Brooks:

Of all the major Republicans, the one who comes closest to my worldview is Newt Gingrich. Despite his erratically shifting views and odd phases, he continually returns to this core political refrain: He talks about using government in energetic but limited ways to increase growth, dynamism and social mobility.

As he said in 2007, “It’s not a point of view libertarians would embrace, but I am more in the Alexander Hamilton-Teddy Roosevelt tradition of conservatism. I recognize that there are times when you need government to help spur private enterprise and economic development.”

Look at American history, Gingrich continued, “The government provided railroad land grants to encourage widespread adoption of what was then the most modern form of transportation to develop our country. The Homestead Act essentially gave away land to those willing to live on it and develop it. We used what were in effect public-private partnerships to bring telephone service and electricity to every community in our nation. All of these are examples of government bringing about public purposes without creating massive taxpayer-funded bureaucracies.”

***

GINGRICH: The Contract with America was probably the most conservative, successful legislative platform in modern times.

DOMENECH: And, of course, that Contract is one that your primary opponent Mitt Romney did not support. I wanted to ask you a question based on –

GINGRICH: That’s not totally fair. He was running for — He was running to the left of Teddy Kennedy in Massachusetts in 1994. And he said flatly, he wasn’t for the Reagan-Bush policies, he was independent. And he couldn’t possibly have been for the Contract because, how do you run in Massachusetts to the left of Teddy Kennedy favoring a Gingrich Contract?

***

“I’m fairly certain the president’s not even aware of those accusations.”

Rick Perry slammed President Obama’s “war on religion” in an Iowa TV ad this week, but on Friday a White House spokesman said the president hasn’t paid any attention.

Carney has said in the past that Obama doesn’t pay much attention to the Republican presidential field. Despite that, Obama’s reelection campaign certainly keeps a close eye on front-runner Mitt Romney and has held conference calls targeting his record in the past. But Carney offered a mild slap at Perry when he said he would “limit” his comments on the “struggling status of some presidential campaigns.”

***

“Obviously, Iowa and New Hampshire are very important to us because of both their historic position and the intense vetting of candidates that their citizens provide,” Paul’s campaign manager Jesse Benton told POLITICO.

In a far cry from his ragtag 2008 effort, Ron Paul is looking beyond the traditional early state contests and gearing up for a long primary slog that lasts at least through Super Tuesday.

It’s a strategy that could make Paul a player at the Republican convention in Tampa, Fla.

“Our campaign has worked very hard in both of those states, and we plan to do very well,” he said, but he added, “We are also, however, looking beyond those states to the delegate selection process and have organizational structure and voter contact programs in multiple states that will caucus through February and on Super Tuesday.”

***

“Is it possible that, if Romney collapses, Huntsman could arise as the moderate-Establishment alternative to Gingrich? Anything is possible, but I doubt it. I don’t even think that’s what Huntsman is trying for. As I’ve written before, I think he’s trying to position himself to win the nomination four years later.”

I hear this all the time, but really — if this is what Huntsman is hoping for, then he needs to dunk his head in a cold bucket of reality. If Barack Obama is re-elected and the Republican nomination is up for grabs in 2016, there will be a long list of heavyweights ready and rested and ready to compete for the prize— Jeb Bush, Chris Christie, Bobby Jindal, Marco Rubio, Bob McDonnell, and probably other up-and-comers as well. (Not that all of these big names will run … but if one takes a pass another will be waiting in the wings.) Many of them will more than match Huntsman’s presumed ability to appeal to centrists and independents, while vastly exceeding his (seemingly-limited) capacity too win conservatives. All of them will be able out-raise, out-organize and out-buzz a guy who couldn’t rise to the top of the weakest presidential primary field in my lifetime. Any Huntsman 2016 campaign would be an asterisk, at best, to what would probably be a genuine intra-party slugfest.

***

You know what the primary fight is beginning to look like now, right?