Gingrich Praises Obama on Daley Appt.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich may well run for president against Barack Obama next year, but for now he is praising Obama on his handling of the Giffords tragedy and on his Bill Daley appointment, Politico reports.

“He’s starting to get a lot of strength back,” Gingrich said of Obama in an interview on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” citing his Tucson speech after the Arizona tragedy and his hiring of former Commerce Secretary Bill Daley as his new chief of staff.

“I thought that his speech in Tucson was very effective. It’s what a president should do in a moment like that,” Gingrich says. “I thought it was exactly the right tone for him. The audience wasn’t always the right tone, but the president was, and I think that that certainly helped him.”

As for Daley, he “will be an enormous asset,” Gingrich says. “He’s a solid, and confident guy, who understands the business community” and in “the great Chicago tradition, understands getting things done.”