Newt Gingrich calls Obama a 'rigid, ideologically driven elitist'; praises Clinton

Newt Gingrich has had a rough time running for president this year. After he returned from a controversial cruise around the Greek isles with his wife many of his staffers abandoned him, word came out about his curious relationship (and huge credit line) with Tiffany's, and recently it became news that the former speaker is running his campaign $1 million in the red.

Now it's come to this. In order to bash the incumbent president, the Georgia conservative is finding himself praising the man he once tried to take out via impeachment: one William Jefferson Clinton.

“There’s no comparison between Obama and Clinton," Gingrich told the Boston Globe on Monday night. "Obama’s a very rigid, ideologically driven elitist. Clinton was a very practical, Arkansas, everyday politician who had worked very hard to move his party to the center," he said.

Gingrich who, among his other difficulties, often finds himself at the bottom of most polls, also said that most members of his party don't care for Obama, even behind closed doors.

“I have not talked to anybody who has been on the Republican side who has been impressed with Obama in private meetings. They all find him to be arrogant and distant and aloof," Gingrich stated.

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Photo: President Clinton and House Speaker Newt Gingrich, right,  speak before the opening of the national summit on retirement on Thursday June 4, 1998, in Washington. Credit: AP Photo/Doug Mills