With the start of the new year, the public jockeying for position in the Republican presidential field is set to take on increased urgency. Though there are certain common steps that all of the members of the prospective field are taking behind the scenes, they have settled on differing strategies when it comes to discussing the factors that will inform their decisions on whether to run.

The level of early assertiveness on the part of each potential candidate is based on factors such as their own strengths and weaknesses, personalities and the unique political positions they find themselves in as the presidential campaign draws nearer.

The prospective field of top-tier GOP contenders can currently be divided into three basic categories when it comes to talking about their 2012 intentions in media appearances: the aggressive challengers, the coy contenders and those who are seeking to portray themselves as reluctant warriors.

Aggressive Challengers

The prospective candidate who has been the most enthusiastic about publicly promoting his potential candidacy has no doubt been former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee.

The 2008 Iowa caucuses winner has proven consistently eager to combat assumptions that he will not run again, which have been based largely on his apparent contentment with a lucrative Fox News job.

Huckabee has relished every opportunity to promote his consistently strong national polling numbers. And in a move that is relatively unusual for prospective candidates, he has frequently lamented that he has often gotten short shrift among presidential prognosticators.

"I just don't understand how it is that a person can read these polls day after day and the narrative is constantly everybody but me," Huckabee told Politico in November.

Nearly as emphatic about touting his own potential candidacy has been former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who told the Des Moines Register that the idea of running for president could become something that would be "overwhelmingly attractive" to him.

Those closest to Gingrich have publicly combated perceptions that the former speaker is merely keeping his name in the discussion to promote his own business and personal ventures.

Gingrich's top political aide, Joe Gaylord, said that he would be "very surprised" if Gingrich did not run. And the former Speaker's daughter, Jackie Gingrich Cushman, told Human Events late last month that he was "very serious" about running this time around, in spite of previous flirtations with the idea that did not come to fruition.

Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty also falls into this category because of how assertive he has been in raising his hitherto low media profile and by weighing in frequently on an array of hot-button national issues even as he was finishing out his governorship.

"Right now, I'd put my record up against any governor in the country," Pawlenty told Fox News in November.

Coy Contenders

This category is the one that has traditionally described likely candidates with strong establishment credentials who have been leery of peaking too early in previous presidential cycles. This time around, three establishment favorites are most conspicuously playing it cool in public while taking the necessary steps to prepare for a campaign launch.

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney did not have the luxury of being so demur about his ambitions when he ran for president in 2008, but as he prepares to mount what is expected to be a second presidential run, he has relied on his increased name recognition and already proven fundraising prowess, while being more selective in his public appearances and sidestepping the big question more creatively.

"If you ever see me sign up for a gig on Fox News, it'll be a clear indication that I've decided to run for president," Romney joked to Jay Leno in a recent Tonight Show appearance.

Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour has adopted a similar low-key approach in public.

"I don't feel any time pressure over the next few weeks or months," Barbour said in November in explaining that he would discuss the matter with his family.

South Dakota Sen. John Thune has perhaps been slightly more aggressive than Romney and Barbour have in making the case for a potential candidacy in public appearances. For instance, he recently told CNN that Iowa was a part of the country in which he felt "very comfortable."

But all things considered, Thune's public approach has leaned closer to the reticent category to date, as he has allowed some of his Senate colleagues to prop him up as a potentially strong candidate.

Reluctant Warriors

For the better part of the last two years, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has been perhaps more upfront about her presidential aims than any other Republican contender, as she has repeatedly said that she would go through any "open doors" that might lead her to the White House and recently told Fox News that her husband Todd was leaning in favor of a presidential run.

But more recently, Palin has altered her tone a bit, downplaying her own ambitions to suggest that in spite of the personal sacrifices a campaign would entail, a groundswell of popular support might compel her to run in the end. Palin told Sean Hannity last month that she would be "willing" to offer herself as a candidate "in the name of public service," should no other viable and satisfactory alternative emerge.

It is widely expected that Palin will wait to see how the rest of the field pans out before making her final decision, but she and some of her closest aides have sought to combat publicly the perception that has taken hold in some Republican circles that she would be unelectable in a general election matchup against President Obama.

Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels is also expected to take the wait-and-see approach and has said that he will not make his final decision on whether to run until the end of the Indiana legislative session in April.

Daniels recently told Politico that he would be less inclined to enter the race should his longtime friend, Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, decide to get in, and Daniels has been particularly adamant about keeping the vast majority of his public remarks focused on the state that he currently governs.

Still, Daniels' aides have been working behind the scenes to promote him as an accomplished leader who could be the ideal foil to Obama. If Daniels were to enter the race, he would likely frame the inspiration for his candidacy in a similar way that Palin would: by citing an outpouring of encouragement, which made him duty-bound to run for president.