Image credit: Steve Pope/Getty Images

Newt Gingrich’s election pitch was clear yesterday when the former Speaker directly took on his opponent, saying he doesn’t “claim to be the perfect candidate. I just claim to be a lot more conservative than Mitt Romney, and a lot more electable than anybody else.”

“He wants to pre-empt, I think George, any sort of attacks that say ‘Well Newt might be the right conservative but he can’t win.’ So he is demonstrating one, that he can beat Mitt Romney in the primary, which he wants to show and, two that he can beat Barack Obama in the general election,” ABC political contributor Matt Dowd told me this morning on “GMA.”

Dowd believes that Gingrich is a “force” that Romney needs to reckon with eventually. But with the DNC’s latest ad accusing Romney on flip-flopping the White House seems to think that Romney is still the man to beat. Should the White House be concerned about Gingrich?

“I think part of [the Democrats'] strategy is a little jujitsu. I think what they could do is actually hurt Mitt Romney in the primary and create an even bigger opening for Newt Gingrich. I think the attack the Democratic National Committee has on Mitt Romney hurts him as much in the Republican primary as it does in the general election,” Dowd said. “So yeah, they are softening him up for the general election in case he is the nominee, but two they may create an opening for Newt Gingrich and cause Mitt Romney to take on more water in the primaries in the nomination process and hurt him in that process.”

The White House might rather run against Gingrich, but be careful what you wish for.

Take a look at my interview here:

– George Stephanopoulos