BY RICH GALEN

Reprinted from mullings.com

Newt Gingrich sort of didn’t announce the formation of an exploratory committee as, earlier in the week, it had been reported he would be doing.

What Newt did announce was that he was “testing the waters” which is the step a candidate for President can take before he or she opens an “exploratory committee” which is the step a candidate takes before he or she opens a “campaign committee.”

Whew!

We’ve already discussed why the 2012 campaigns are taking so long to get going – social media, the ability to get on Fox just about any time they want …

SIDEBAR

Fox News Channel announced on Wednesday that the network had “suspended” both Gingrich and Rick Santorum pending their decisions whether to actually enter the race for President.

The use of the word “suspend” has a negative connotation which puts us in mind of MSNBC suspending Keith Olbermann or CBS suspending Charlie Sheen.

It appeared to me that the use of the word “suspended” was stronger than necessary to describe the fact Fox would delay paying them under the terms of their contracts.

Fox could have recast that action to say they were “putting their contracts on hold,” or “restricting their appearances” or even “putting them on injured reserve.”

END SIDEBAR

… but now that Newt and, if you think he counts, former Louisiana Congressman (as a Democrat) and Governor (as a Republican) Buddy Roemer, have dipped their testing toes into the electoral waters the dominos will begin to fall fairly quickly.

One of the reasons to get going is to iron out the kinds of kinks that were in full evidence in the Gingrich non-campaign this week.

Joe Gaylord, one of the most respected political minds in Washington and Gingrich’s closest advisor for two decades, did an interview with the Des Moines Register’s Tom Beaumont which was posted at 4:35 PM on Mar 1, 2011 – Tuesday afternoon. Beaumont wrote, referring to his conversation with Gaylord:

“Gingrich is expected to announce in Georgia on Thursday that he is forming an organization to explore seeking the 2012 Republican presidential nomination.”

In that version, the next line was:

“‘It is exactly that, an exploratory committee,’ Gaylord said in an interview.”

There! Right there! The magic phrase, “exploratory committee!”

However, in a later version posted at 12:43 AM, Mar. 2 – just after midnight Wednesday morning – that quote was deleted so the line after Beaumont ‘s graf now read:

“‘But you can’t say that this is tantamount to an announcement of candidacy,’ Gaylord said.”

Hard to tell whether Gaylord misspoke or Beaumont misquoted Gaylord and the Register corrected it in the later posting.

Further adding to the confusion was that it took until about 9:00 pm Tuesday night – nearly five hours from the original posting (and an hour after I’d been on CNN) – for Gingrich’s press shop to issue a “Clarification” which only spoke about what Gingrich would not be doing:

“Gingrich is not travelling to Georgia to announce that he will form “an exploratory committee” as stated in the Des Moines Register. To be clear, while Speaker Gingrich is in Georgia on Thursday, he will NOT announce the formation of an exploratory committee.”

Ok. No one will remember this next January when Iowans go to their fire stations and school cafeterias to vote in their caucuses, so the past 72 hours will not determine whether Gingrich will be the GOP nominee.

What it does show is the next six or seven months for Presidential campaigns are like spring training to a major league baseball team: It’s the time when you practice, metaphorically, having the pitcher cover first on a bunt, and working on the 4-6-3 double play; when you decide who will play which position and who will not make the team at all.

If the Gingrich campaign were up and running, some junior person in the press shop would have spotted the original Des Moines Register story on Monday afternoon, and the whole thing would have been either spiked, or the campaign would have reached out of friends and allies asking them to call reporters they know to clarify what Gingrich was going to do.

As it was the NY Times, Fox News, and CNN sent reporters and/or crews to cover the announcement. Newt took one question from a local reporter, said he was forming the “testing the waters” committee, and left the room.

Not an auspicious start, but it does signal the beginning of the 2012 cycle.

 

Editor’s Note:  Rich Galen publishes at mullings.com to which you can subscribe.  He is a former aide to House Speaker Newt Gingrich, a long-time public affairs and political professional who has had several tours of duty in Iraq working with the U.S. military’s public affairs operations.