Newt Gingrich Wants You to Look at His Record, Not Personal Life: Will You?

Yes, Newt Gingrich has enough skeletons in his closet to kick-start the most amazing Halloween party ever. But with Mike Huckabee and Haley Barbour bowing out of the 2012 GOP nomination race due to a lack of belly fire (insert joke here) and Mitt Romney still swinging wildly to swat away universal health care bugaboos, former House Speaker Gingrich is kind of, sort of, emerging as a front runner.

Yet after finally announcing his candidacy last week, Gingrich is still battling to keep the focus on his achievements and notorious policy wonk credentials -- and not on his messy personal life.

On NBC's "Meet the Press" on Sunday, Gingrich's message was clear: judge me by what I can do for America now, not by the mistakes of my past, according to CNN.

He admitted to mistakes in his past, such as an adulterous affair that led to the second of his two divorces, but Gingrich thinks he has what it takes to lead the country at this crucial moment in our history.

"I think that if people watch me, talk with me, get to know me, my hope is that a majority of Americans will decide that I can help this country get back on track in a way that no one else can," said Gingrich, who is often portrayed as a brilliant political mind, but a not-particularly savvy communicator. "And if they decide that that's true, then I think we will have a very successful campaign. But people have every right to ask the tough questions and to measure somebody personally."

Gingrich, 67, said the nation is at a crossroads on three main issues, the economy, our core values and national security. Not surprisingly, his fix for the ailing economy is the traditional conservative patch, lower taxes and ease regulation to spur job creation while focusing on national security. Like anyone seeking any higher office, he is also in favor of "rethinking" how Washington works, but in a break with party orthodoxy, he criticized the GOP's proposal to overhaul Medicare and replace it with a voucher system.

Those ideas could all come out in the wash, though, if voters are lead to focus on the fact that Gingrich pushed for President Clinton's impeachment for lying to a federal grand jury about an affair with an intern even as he himself was carrying on an affair that crashed his second marriage.

"I have made mistakes in my life. I had to go to God to seek forgiveness and reconciliation," Gingrich said of his indiscretions, which also include asking his first wife for a divorce while she lay dying of cancer in a hospital. But, Gingrich said people must "decide whether or not I am today a person who can lead the country and save us from enormous problems."

Do you think voters will focus on Gingrich's personal life or his record?