Newt's '07 Strategy

In a meeting with reporters yesterday, ex-Speaker Newt Gingrich finally dished out some details to his thinking about the '08 campaign.

According to the Washington Post, Gingrich plans to launch a campaign in the fall of '07, if there's a "vacuum." Translation: if there's no frontrunner.

It's an interesting gambit considering that most of the '08 aspirants in both parties are going to crawling all over each other trying to announce first. But as we learned in the '04 WH Dem primary, some of the early frontrunners had burned out by the fall of '03 which gave a candidate like Wesley Clark an opening.

Gingrich is a well-known figure and doesn't need to raise the same amount of cash that a Romney, Allen or even a McCain needs to raise. And Gingrich doesn't doesn't necessarily wear well in a long campaign, but he could be very intriguing in a four-month sprint in Iowa. Both primaries are going to be in need of "new blood" by the fall of '07. On the Dem side, there are two candidates who could employ Newt's fall '07 strategy: Al Gore and Barack Obama.