Indystar.com
November 7, 2008
By Kevin O'Neal

Republican losses in Tuesday's elections should be blamed on Republican incompetence, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said in Indianapolis on Thursday.

"When you've had the failures that we've had, when you've had the economy we've had and the Wall Street meltdown, it's a little hard to turn around and focus on what the campaign did," Gingrich said. "Any Republican who wants to talk only about the campaign misunderstands the great lesson of the last eight years: that you have to govern well to make a lasting majority."

Gingrich made his comments before a Thursday night appearance at the Indiana Chamber of Commerce awards dinner at the Indiana Convention Center.

Gingrich was in the House when Republicans took control of that chamber in 1994, the first move in a series of GOP advances that led to that party's control of both houses of Congress and the presidency.

Republicans lost their path toward further reforms and failed with the war in Iraq, the relief effort after Hurricane Katrina and this year's financial crisis and attempted bailout, and lost the presidency as a result, Gingrich said.

"The American public said enough . . . the Republican Party is struggling to get beyond incompetence," he said.

Gingrich said President-elect Barack Obama will be successful if he creates a "red, white and blue" coalition of Democrats and Republicans and governs from the center, but he risks failure if he follows the left wing of his party.

Gingrich had high praise for Obama's election effort.

"To have held on in the summer and fall, and done so in a very systematic, disciplined way, to have created the largest campaign organization in American history, it's a very impressive achievement," he said.

Still, Gingrich emphasized that Obama won because of the GOP's shortcomings.

"This was a performance election, not an ideological election," Gingrich said. "Senator Obama did not run on any major left wing theme unless you count the anti-war movement. He primarily ran on 'he's going to cut taxes for the middle class, he's going to make government work better, he's going to bring us together.' The fact is that no one campaigning as a general liberal, an open liberal, has been elected since 1964."

Gingrich also predicted Sarah Palin could be a "formidable force" in Republican politics and said he was extremely impressed with the reform work that Gov. Mitch Daniels has achieved in Indiana.

"I think Governor Daniels has the potential to do just about anything he wants," Gingrich said.