Editor's Note: This candidate entry was launched as part of our ongoing coverage of the 2012 U.S. presidential election. For more explanations, please read KYM Forum – Special Coverage of 2012 U.S. Election. If you'd like to get involved in improving this entry, please request editorship!

About

Newt Gingrich (born June 17th, 1943) is an American politician who served as Georgia's 6th congressional district representative from 1979 till he resigned after serving as the 58th Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1995 to 1999. While speaker of the House, Gingrich was a leader of the impeachment proceedings against President Bill Clinton. He is currently seeking Republican candidacy for the 2012 U.S. presidential election.

Online History

The domain for Gingrich's official website Newt.org^[1] was registered on October 28th, 1995, the same year he became the 58th Speaker of the House of Representatives. In 2011, 4chan enabled a wordfilter that would replace the word "pony" with "Newt Gingrich." The official Newt Gingrich Twitter account has 1,416,988 followers and his "public figure" Facebook page has accumulated 246, 341 likes as of January 23rd, 2012.

2012 Presidential Campaign

Gingrich officially announced that he would be seeking the Republican presidential nomination in 2012 on May 11th, 2011. According to a New York Times^[10] article published on June 21st, 2011, several key members of Gingrich's campaign left at the same time, causing doubts about his campaign's potential success. On January 3rd, Gingrich finished 4th in the Iowa caucus trailing behind Santorumm, Romney and Ron Paul. Gingrich finished 5th place in the New Hampshire primary on January 10th behind Romney, Santorum, Huntsman and Paul. On January 21st, Gingrich won the South Carolina primary with a decisive 40% of votes cast. According to the Boston Herald^[14], political analysts credited his victory in South Carolina to Texas governor Rick Perry's endorsement before the suspension of his campaign

"Open Marriage" Scandal

In an interview on ABC's Nightline on January 12th, 2012, Marianne Gingrich claimed that during their marriage she had declined Gingrich's proposal to have an "open marriage."^[13] During the Republican debate on January 19th, CNN anchor John King opened the debate by questioning Gingrich about his ex-wife's claim that he had approached her seeking an open marriage. Gingrich responded by calling the question inappropriate, and scolded John King for opening the debate with the question:

Several Newt Gingrich advice animal entries have been created on Quickmeme^[11] with many submissions referencing his previous marital problems:

Callista Gingrich's Face

On December 5th, 2010, Newt Gingrich posed for a photo taken by Kris Connor of Getty Images with his wife Callista during the 33rd Annual Kennedy Center Honors at the Kennedy Center Hall of States in Washington, DC. The photo was subsequently posted by the English-American political blogger Andrew Sullivan to the Atlantic.^[7]

A facebomb derivative was subsequently posted to BuzzFeed^[5] on January 1st, 2011. The same image reached the front page of the /r/funny^[6] subreddit on January 23rd, 2012 and accumulated over 800 up votes in 7 hours. Several other derivatives have since been created using the original Kennedy Center Hall photo.

On January 11th, 2012, BuzzFeed posted an exploitable series titled "Things That Make Callista Gingrich Sad" featuring a photo of Gingrich holding a yellow umbrella photoshopped into various scenarios.

Personal Life

According to an article published in the Montgomery Advertiser on January 4th, 1995, in 1962 at the age of 19 Gingrich married his first wife Jackie Battley, his former high school geometry teacher, when she was 26. The couple had two daughters, Kathy Gingrich Lubbers and Jackie Gingrich Cushman. In 1980, Gingrich left his wife after having an extramarital affair with Marianne Ginther. Jackie Battley claims he informed her that he wanted a divorce during a hospital visit while she was recovering from surgery, which was later refuted by their daughter Jackie Gingrich Cushman. Gingrich married Ginther in 1981, but began having another extramarital affair with House of Representatives staff member Callista Bisek in 1993. Gingrich divorced Ginther seven years later and married Bisek shortly after that year.

Search Interest

Search queries for "newt gingrich" remained relatively low prior to his announcement to seek the GOP 2012 presidential nomination in May of 2011.

External References