Gingrich: I’m staying in race because Romney not a ‘serious’ conservative

{mosads}The Etch A Sketch reference was a nod to Romney adviser Eric Fehrnstrom’s suggestion Wednesday that “everything changes” during the general election, a comment some interpreted as indicating Romney would pivot away from some conservative policy positions.

“It’s almost like an Etch A Sketch,” Fehrnstrom said on CNN. “You can kind of shake it up and we start all over again.”

The former House Speaker went on to say that he was unimpressed by Romney’s string of electoral victories, arguing that Romney would not be able to outspend the president’s campaign operation on negative advertising in the fall.

“Every Republican who wants to beat Obama should be worried by the fact the Romney victories come by drowning them out with negative advertising,” Gingrich said. “He will not be able to do this to Obama, and it makes me worry about what kind of a general-election candidate he will be.”

Gingrich attributed his fall from grace to the fallout from that negative advertising, rather than Republicans preferring alternative candidates.

“He has always had an ability to drown us with negative advertising. You’ll remember I was actually in first place until we got drowned first in Iowa. Then, I came back and was in first place after winning South Carolina and then they spent $20 million in three weeks in Florida to re-drown me,” Gingrich said.

“That was the process in which Rick emerged,” he continued, “because he was the guy running fourth, and Romney wasn’t paying any attention to him.”

Pivoting away from electoral politics, Gingrich defended so-called “stand your ground” laws that enable citizens of some states to use firearms in self-defense. The laws have come under increased scrutiny after the death of unarmed African-American teen Trayvon Martin, a case that has drawn national attention.

Host Piers Morgan called the laws “dangerous nonsense that’s now being abused, left, right and center, by people who just want to shoot people.”

But Gingrich said that characterization went too far.

“I think, Piers, you just took an enormous jump. That’s like cities that have rules that even if somebody breaks into your house, you can’t defend yourself. Both extremes taken in the wrong direction are false,” Gingrich said. “Clearly, you should have the right to defend yourself in your own home. And clearly they should not be translating standing your own ground into pushing somebody else. And that’s what it’s going to come down to here.”

The former House Speaker also deflected criticism from Morgan that he was being “overly pious” about a joke made by actor Robert De Niro, who joked at an Obama reelection fundraiser that America wasn’t “ready for a white first lady.”

“I just thought that De Niro’s quote was in bad taste,” Gingrich said. “If it had been a conservative talk radio show host, who said exactly the same thing, but reversed the racial reference, the left would have exploded with rage. But of course if it’s one of their own, and after all it’s only attacking Republicans, that’s perfectly appropriate.”

After Gingrich first complained about the joke, the Obama campaign released a statement calling it “inappropriate.” De Niro later apologized, although Ann Romney told Morgan on Wednesday night that she laughed at the joke.