Newt's Marriage Pledge: Will it Win Over Women?

By Jill Lawrence // December 13, 2011 | 11:37 a.m.

Republican presidential candidate former House Speaker Newt Gingrich talks to his wife Callista, during adebate in a presidential debate at Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H., Tuesday, Oct. 11, 2011. (AP Photo/Scott Eells, Pool) (AP Photo/Scott Eells, Pool)

The news that Newt Gingrich has signed a public pledge to be faithful to his wife, Callista, might help reassure voters who have doubts about him. Or the pledge could serve to remind them that he was unfaithful to his first two wives.

Does Gingrich have a "woman problem" in the primaries? Polls are mixed - one recent poll of Republican voters showed a 9-point gender gap, while another showed no gap. Clearly he has enough support among women to be leading the GOP field in many state and national polls.

Gingrich's public contrition, redemption story and conversion to Catholicism seem to have disarmed some skeptics. Nor does his personality - at times pugnacious, outrageous, patronizing - faze GOP voters.Many enjoy his media baiting and his party is, after all, looking for someone to give voice to their anger at President Obama and the state of the nation.