![Republican presidential candidate and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich,speaks during an address to the 39th Conservative Political Action Committee February 10, 2012 at a hotel in Washington, DC.](https://pyxis.nymag.com/v1/imgs/385/771/a1d512c2376a6c41672c2453a54d312a20-10-gingrichcpac.rsquare.w330.jpg)
You wouldn’t know from the speech he gave at CPAC today how desperately in need of a game-changer Newt Gingrich is these days. The vast majority of his address was nothing more than an all-too-familiar laundry list of laws he’d like to repeal (Obamacare, Dodd-Frank, etc.) and reforms he’d like to make (replace the EPA with an “Environmental Solutions Agency,” track illegal immigrants the way Fed Ex tracks packages, etc.). There was only a minimal effort to provide voters with a novel, convincing argument for reconsidering his candidacy one last time. Maybe Gingrich is simply so certain of the inevitability of his third surge that he didn’t feel the need to make a big splash.