Republican aspirants start gearing up for 2012

Washington: Little more than four months into President Obama's first term, potential Republican rivals have begun to stir, taking preliminary steps toward 2012 presidential campaigns aimed at rejuvenating a party that has found itself at its lowest point in a generation.

Twice this week, the political community has seized on signs of activity among prospective Republican presidential candidates.

On Monday, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney delivered a speech at the Heritage Foundation, where he slammed Obama for having taken a foreign "tour of apology" earlier this year.

Having run unsuccessfully for the Republican nomination in 2008, Romney was seen as forcefully expressing his interest in running again.

The next day, Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty announced that he will not seek reelection next year, voluntarily stepping down after his second term.

Pawlenty was runner-up to Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin in Arizona Sen. John McCain's 2008 vice presidential sweepstakes and his move was interpreted as a step toward a possible 2012 presidential run, freed from the cumbersome responsibilities of managing a state while campaigning full time for more than two years.

A third Republican governor, Mississippi's Haley Barbour, has scheduled appearances in New Hampshire and Iowa for later this month.

Barbour, a former party chairman, will be helping raise money for Republicans on his forays to the two states at the front of the presidential nomination calendar.

But as one of the canniest politicians in the Republican Party, Barbour well knows that landing in either of those states, let alone both, will stoke speculation about his interest in 2012 as well.

And when former House Speaker Newt Gingrich on Wednesday tried to roll back his accusation that Obama's Supreme Court nominee, Judge Sonia Sotomayor, was a racist, that too was taken as a sign of Gingrich's desire to shed baggage should he decide he would like to seek the nomination.