Election 101: Ten questions about Newt Gingrich as a presidential candidate

The former speaker is a masterful strategist with a brilliant political mind. But a rocky marital record and a penchant for flame-throwing may jeopardize his candidacy.

2. Where does he stand on the issues? And who is his base?

AP Photo/Keith Srakocic
Former speaker of the House Speaker Newt Gingrich addresses the National Rifle Association's 140th annual meeting on April 29, 2011 in Pittsburgh.

Apart from championing small government, Gingrich is known more as a strategist than as an issues guy. He’s likely to present a standard GOP agenda, backing fiscally and socially conservative policies, though he has been known to take stances atypical of his party on issues like immigration, where he supports a guest worker program.

Unlike many of his potential contenders, Gingrich, who’s been out of politics since he left Congress in 1999, doesn’t have much of a cohesive base. He’s likely to pitch himself to evangelicals and the tea party, a rational move for any candidate in a Republican primary, says Michael McDonald, a political scientist at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va.

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