HOT FOR TEACHER:

Gingrich On 2012: Palin "Is Very Formidable" (JENNIFER SKALKA, February 2, 2009, Hotline)

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrigh said today that the 2012 Republican Party nominee will emerge from "a wide open field" -- but he suggested that AK Gov. Sarah Palin would have a "substantial advantage" in Iowa, the first-in-the nation caucus state, where she has "a very big base."

"If Sarah Palin seeks out a group of sophisticated policy advisers and spends time developing a series of fairly sophisticated positions," Gingrich said during his 33rd visit to the Christian Science Monitor breakfast series, "she is very formidable."

She seems increasingly likely to force everyone but Mike Huckabee and Mitt Romney--who have nothing better to do--from the race.

Posted by Orrin Judd at February 3, 2009 11:05 AM