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Newt Gingrich on John McCain "Good Morning America" 7.14am Interview TOPIC: McCain's strategy for final three weeks TRANSCRIPT: DIANE SAWYER: Are (McCain's negative robocalls) a good idea? NEWT GINGRICH: Well, I don't think it's the most important issue, I think the country's actually worried about the economy and Senator Obama actually gave Senator McCain, I think, the winning issue in his conversation the other day, about "spreading the wealth". I think if you ask the average American "Do you want your government to focus on jobs and economics or on spreading the wealth overwhelmingly, I think they distrust the idea of politicians deciding how much you're allowed to keep and politicians giving that money to their friends. I think there's a deep divide in this country on that issue and my guess is, that if McCain and Palin focus on whether or not you want politicians taking your money away to give to their cronies, such as ACORN for example, I think you'll find that he's going to continue to close. Gallup, last night, had them within 2 points among likely voters, which is a dramatic change from a week ago, so I would say that this race is a long way from over. SAWYER: [...]Let me bring up Karl Rove, who said "It's not cast in stone, but in order to do this, Senator McCain has go to do, what he calls, "thread the eye of the needle, " that's how tough it's going to be, and I'll show everybody on the map what he was talking about. He says that of the states George Bush won, in 2004, John McCain has go to do this, he's go to get Nevada, Colorado, Missouri, Ohio, Virginia, North Carolina and Florida. if he can do that, and if he does that he can still afford to lose Iowa and New Mexico. Do you think, at this point, that he can make that sweep and thread the eye of the needle, given the polls showing Obama ahead in so many of those states? GINGRICH: No, I don't think you do it that way and Karl and I have a fundamentally different view of how politics works. I think if John McCain in the next 18 days wins the argument nationally, exactly the way Harry Truman did in 1948 and if you get a 4 or 5 point swing nationally, all of a sudden a whole group of states fall his way. I think if you campaign hard enough, on the issue of whether or not you want politicians taking away your money to share the wealth with their friends, I suspect Pennsylvania becomes vulnerable, Michigan becomes vulnerable, and you're in a different election.[...]It's a very different model. SAWYER: [...]Who is doing the negative campaigning and why do you think it keeps going on, if it is such a distraction? GINGRICH: Well, look, both sides are doing a lot of negative campaigning, the fact is that Senator Obama has done an immense amount of negative campaigning, in states like Virginia, I think he bought 1300 ads, to Senator McCain's eight ads, in the last three weeks, so both campaigns have consultants who believe in negative advertising. I'm describing something different- the way Harry Truman came from behind, and he was so far behind that they quit polling in September, the way he came from behind, was he moved the entire country. The country's paying attention, and I can just tell ya I was in Kansas CIty and St. Louis yesterday, and people do not want politicians deciding how to redistribute the wealth to their cronies. People instinctively believe that when Speaker Pelosi says, we're going to have to take quote harsh measures, she's talking about harsh measures with the taxpayer and I think that if Senator McCain and Governor Palin spend the rest of this campaign focused on whether or not politicians oughta take money away from you, and decide how much you're allowed to keep I suspect they win the election. SAWYER: Again, I have to point out, for fairness this morning, that Senator Obama's campaign says the middle class gets three times the tax relief for the middle class than Senator McCain does, but I want to ask you about something you said...