Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) on Sunday said last week's jobs report was a "significant help" to President Obama's reelection bid.
The Labor Department reported Friday that the unemployment rate had fallen to 7.8 percent, the lowest rate since Obama took office.
Gingrich said on NBC's "Meet the Press" that while the president got a boost from that report, the 2012 campaign is going to go down to the wire and has the potential to be "one of the most interesting campaigns in American history."
The strong report, coming just weeks before the presidential election, led to some isolated charges from Republicans that the Obama campaign had a hand in boosting the numbers. Rep. Allen West (R-Fla.) and former General Electric head Jack Welch were among those suggesting the president fudged the numbers to help his electoral chances.
Gingrich called such conspiracy theories "plausible but irrelevant," arguing that the broader point to be drawn from it is the deep distrust some have of Obama as he wraps up his first term.
"It's worth looking at," he said.
Senior Obama campaign adviser Robert Gibbs called such accusations "absolutely crazy" and "incredibly dangerous."
"There are some people who believe the real jobs report is in a safe in Nairobi with the president's Kenyan birth certificate," he joked.
