Gingrich Lauds Primary Election Process

In an interview with Fox's Greta Van Susteren, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, a likely GOP candidate in 2012, said that the contentious, protracted presidential nomination process helps the likes of Tim Pawlenty, John Thune, and Rick Santorum.

He likes the process because it gives underdogs a fair shot at winning the nomination. He calls the it an “open and equal-opportunity model” that shouldn’t be changed, Politico reports.

“In the opening weeks you’ve been in the Midwest,” he told Van Susteren on Thursday, “you’ve been in the Northeast. And you’ve been in the South. Now with adding Nevada, you’ve been in the West in the first weeks at an affordable pace for unknown candidates. For somebody like Gov. [Tim] Pawlenty or Sen. [John] Thune who are just starting out or former Sen. [Rick] Santorum — you don’t have the scale of money that some candidates have. This is an enormously open and equal-opportunity model to allow talent to emerge.”