Piers Morgan Says Obama Is 'On Fire,' Newt Gingrich Scoffs at His Liberal Spin

CNN's Piers Morgan hyped that President Obama has been "on fire" and channeled liberal blogger Nate Silver's confidence that he will be re-elected. Newt Gingrich swatted down that liberal spin, on Monday's Piers Morgan Tonight.

"[H]ere's an alternative universe. You say this person of the New York Times has come to the startling discovery that in the New York Times universe, Obama's going to win," Gingrich quipped about Silver's prediction of an Obama victory. [Video below the break Audio here.]

"When you see Barack Obama on fire as he has been the last few days campaigning at his very best, reminding us of the Obama that campaigned in '08, do you feel slightly fortunate you're not the guy that has to try and beat him tomorrow?" Morgan asked Gingrich. "Oh, no. I would love to have debated Obama," Gingrich responded.

Morgan added that Hurricane Sandy "allowed Barack Obama to be a President for a week in a time of crisis and he did it very well." He added that the President got a "big bounce" right before the election, citing former Daily Kos blogger Nate Silver, "that genius pollster of pollsters from the New York Times."

"I think it's the first time he said that Obama will comfortably win – or comfortably by 2 to 3 percent of the popular vote," Morgan quoted Silver. Morgan didn't specifically mention his network's own national poll, which showed Obama and Romney tied. Soledad O'Brien also cited Silver without noting CNN's poll, in an interview on Tuesday morning.

A transcript of the segment, which aired on Piers Morgan Tonight on November 5 at 9:19 p.m. EST, is as follows:

[9:19]

PIERS MORGAN: When you see Barack Obama on fire as he has been the last few days campaigning at his very best, reminding us of the Obama that campaigned in '08, do you feel slightly fortunate you're not the guy that has to try and beat him tomorrow?

NEWT GINGRICH: Oh, no. I would love to have debated Obama, although I must say Romney's performance in the three debates was extraordinary. The very first debate where Obama failed to show up was probably the most one-sided presidential debate in the 50-year history. So I give Mitt a lot of credit. If we – if he wins tomorrow, he will have earned it himself and it will have been a great achievement. But it would have been fun, and I would love to have offered an alternative vision of America's future to the unemployment, high cost of gasoline and total chaos in Benghazi that the President offers.

(...)

MORGAN: The problem, it seems to me, has been actually forced by Hurricane Sandy, which caused many problems for many people of a very real nature. But in relation to the politics, it certainly stopped Mitt Romney's momentum pretty firmly in the tracks for a week because he couldn't get on television to campaign at all, and it also allowed Barack Obama to be a President for a week in a time of crisis and he did it very well.

And in fact, Chris Christie raced to laud him. Here's the problem, is I think that's given him a big bounce coming into tomorrow. And the reason I say that is that Nate Silver, who's that genius pollster of pollsters from the New York Times who does this FiveThirtyEight poll, he's just tweeted this.

"A few more polls to add but Obama, 91 percent to win the electoral college based on all the data today." He then says there's been a pretty clear shift toward Obama in national polls based on the most recent data, he may lead by 2 to 3 percent in the popular vote, too. That's the first time that he's gone over 90 percent certainly or anywhere  near it, and I think it's the first time he said that Obama will comfortably win – or comfortably by 2 to 3 percent of the popular vote. What do you say to that?

GINGRICH: Well, first of all, Piers, you asked me about – here's an alternative universe. You say this person of the New York Times has come to the startling discovery that in the New York Times universe, Obama's going to win. I started and I point out the two of the polls that came out today, Rasmussen has Obama – has Romney up by one. Gallup has Romney up by one. The James Carville rule is incumbents get the last poll. That would mean a 51-48 or 52-48 victory because in both those cases, you had Obama at 48 percent.

I think it's actually probably bigger than that. My personal guess is 53-47 or more. But secondly, let's look at what happened in New Jersey and New York. If the -- I think if the vote had been on Friday, Obama peaked on Friday out of sympathy and now we've had Saturday and Sunday for people and now all day Monday for people -- and now all day Monday for people to realize, remember, the government that is failing on Staten Island is the government Obama wants to deliver – wants to deliver health care. So I think you are going to see a lot of people vote against a failed government as they watch the mess in the northeast.