from Cox Newspapers 

 

WASHINGTON | Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said today that the U.S. economic downturn is much worse than political leaders admit and predicted the recovery will take three to five years.

 

 The financial meltdown points to “a much more profound problem than people think” as American industries and education have lost ground to China and India, Gingrich said.

 

 The former Georgia lawmaker told a reporters’ breakfast that the one upside to the crisis is that it might prod reform.

 

 “This is frightening enough that you could have a genuine national conversation about fundamental change,” he said.

 

 The former Georgia lawmaker spoke to a reporters’ breakfast as part of playing a more public role as his Republican Party assesses its future after its election defeat.

 

 He said the GOP would be “wide open” for 2012 presidential contenders, including Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.

 

 If she “seeks out a group of sophisticated policy advisers and spends time developing a series of fairly sophisticated positions, she is very formidable,” Gingrich said of the former vice presidential candidate.

 

 His touting of Palin was a change of tone from last November when he expressed some skepticism about her prospects as a party leader.

 

 On the economy, Gingrich also offered a revised position from last fall when he said he would have voted for the $700 billion plan to rescue the financial markets. He said he now opposes that approach.

 

 The bank losses are too high and still have not been fully disclosed, he said.

 

 “We’d be much better off to encourage the rise of new banks and new institutions,” he said, adding that he now favors allowing U.S. automakers to go into bankruptcy where they could strike a deal with unions to restructure their companies.

  “The level of change for all of us is going to be profound if we are going to go back to being the most competitive country in the world,” he said.