Laden with baggage, Newt Gingrich tries to defy odds

By Michael Kranish and Brian C. Mooney

Globe Staff / January 1, 2012

Text size – +

E-mail

As NewtGingrich seeks the Republican presidential nomination, he is fighting not just for the country’s future, as he often proclaims, but also against his past. If he loses his bid, the reason might be summed up in a single word used against him in a recent advertisement: baggage. He has alienated countless Republican leaders, preached morality while committing adultery, and earned millions of dollars from some of the same special interest groups he has criticized. But if hewins the nomination, such a victory would doubtless be traced to his ability since childhood to come up with a grand idea and then fight for it against the odds.

For more from BostonGlobe.com, sign up or log in below

To continue, please sign up or log in to BostonGlobe.com

Access the full articles and quality reporting of The Boston Globe at BostonGlobe.com

Sign up

Unlimited Access to BostonGlobe.com for 4 weeks for only 99¢.

Are you a Boston Globe home delivery subscriber?

Get FREE access as part of your print subscription.

Start here

BostonGlobe.com subscriber

Click to continue reading this article or to log in to BostonGlobe.com.

Single Page
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9

E-mail

Gingrich’s life as an elected
politician seemed over. Having once hoped to ‘shift the entire planet,’
he now sought to reshape himself.
When 19-year-old Newt prepared
to marry his 26-year-old former teacher, his stepfather refused to attend and his mother wanted to go inside but ‘I couldn’t do it,’ she said.
So in a formative moment of
abandonment, passion, and determination, Gingrich said his vows.