Top 3 Reasons Why Newt Gingrich for President in 2012 is Doomed to Fail

The speculation whether Newt Gingrich would indeed throw his hat into the ring as a bona fide Republican contender for the presidential nomination ended Monday. Bloomberg Business Week outlines that the 58th speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives is ready to discuss a run for the highest office.

Gingrich was a well-known insider in American politics during the tenure of Bill Clinton. While he hoped that the 1994 Contract with America -- which also featured the assistance of Tom DeLay and John Boehner -- would define his political legacy, as outlined by the Heritage Foundation, scandal followed Gingrich and still threatens to mar his reputation. Interestingly enough, it is not even his tenuous grasp of personal situational ethics that could derail his run before it even starts in earnest.

Perhaps the most damning disadvantage is the House Ethics Committee move to officially reprimand then-Speaker Gingrich in 1997. Granted, House Democratic Whip David Bonior was out for blood when leveling 84 charges against the Republican, but at least one of them stuck. Leading to this charge was what the Washington Post described as the "use of tax-deductible money for political purposes" and subsequent "inaccurate information supplied to investigators." In plain English, House members concluded that the Speaker had used money inappropriately and then lied about the facts.

Tax fraud and monetary deceit do not play well with the electorate. At a time when President Barack Obama levels the battle cry of taxing the rich, it is more than likely that Gingrich will be painted by opponents as one of the "fat cats" who breaks the rules when it suits him. There is little doubt that a country which is just barely clawing its way out of a recession will have a hard time entrusting its future to this type of fiscally flawed Republican.

Another significant disadvantage is Gingrich's polarizing nature. Perhaps it is his personal politicking or simply the positions he chooses to champion. Yet while President Obama attempts to portray himself as the bridge-builder across the aisles and champion of bipartisanship -- and especially after the calls for more civilized political discourse in the wake of the Gabrielle Giffords assassination attempt -- Gingrich cannot deliver in kind. In fact, his divisive politics led to his stepping down in 1998. The New York Times recounts a telephone conversation in which Gingrich acknowledged that "we have to get the bitterness out. . . . It is clear that as long as I'm around that won't happen."

While past tax-related ethics violations and a polarizing political persona are just two of the disadvantages the former speaker brings to the table during a 2012 presidential run, his apparent lack of popularity with the voters cannot be discounted. The April 2011 New York Times/CBS News poll shows that -- between April 15 and April 20 -- only 23 percent of the electorate had a favorable opinion of the would-be candidate, while 37 percent were clear in their dislike. Only 17 percent conceded that they had not heard enough about the candidate to form an opinion.

In comparison, Mike Huckabee tallied 32 percent of favorable ratings -- and 54 percent of Republicans, as opposed to Gingrich's 42 percent -- while Mitt Romney drew 28 percent of favorable opinions. It is clear that even Republicans would much prefer a candidate of Huckabee's caliber than the Newt Gingrich they have come to know, perhaps admire but most likely also consider sufficiently flawed.