Newt has a couple of things going for him and one serious obstacle--lets start with that:

Gingrich has the highest negatives of any prospective candidate, even higher than Hillary Clinton (which doesn't seem to be slowing down her campaign any...). The only negatives that count though are the one's that affect the nominating process, which in Newts case mean his marriages, affairs and divorces. For a really, really smart guy, he runs his personal life like a moron. Social conservatives, and I count myself as one of them, believe instinctively, and in my case intellectually as well, that character counts. What makes successful leaders is not intelligence and talent, but intelligence, talent and character. The world is full of intelligent and talented losers that lack the emotional maturity to meet their potential.

Nevertheless, we are talking about politics and getting elected, and Newt knows that while Evangelicals hate the sin, they love the repentant sinner. It goes to the very heart of biblical Christianity--salvation by grace. If Newt can cast himself as the remorseful and repentant sinner, better yet if he really means it, he can and will overcome his past. The real problem is that he didn't start sooner--say two or three years ago.. George W. Bush found Jesus well before he ran for governor of Texas and had years to burnish the sheen of his saved condition.

Will six months be enough? Hard to say.

While Newt saved condition might be very newly-minted, his conservative bona fides are like old money--solid and respectable. I suspect James Dobson was party to this passion play because he worried about Giuliani's honest but politically non-viable social liberalism, McCain's situational ethics and Romney's convenient road-to-Damascus conversion--not to mention that he's a "damnable Mormon". With Gingrich, you get a conservative who truly understands his party's constituencies and won't be tempted to flirt with that liberal Democrat "bitch".

He's really smart. One of the reasons I find Gingrich interview appointment television (or radio) is that not simply that he takes conservative positions, but that he can articulate his reasons for taking those conservative positions. The first tier candidates are all smart guys as well, but none have Newt's facility. The other guys are smart too, but Gingrich has learned to communicate his points effectively in the "common venacular"--so not only do you get someone who can explain policy, but someone whose explanation the average Joe can understand.

Ultimately, the real question for Gingrich is can he win a general election? The smart money at this point, would probably say no.

But the smart money's been wrong before.

UPDATE: Decision '08 doesn't mince words:

What would happen then? I’ll tell you what would happen then: we’d lose the general election by the largest margin in modern history. It’s not a knock on Gingrich’s intellect, which few deny, to say that he is anathema to moderates and Democrats, and would pull in the base and only the base…thereby writing off about 70% of the U.S. population from the outset.