Before Election Day, Newt Gingrich predicted Mitt Romney would win.
On NBC's Tonight Show Thursday, host Jay Leno asked the former House Speaker if this was because he was "just watching Fox News?" (video follows with transcript and commentary):
JAY LENO, HOST: Now, I haven't seen you since the presidential election. Are you surprised that President Obama won?
NEWT GINGRICH: Yes.
LENO: Were you really surprised?
GINGRICH: Yes, I was wrong. I mean, I’ve told everybody I was totally wrong. I was publicly, explicitly wrong.
LENO: Now, why were you so stunned? Were you…
GINGRICH: Well, I hated being that wrong.
LENO: Well, yeah, I know that.
GINGRICH: I mean how would you like to go on national TV and say, "Hi, I'm sure Romney's gonna win."
GINGRICH: And then I idiotically had 7:00 AM the next morning news interview, and I had to walk in and the person said to me, "Gee, this isn't what you predicted."
LENO: Yeah.
GINGRICH: And I thought at that moment, well, I have a couple of ways to go. Dive in, and I said, "Yeah, I was wrong."
LENO: So, I mean, why were you so sure? Was it because, were you just watching Fox News?
GINGRICH: No, I think our models were…
[Laughter and applause]
LENO: No, no, but really. I mean, to me, see, this is a pet peeve of mine. I watch MSNBC, and it's so far this way, and I watch Fox, and it's so far that way. It's like, were you just hanging around with Fox? Were you just listening to their pollsters?
Although Leno and his audience obviously thought this was a hoot, folks like Peggy Noonan - who regularly appears on NBC - and ABC's George Will also predicted Romney was going to win.
As such, this belief was hardly exclusive to one television network.
As for the ideological extremes of Fox and MSNBC, I'd be glad to sit down with Leno and explain the vast differences between these two news organizations.
His people should call my people.
