former congressional aide who was in her 20s when she and Gingrich began their extramarital affair.
Within days of formally announcing he would run, Gingrich was assailed by conservatives for criticizing a plan to remake Medicare that Republicans pushed through the House. “I’m against Obamacare, which is imposing radical change, and I would be against a conservative imposing radical change,” Gingrich said. “I don’t think right-wing social engineering is any more desirable than left-wing social engineering.”
In June 2011, most of Gingrich’s senior campaign aides left the campaign en masse, leading to doubts about his candidacy for President. Those leaving included his campaign manager and senior strategists. Aides in the early primary and caucus states of Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina also left.
Tags: Gingrich marital affairs, GOP presidential polls, lobbyist, Newt Gingrich candidacy
The circus goes on and on. NOW the guy who was kicked out of the House, who wants child slave laborors working for the 1%, who is twice divorced and who had an extra-marital affair with his current wife…is ahead. AMAZING!!
More than ever, as I look at the sorry set of Republican “rivals” , I am THANKFUL to have Barack Obama as President, and candidate for re-election. Mr. Obama: your heart, your values, and your basic decency are all in the right place. But your hands are tied by a Congress that just lets the 99% BLEED, and then blames you. These people have no shame, or else it’s been purchased by those that can afford to do so.
Heck, in her last years, Grandma gets a meager Social Security check, and they DARE to call it “socialism”. Give me a break! …and Grandma too. Instead of LESS government, instead of LESS taxes on the 1%, instead of MORE corporate welfare, and instead of MORE painful cuts to those who can LEAST afford it….we need a government that WORKS, a government that works FOR ALL OF US, not just for the rich.
That’s why we need to elect a Congress that will work with President Obama in his second term-instead of sabotaging both him and the 99% . Mr. Obama: you STILL give us hope.
Bill Maher has done a good job describing the Republican candidates, He called Rick Perry “a drinker,” Mitt Romney “a phony,” and Gingrich “a fat womanizing blowhard.” Our choices were so much better in 2008. John Mccain puts this crop to shame.
Newt may do great at informing the public in his Rediscovering God in America, but never in a million years would I pick someone with so many hypocritical ethics problems to honor with the title Leader of the Free World. No way on Earth. I mean what a message to our children… anything goes as long as you call yourself a ‘R’ it’s A-okay.