Newt Gingrich seeks the ultimate redemption A man of great strengths and great weaknesses, Newt Gingrich is at once the Republican Party's self-proclaimed philosopher king and its irascible, erratic showman. Having won Saturday's crucial South Carolina primary, the 68-year-old now finds himself with a real crack at the Republican nomination to challenge President Barack Obama for the White House in November. In a moment that will live long in US presidential campaign history, the former House speaker displayed on Thursday exactly why he is a formidable opponent whose surge should not simply be dismissed as a flash in the pan. Targeted with the first question of a high-stakes live debate in the heart of America's Bible Belt, Gingrich was asked to comment on the bombshell allegation from his ex-wife that he had once requested an open marriage. With his presidential hopes hanging in the balance, Gingrich struck out at the "destructive, vicious, negative nature of much of the news media," saying it was "as close to despicable as anything I can imagine." The stunning counter-attack, which played brilliantly to the innate conservative distrust of the liberal media, transformed the former House speaker from villain to hero and recast the whole 2012 presidential campaign. There are many reasons Gingrich might fail to become president, but lacking big ideas won't be one of them: the Republican with the instantly recognizable square head is a restless thinker. Critics lampoon him as a pseudo-intellectual who says whatever comes into his head -- whether genuinely important or ludicrous. Supporters tout his mental energy. Gingrich overcame a disastrous campaign start, an unphotogenic appearance, baggage from a spell in the 1990s as speaker of the House of Representatives, and a personal life that would sink most Washington careers. It is no coincidence his campaign anthem "Eye of the Tiger" features the lyric "just a man and his will to survive." Gingrich was born Newton Leroy McPherson in 1943 in Pennsylvania, growing up as the son of stepfather Bob Gingrich, a US army officer stationed in the United States, France and Germany. A sobering trip as a 15-year-old to the World War I battlefield at Verdun, France was his "calling" to politics, Gingrich says. It didn't take long for those ambitions to flower. As a young history professor, Gingrich stunned friends with his determination to enter Congress. In 1978, he succeeded. It was his third try and he'd learned to abandon early liberal tendencies for a conservative, family values message -- never mind growing rumors that he was cheating on his wife, or that he'd soon divorce. To some in Washington, the new kid was a laughing stock, mocked as "Newt Skywalker" for his futuristic dreams, like mining on the Moon. But Gingrich, who'd proclaimed even before his election that he'd one day become speaker of the House, would laugh longer. In the 1980s the young upstart led conservative Republicans against their own party establishment, while sowing partisan politics with hard-edged attacks on Democrats. His masterstroke was "Contract for America," a comprehensive reform plan that helped Republicans recapture the House in the 1994 elections and led to Gingrich's elevation to speaker. However, the triumph was short-lived. Infighting, gridlock and government shutdowns marked Gingrich's reign -- the kind of mayhem Americans are sick of seeing repeated in Congress today. Republicans got pummeled in elections and Gingrich, dogged by his own ethics questions and complaining about party "cannibalism," stepped down as speaker in 1998. Where critics see hypocrisy in three marriages and marital affairs while preaching family values, supporters find redemption and say that Gingrich, who converted in 2009 to Catholicism, has atoned for his sins. But there are also uncomfortable financial questions. Why, at a time of national economic disarray, was a newly announced presidential candidate some $500,000 in debt to jewelers Tiffany's? Should he have taken $1.6 million in payments from Freddie Mac, a government lender at the heart of the 2008 financial crash? Christian conservative rival Rick Santorum suggested on Thursday night that the former speaker is too erratic to be trusted with the highest office in the land. Grandiosity has never been a problem with Newt Gingrich. He handles it very, very well," Santorum jibed in the debate, adding of his speakership: "It was an idea a minute, no discipline, no ability to be able to pull things together." But Gingrich has always believed in his destiny. I have an enormous personal ambition. I want to shift the entire planet," he told The Washington Post in 1984 as a young Georgia congressman.