Guess which conservative says Hillary Clinton is unbeatable

We’ve probably all heard or said that Hillary Clinton would be a great candidate for president. And certainly, Democrats and strategists from Nancy Pelosi to Kirsten Gillibrand to David Plouff to James Carville are urging her to run or say she would make a great candidate. It’s not often we hear this kind of talk coming from the right, especially from someone who was almost the Republican nominee for president. But this Sunday, on Meet the Press, Newt Gingrich, in a rare moment of honesty, came out and said it:

If their [the Republicans’] competitor in ‘16 is going to be Hillary Clinton, supported by Bill Clinton and presumably a still relatively popular president Barack Obama, trying to win that will be truly the Super Bowl. And the Republican Party today is incapable of competing at that level.

http://youtu.be/ZOlFXvP-sJQ

full transcript after the jump. So, is Gingrich right? 

Well, a recent Siena poll found that Hillary Clinton is “viewed favorably” by 75 percent of respondents. A Washington Post poll found that more than two-thirds of Americans approve of Clinton’s job as secretary of state and that 57 percent would support her for president in 2016.

It’s not clear yet whether Hillary will run. Last spring she told Wolf Blitzer, “Look, I’m flattered. I am honored. That is not in the future for me.” On Face the Nation, Bill Clinton said of his wife, “She’s tired…. She wants to take some time off, kind of regroup. Write a book.” But he also said, “I have no earthly idea what she’ll decide to do.” (Really Bill? It’s never come up? What DO you guys talk about?) But whatever she does do, Bill is going to be behind her: “I’m for her, first, last and always.” So, what do you guys think?

video transcript

Videotape; Jack Kemp Foundation Award Dinner, Tuesday)

REP. PAUL RYAN SEACREST: (R-WI): Both parties tend to divide Americans into our voters and their voters. Let’s be really clear. Republicans must steer far clear of that trap. We need to speak to the aspirations. We must speak to the aspirations and the anxieties of every American.

(End videotape)

GREGORY: So Newt, that’s a long way from the 47 percent of Mitt Romney.

MR. GINGRICH: Well, let me say, first of all, every Republican should be focused on what we just talked about. I mean, if their competitor in ‘16 is going to be Hillary Clinton, supported by Bill Clinton and presumably a still relatively popular president Barack Obama, trying to win that will be truly the Super Bowl. And the Republican Party today is incapable of competing at that level. And it’s part of this cultural thing with our consultants. I mean, if you start out thinking giving away 47 percent of the country, by the way, which included retirees, it included veterans. You know, it was an absurdity. And– and I think this is– this is much more than Mitt Romney. We didn’t blow it because of Mitt Romney. We blew it because of a party which has refused to engage the reality of American life and refused to take– to think through what the average American needs for a better future.