This column will primarily deal with a political comeback. But first, here’s a nonpartisan salute to the incredible comeback of the New York Giants, pretty much left for dead after falling to 7-7 after a bad defeat to Washington. The Giants have now won five in a row after epic victories at Green Bay and San Francisco and there is every prospect for a great game with New England. Go Giants!

But the main subject of the column will be the rather astounding second comeback of Newt Gingrich, left for dead in the spring after major campaign turmoil and again in December during the run-up to the Iowa caucuses after it appeared that Republicans were fearful of Mr. Gingrich’s excessive personal and political “baggage”.

Mr. Gingrich finished a distant fourth in the Iowa caucuses behind Rick Santorum, Mitt Romney and Ron Paul and then followed with another fourth place finish in the New Hampshire primary behind Mitt Romney, Ron Paul and Jon Huntsman. There were news stories focusing on Mr. Romney’s inevitability as the nominee and relatively little coverage of Mr. Gingrich.

Then came South Carolina. While the state figured to be tougher for Mr. Romney, both because of its more demographic conservative tilt and a possible desire of GOP voters not to pick their nominee so quickly, he could not have been prepared for the sudden shift against him in the Palmetto State. Mr. Gingrich had two good debates, both with pointed attacks against the news media, and his campaign regained momentum. The former speaker scored in almost all of the state, besting Mr. Romney by twelve points.

All of this makes upcoming Florida primary on January 31 much more important. Unlike Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina. Florida is a large, very diverse state, with numerous big cities. This fit Mr. Romney pretty well because the state is considerably less conservative than South Carolina and because it takes financial and organizational strength to get the message out and to get the vote out. Mr. Romney may also be helped by Florida’s early voting, which allowed his supporters to vote before the magnitude of the South Carolina defeat became known.

In the debate on Monday, which is going on as this is written, Mitt Romney, stung by attacks on his employment at Bain Capital, is using the attack mode against Mr. Gingrich, for example accusing the speaker of leaving his position as Speaker in disgrace and being an “influence peddler” for his consulting work with companies with a legislative agenda. Mr. Romney noted pointedly that Mr. Gingrich had an office on K Street, the famed Washington address for lobbyists.

The guess here is that Mr. Romney will pull out Florida. But if he does not win, it will be a milestone for the race. Mr. Gingrich will become the frontrunner, and many Republicans around the country, fearful that the former speaker has too many negatives to win a national election, may start in earnest looking for another candidate to join the race, maybe a Mitch Daniels or even Jeb Bush. At a minimum, this would lead to a very drawn out race (the new candidate would have many ballot access issues, for example) and maybe even a brokered convention.

But for now, observers of all political stripes have to take due note of the amazing re-resurrection of Newt Gingrich.