Forget everything that you have heard from others about Newt Gingrich. This is what the leaders on the left and the right are saying about Newt’s 2012 presidential run.

Dick Cheney on Newt Gingrich: “The thing I remember about Newt, we came to Congress together at the same time – ’78. When Newt showed up he said, ‘we can become the majority, we can take back the House of Representatives.’ We hadn’t had the House since the 1940’s. And initially, none of us believed him. But he was persistent and he was tenacious. He kept it up, kept it up, kept it up. Finally by ’94 he’s the newly elected speaker of the House of Representatives with a Republican majority. So I wouldn’t underestimate him.”

Bill Clinton on Newt Gingrich: “If you assume that nobody else gets in, then of those that are there then the question is ‘Can Speaker Gingrich pull what McCain did last time?’ The one thing that makes it very hard to count him out: He’s always thinking. He’s always got a bunch of ideas and some of them are pretty good. Ya know, so . . . the guy can still use his brain cells. You’re never really sure what happens there.”