Gingrich decides against presidential run

WASHINGTON POST

CARROLLTON, Ga. — Former U.S. House speaker Newt Gingrich decided Saturday against running for president in 2008, less than a day after the Republican indicated publicly that he would spend the next month exploring the viability of a White House bid.

Gingrich said the last-minute change of heart, which came as aides readied the NewtNow.org Web site and prepared to file campaign papers, was the result of legal advice that running for president would require stepping down as chairman of his nonprofit organization, American Solutions.

That group is the latest vehicle for Gingrich’s musings about politics and policy, and opened its first-annual “ideas summit” Saturday at a Georgia college an hour west of Atlanta and with webcasts on the Internet.

“American Solutions is in the early stages, I think, of becoming a genuine national citizens movement,” Gingrich told reporters. “To walk out of it just as it’s getting launched struck me as absolutely irresponsible.”

Gingrich has spent the better part of a year teasing the media and his supporters with the idea that he might run for president. He has condemned the political process that requires candidates to start campaigning years ahead of the election and to raise tens of millions of dollars.

At times, his criticism of the American electoral process made it sound unlikely that he would run. But more recently, he said he would run if he received $30 million in pledges toward a presidential campaign.

Aides had scheduled a news conference for Monday morning in which Gingrich was set to announce the formation of an exploratory committee. Randy Evans, Gingrich’s lawyer, said they had prepared the papers, opened a bank account and severed Gingrich’s ties as a consultant for Fox News.