NEW YORK -- Should Newt Gingrich emerge as his party's nominee for president, it will effectively be the second time Democrats have campaigned against him in a presidential race.The former House Speaker has never formally run for the White House before. But for the group of political operatives involved in the 1996 presidential race between President Bill Clinton and Bob Dole, Gingrich was, perhaps, the most divisive and defining character of that cycle."I can't speak for everybody else, but every time I hear his bombast it is a joyful noise unto the world because voters came to know him 20 years ago and they hated him," a former Clinton adviser told The Huffington Post in an interview several weeks ago.