Former Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich on Wednesday had three simple words to explain why conservative pundits like himself, Karl Rove and Dick Morris incorrectly predicted that Mitt Romney would win over 300 electoral votes and defeat President Barack Obama: ‘We were wrong.”

“I’m just going to say bluntly, we were wrong,” the former House Speaker told CBS host Charlie Rose. “I think Karl Rove, Michael Barone, Dick Morris, a whole group of us, frankly, misunderstood what was happening in the country. We thought with 8 percent unemployment — or approximately 8 percent — with gasoline the price that it was, etc., that it would be almost impossible for President Obama to be re-elected. He deserves enormous credit. His campaign deserves credit.”

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Gingrich added that the Republican Party would continue to lose the in future if it was not able to win more support from Latino voters.

“The Republican Party has to be open to and listening to people who are going to be a major part of our future and unless we do that, we’re going to be a minority party,” he explained. “Now, I don’t think that means you automatically embrace every new idea that President Obama sends up to Capitol Hill, but I thin you do have to have an attitude towards the Latino population — not necessarily towards the president — that is much, much more inclusive than it has been in the past.”

Watch this video from CBS News, broadcast Nov. 7, 2012.