Newt Gingrich announces his presidential announcement

Newt Gingrich is going to formally announce his candidacy for president on Wednesday via Facebook and Twitter, according to an apparently informal announcement he made today via professional journalists. (And a Facebook post announcing his future announcement.) Announcing things is so complicated, these days.

After his official announcement, which has already been announced, the former House speaker will give an interview to Fox's Sean Hannity. And on Friday he will give a speech, at the Georgia Republican Party Convention. Then he will be an official candidate for president, instead of just a guy who is on TV all the time, kinda-sorta running for maybe-president.

Gingrich also already announced that he was maybe eventually going to announce something back in March. (Everyone briefly thought this was going to be a proper announcement, at the time, but it was not.)

Announcing your official candidacy on social media is a great way to help your grass-roots supporters feel personally involved in your campaign, unless of course it is just a half-assed, perfunctory social media "announcement" preceded by leaks to the press and followed by a major appearance on national television. Then you are simply making a transparent bid for media attention.

Now various people in the press will treat Gingrich like a "serious," "proper" candidate, even though he has about as much of a chance of actually winning the nomination -- let alone the presidency -- as Gary Johnson, who is an "unserious" candidate. (Because, like Ron Paul, he loves heroin.)

Newt Gingrich Announces Presidential Run on Facebook & Twitter

Former House of Representatives Speaker Newt Gingrich has announced that he will be seeking the Republican nomination for U.S. president in 2012. Gingrich’s plans were made public via Facebook and Twitter Monday, where he also asked supporters to tune into his Fox News interview with Sean Hannity on Wednesday night.

Gingrich made his announcement on the aforementioned social networks late Monday morning, with both his tweet and Facebook post going out at about the same time. “I have been humbled by all the encouragement you have given me to run. Thank you for your support,” Gingrich’s Facebook post says, before asking the public to watch Hannity at 9 p.m. Wednesday. “I will be on to talk about my run for President of the United States.”

As the Associated Press reports, Gingrich’s bid isn’t much of a surprise. The former speaker spent months raising money and assembling a campaign team, while quietly opening campaign headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia. He’s supposed to address the Georgia Republican Party Convention on Friday in Macon, Georgia — aides are saying this will be his first speech as a candidate.

Gingrich’s decision to enter the race marks a bit of a comeback for the politician, who became House speaker in 1994 — the first time Republicans had control of the House since 1954. But in November 1998, after facing ethics inquiries, Gingrich announced his decision to step down and leave Congress. Since that time, he has continued speaking about topics such as healthcare and foreign policy, while also producing documentaries and writing a book: Rediscovering God in America.

The former speaker isn’t the only political candidate to announce his run via social media. Last month, Mitt Romney — former Massachusetts governor — announced his 2012 presidential bid via a YouTube video. Former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty also announced his bid via Facebook in March. Meanwhile, President Barack Obama’s team is also pushing his reelection campaign via various digital initiatives.

Casey Anthony to Face a Jury of Her Peers Almost 3 Years After Daughter Caylee Disappeared

Casey Anthony

It’s the worst nightmare of every parent: a precious baby goes missing. Well, you would think it would be the worst thing that could happen to a parent.

How do you explain, then, mom Casey Anthony, and why she waited a month in the summer of 2008 to report to authorities that her daughter Caylee, just a toddler at the time, went missing, and even then it was Casey’s mother who alerted police?

Following the discovery of Caylee’s dead body just blocks from the family’s home, Casey was charged with murder shortly thereafter. Jury selection in her trial gets underway today and she is potentially facing the death penalty.


Jury selection will commence in Clearwater, Fla., not Anthony’s hometown of Orlando. A concern was raised that an unbiased jury so close to where the alleged crime was committed could not be found.

“I can’t find my granddaughter. There’s something wrong. I found my daughter’s car today and it smelled like there’s been a dead body in the damn car,” said Casey Anthony’s mom, Cindy, told police when she reported Caylee missing by calling 911.

Casey lied to authorities while they searched for Caylee, telling them she had investigated the disappearance of her daughter herself and she had apparently gone with a babysitter who could not be found. But instead of looking for her daughter, photos surfaced of her partying shortly after her daughter went missing. It has also been reported by ABC News that Casey showed little emotion in jailhouse conversations with family and friends.

The trial is set to begin May 16, and if she’s found guilty, Casey would face the penalty phase of legal journey immediately after.

Casey’s lawyers plan to argue she was not read her rights properly and that statements she made about the babysitter should be inadmissible.

Here’s hoping that justice is served in Caylee’s memory.

Casey Anthony no bin Laden, former lawyer says

Add caption

Casey Anthony dancing with an unidentified person. Photos of Casey Anthony partying during the time when she says her daughter was missing, prosecutors say, will be instrumental in their case.

The highly-anticipated trial of Casey Anthony is moving forward, three years after her daughter, 2-year-old Caylee Anthony, went missing in Orlando, Fla.

