SEVEN years after he disappeared into seeming political oblivion, Newt Gingrich, the former Republican revolutionary who became President Bill Clinton’s congressional arch nemesis, is plotting an eye-catching comeback.

The author of the Republican party’s 1990s declaration of intent, Contract with America, now has a new political manifesto. He will begin selling it this week in those states that traditionally make or break the ambitions of politicians who want to be president.

Gingrich will arrive in New Hampshire tomorrow and will travel to Iowa next month. His visits to the two states that vote first in the presidential primaries have ignited speculation that he is preparing a bid for the Republican nomination to succeed President George W Bush.

In an interview last week he made no secret of his interest in the 2008 election: “If I want to be effective at defining the idea framework for 2008, there’s nothing I can do that’s more effective than go to New Hampshire and Iowa. That’s the place to get your attention.”

Asked if that made him a presidential candidate, the former Speaker of the House of Representatives replied: “That’s a conversation we ought to have in the summer of 2007. The minute I talk about candidacy . . . everyone is going to get into horserace baloney. From now until 2007 we ought not to focus on personal ambition.”

Gingrich’s re-emergence as a power house has shaken both sides of the Washington establishment. Conservatives see him as a potential bulwark against moderate Republicans such as Rudolph Giuliani, the former mayor of New York, and Senator John McCain, who are both believed to be considering 2008 runs.

Democrats remember Gingrich as an ideologue who led his party to a crushing 52-seat gain in 1994 congressional elections. Contract with America gave the Republicans control of Congress for the first time in four decades.

“No Democrat can think of Newt without a shiver down their spine,” one party strategist said last week.

Gingrich led the Republican attacks on Clinton, but his star began to fade when he misjudged the public’s appetite for impeachment proceedings. He came to be seen as a power-mad extremist and stepped down in 1998.

Last week Gingrich, 61, said he now sees himself as “more of a teacher than a politician”. His new book, Winning the Future, sets out his “21st-century Contract with America”. He complains about liberal elites, argues for less regulation and suggests new solutions for pension and healthcare crises.

The book was rubbished by The New York Times as “sloppy, poorly reasoned . . . replete with windy talk”. Gingrich retorted: “Try and find a Democratic book that has 10% of the ideas in mine. I look at the Democrats’ absolute inability to generate new ideas and it’s kind of weird.”

Some Republicans believe that Gingrich is perfectly positioned to run as a Washington outsider who knows the system but has spent enough time away to see what needs to be fixed.

“Is there a vacancy for an outsider? I couldn’t agree more,” Gingrich said. “I think there’s a huge vacuum in the Republican leadership. We’re going to have a huge struggle over the next four years, but that’s good. I’m delighted to be part of that ferment.”

He laughed off suggestions that with no automatic successor to Bush, the Republicans might split between moderate and conservative factions.

“We are the natural governing majority party of America today,” he said. “There’s far greater danger of the Democrats being a desert of intellectual barrenness than there is of the Republicans splitting up.”

Although Gingrich’s trademark bombast remains intact, he warned his party not to be overconfident about 2008.

“I think Senator Hillary Clinton will be the Democratic nominee,” he said. “She is professional, smart, systematic and she is moving to the centre in a very rational way.” And he noted that between them Bill and Hillary Clinton have not lost an election since 1980.

“Any Republican who thinks we are going to beat her easily does not have a clue about the history of the last 30 years.”

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