Newt on Jeb: Not A ‘Frontrunner’

New developments in the Romney/Bush hokey pokey come to us almost daily as we close the 2014 election year. And with continued reports that both Mitt Romney and Jeb Bush are meeting with key donors, inquiring political minds want to know which of them will blink first.

Having indicated last week that he will decide “in short order”, Jeb routinely appears among the top of the list of GOP presidential contenders and takes the lead when Romney is removed.

But Newt Gingrich, the former presidential candidate in 2012 whose star quickly rose before being shot down by Romney’s forces, believes Jeb is not a front runner. On a panel with other commentators at ABC’s This Week, Gingrich detailed that Jeb is

“one of ten or twelve people, we have lots of runners, no front-runner. Jeb Bush is not a front-runner, there are no front-runners. This is going to be a wide open race, probably the most open on our side since 1940.”

What Jeb does have working in his favor, however, is that the Republican Party has nominated a more moderate candidate for president in every single cycle since Ronald Reagan. The problem is that a hypothetical race that includes Jeb, Romney and Christie begs the question which moderate that might be.