Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said on NBC’s Meet the Press this morning that he believes Friday’s Labor Department report salvaged President Obama’s campaign.
“I think it was a significant help to the president. Imagine it came out at 8.2 following that debate. I mean, people would have entered this weekend saying well, that’s close to the end,” Gingrich said.
“This campaign is going to go down to the end, I think. It’s going to be one of the most interesting campaigns in American history. And I think you’re going to see it go back and forth some over the next week.”
But the former GOP presidential hopeful stressed that jobs numbers coming out of Washington really boil down to how they’re felt on Main Street.
“The average American goes outside and says, ok, 600,000 part-time jobs, 114,000 full-time jobs. Gasoline the highest in history. Do I feel better? Or in the real world, can my cousin still not find work? In the real world, is every small business in my neighborhood still stressed?” Gingrich said.
“And I think the reason Obama has never been able to pull away, even when Romney had two pretty bad weeks, is that in the end there’s this rubber band effect that they go, well, I’d almost like to give him another shot, but this is really frightening and really painful.”
The speaker also offered some good talking points for the Republican ticket.
“The reason people are losing respect for Washington is they are losing respect for Washington. It’s not some right-wing crazy thing,” he said. “I don’t know a single small businessman or woman who believes that the next four years under Obama will be good. I don’t know a single small businessman or woman who expects to hire a lot more people if Obama wins the election.”
Join the conversation as a VIP Member