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Newt Tests Waters
Another Republican in the Presidential primary race?
Good grief, this is getting ridiculous. On Friday, September 28th former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Newt Gingrich, announced he will embark on a fund-raising campaign to gauge interest in his candidacy for the Presidency. If he achieves his goal of raising $30 million dollars by October 21st, he's in the race. If this target funding isn't realized, he'll stay on the sidelines.
He added a number of Republican themes to his announcement, such as tougher border security and making English the official language of the United States. But still, $30 million in three weeks is going to be a challenge: "It's steep. This is like climbing Mt. Everest," he told the Associated Press.
Why Gingrich has waited this late is anyone's guess but it is probably a reflection of his dissatisfaction with the other (eight) declared Republican's policy stands and an innate feeling that no one in the race for his party's nomination could beat Hillary Clinton (the assumed Democrat nominee) in the general election in November 2008.
When asked by conservative talk show host Sean Hannity what he thought his chances of success are in raising this large a sum of money, Gingrich replied "About 20%."
Uh huh. Good luck at raising a third of that in three weeks, Newt.