But because the casel has received so much attention, jury selection has been moved from Orlando where the trial will be held. Jurors are now being selected in Pinellas County, in Clearwater, Fla.




CBS News correspondent Kelly Cobiella reports that attorneys for the defense and prosecution have just five days to find twelve jurors and eight alternates.

Can impartial jurors be found on a case that's been thrust into national focus?

On "The Early Show" former Casey Anthony defense attorney Linda Kenney Baden said finding jurors is going to be "very, very difficult."

"Anyone you talk to on the street has an opinion on this case," she said. "And because it's been saturated with news media, especially in this day and age of social media, Twitter, Facebook, etc. it's going to be a very tough job."

Kenney Baden, a longtime attorney of Anthony's, left her defense team in October. She cited financial limitations in continuing to represent her. The New York-based attorney said she had incurred travel costs in Florida and elsewhere, but said, due to restrictions by the Justice Administration Commission, she could not be paid for these costs as an out-of-state attorney.

Kenney Baden told co-anchor Chris Wragge it's unrealistic to find jurors in the short five-day span they've been given.

"Usually, a death penalty case takes two-and-a-half-to-three weeks to select a jury," she said. "You want to make sure you take the time, because jury selection is the most important part of the case. If you don't take the time and get a good jury for both sides, neither side can get a fair trial."

The jurors, Cobiella pointed out, will have to give up two months of their lives sequestered in Orlando to decide whether Casey Anthony is guilty of killing her daughter and, if so, whether she should be put to death.

Kenney Baden said the problem with the jury today is sequestering them.

She said, "We haven't had a jury since (the) O.J. (Simpson murder trial) that's been sequestered for that long a period of time. And to try to take people away from their lives for two months, they're going to feel like they're in prison. The jurors are going to feel like they're subject to some type of problems. That is another problem. The people that can be sequestered for two months. Think about it. You can't have normal, real lives."

The trial is slated to begin May 17. The defense is already promising a "bombshell" on Day One.

Due to attorney-client privilege, Kenney Baden couldn't discuss the case in detail, but said she doesn't think the death penalty should be the punishment, should Casey Anthony be convicted.


"Do we see her as Osama bin Laden?" she asked. "We execute people like that. We execute people like Ted Bundy. This should not be a death penalty case. The amount of money going into this case when we have so many issues and so many real crimes out there against people that are brutal -- not that if she's not found guilty, it's not considered a brutal crime. But the death penalty is for the worst of the worst, and this is not it."

However, Kenney Baden did say the defense's biggest hurdle is the 31 days Casey waited to tell anyone her daughter was missing.

"No doubt about it," Kenney Baden said. "... Thirty one days is going to be the hardest part of this defense. That has to be explained."

Cobiella reported when 2-year-old Caylee Anthony disappeared in the summer of 2008, it was Casey's mother, Cindy Anthony, who finally called police.

At that time, Cindy Anthony told the 911 operator, "There's something wrong, I found my daughter's car today, and it smells like there's been a dead body in the damn car."

While a desperate search was launched for the little girl, Casey was taken into custody.

The 22-year-old insisted she had left her daughter with a nanny. But police have never been able to confirm that story.

In a prison call, Cindy Anthony said to her daughter, "Your gut tells you she's close or she's hiding."

Casey Anthony replied, "She's not far. ... I know in my heart she's not far."

Caylee wasn't far. Six months after she vanished, her skeletal remains were found less than a mile from her home.

In the following months, the district attorney has been building a case against Casey. Prosecutors say they have forensic evidence of hair found in the trunk of her car that they say came from the child's dead body. They also have circumstantial evidence - pictures of Casey, partying with friends while her daughter was missing. In a recent interview with CBS' "48 Hours Mystery," prosecutors said this is where the case will be won.

Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi told CBS News, "The photographs, I believe, are what's going to get her. The photographs of her out dancing, partying all night long. That is the most compelling evidence of all."

But Kenney Baden said, "We don't convict people on pictures. We don't convict people on 'she didn't act right' evidence."

There is no DNA evidence tying Casey to the field where Caylee's body was found, Cobiella points out, no confession and no evidence of how Caylee was killed. The coroner's report ruled her death a "homicide by undetermined means."

Casey's attorneys say she's not guilty.

"No cause of death as indicated," Kenney Baden said. "How can you say this is a brutal, heinous murder, if you don't even know how this child died?"

Cobiella added Casey Anthony's parents, Cindy and George, insist Casey is innocent. They're both defense witnesses. The judge made the unusual move of allowing them to sit in on the entire trial even before they've testified.

So can this be a fair trial?

Kenney Baden says that's the judge's responsibility.

She said, "The judge has to make sure that he gets good jurors, that no one is infected, that people don't intimidate these jurors, especially when it goes back to Orlando. I have a great belief in the jury system, but it's going to be difficult. ... I think this is a very, very firm judge. I do think that he has to lighten up on making sure he takes the time getting a jury and not impose these deadlines that are ridiculous."