Why didn't Gingrich run in 1996?

[Enderman]

Okay, I'm going to start a new timeline in the not to distant future, but one needs my reviewing. IN 1994 almost everybody knows about the Republican Revolution and Gingrich's plan for the new Congress' first 100 days...my question is, why didn't Gingrich run in 1996? If he did, would he win over Clinton/Gore, especially if he selected Kemp, Huckabee, Dubya, Jeb, Dole, or even Quayle? Maps would be nice....but seriously why?

[Obamanation]

Okay, I'm going to start a new timeline in the not to distant future, but one needs my reviewing. IN 1994 almost everybody knows about the Republican Revolution and Gingrich's plan for the new Congress' first 100 days...my question is, why didn't Gingrich run in 1996? If he did, would he win over Clinton/Gore, especially if he selected Kemp, Huckabee, Dubya, Jeb, Dole, or even Quayle? Maps would be nice....but seriously why?

Please, God, no...

[Enderman]

Okay, I'm going to start a new timeline in the not to distant future, but one needs my reviewing. IN 1994 almost everybody knows about the Republican Revolution and Gingrich's plan for the new Congress' first 100 days...my question is, why didn't Gingrich run in 1996? If he did, would he win over Clinton/Gore, especially if he selected Kemp, Huckabee, Dubya, Jeb, Dole, or even Quayle? Maps would be nice....but seriously why?

Please, God, no...

Okay my thing isn't about Gingrich...It's a story about a certain fictional person...but I might as well not do it anyways...

[Undecided Voter in the Midwest]

I think Newt was smart enough to realize that neither he nor anyone else was going to beat Clinton in '96, so he decided to wait until 2000 when he could run for an open seat.

By then though, Newt had a lot of other issues to deal with, and GWB had already moved ahead of him anyway.

[Enderman]

I think Newt was smart enough to realize that neither he nor anyone else was going to beat Clinton in '96, so he decided to wait until 2000 when he could run for an open seat.

By then though, Newt had a lot of other issues to deal with, and GWB had already moved ahead of him anyway.

If Lewensky hit before 1996, say a year previously, do you think he might have had a chance?

[Mr. Morden]

The frontrunner for the GOP nomination was Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole, who Gingrich was working with to press the GOP agenda in Congress, after decades out of power.  If Gingrich had run against Dole, it would have blown up their working relationship (which wasn't really that great as it was), and sabotaged everything they were working for.

On top of that, Gingrich was unpopular.  He wouldn't have stood a chance in a general election, even if Clinton's job approval numbers on election day had been meh.

Here are Gallup's favorability numbers for Gingrich over time, showing that he already had 51% unfavorability by April 1995:



Oh, and here's a Clinton attack ad against Dole, from the 1996 general election campaign:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LW11VuqcM0U

Note how, because of Gingrich's unpopularity, they show as many shots of Dole with Gingrich as possible, and refer to them as Dole-Gingrich.