At the NBC debate, Brian Williams asked Newt Gingrich about Mitt Romney’s attacks that Gingrich was “erratic,” a “failed leader,” and that his nomination would result in “an October Surprise every day.” In the ensuing conversation, Gingrich likened himself to Ronald Reagan — and also sought to explain his own resignation as Speaker in 1998, when he was forced out by House Republicans.
“Well in 1980, when Ronald Reagan started the year about 30 points behind Jimmy Carter, and when the Republican establishment described his ideas as “voodoo economics,” Reagan went out and won the debates, won the nomination, and won the general election — and carried more states than Franklin Roosevelt did against Herbert Hoover.”
He also said that this kind of leadership “may make the Washington establishment uncomfortable, but is also the type of bold lead the American people want. they’re not sending someone to Washington to manage the decay, they’re sending someone there to change it.”
And regarding his having resigned in 1998: “I left the Speakership after the 1998 election, because I took responsibility for the fact that our result wasn’t as strong as it should have been,” compared to how Nancy Pelosi has continued as House Minority Leader after her party lost control of the House outright.
