Former U.S. Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich told a group of Republican supporters Monday there are five words that explain why President Barack Obama will lose the election on Nov. 6.

“Unemployment, gasoline, Benghazi and Big Bird,” Gingrich said Monday during his visit to the Warren County Republican Headquarters and Victory Center in Lebanon to rally support for Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney.

Gingrich said the president’s energy policy will cripple the economy. Allowing for drilling of natural gas and oil in Eastern Ohio would secure the country’s energy supplies, create numerous jobs and make the manufacturing sector more competitive on a worldwide basis by lowering the price of energy, he said.

Gingrich also said Romney needed to be more assertive in defining his position on General Motors. He said the Obama camp has embarked on a campaign of “deliberate dishonesty” when portraying Romney’s stance on saving the failing automotive company four years ago.

“Romney said he wanted to provide warranties to customers and would provide a loan after the company had gone through proper bankruptcy proceedings,” Gingrich said, adding workers, management and dealers at GM should be offended when the president said he saved the company.

Gingrich also took Obama to task for “failing” as commander-in-chief when he did not protect the U.S. embassy in Syria from attack.

“America isn’t going to tolerate young Americans being killed while the commander-in-chief goes to a fundraiser in Las Vegas,” Gingrich said. “The president has a fantasy belief that there are no Muslim extremist and if only people in the United States would quit making movies, we’d live happily ever after.”

Even though Romney has been gaining momentum since the first presidential debate, a push for last minute votes is key to winning the state for Ohio, Gingrich said.

“We need to look at the facts and not all this spin. Now that gas prices are coming down, are we going to give the President credit for that?” said Bethe Goldenfield, head of the Warren County Democratic Party. “We are producing more of our own gasoline and other energy resources than we have in quite along time. It’s all spin. The president is trying to find good ways to explore energy resources plus green energy, which is the future.”

Goldenfield said she felt that having a “high-profile surrogate coming to a safe place like Warren County” was a sign to her the Republicans were afraid the Romney campaign was faltering.

More than 100 people crammed into the three-room headquarters to hear Gingrich speak. Joy Glover of Maineville said she had long been a supporter of the former Speaker.

“I think he could have made a wonderful president, just like Mitt Romney will,” Glover said. “He explains so many things in a really direct, easy-to-understand way. What he said about the energy crisis is so important.”