Appearing on Fox News' On the Record with Greta Van Susteren -- a favorite program, by the way, of Penn Hills' own Rick Santorum -- former House Speaker Newt Gingrich sung the praises of the presidential primary system that gives extraordinary weight to Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada in picking who the Republican Party will nominate to run against Barack Obama in 2012. In particular, Gingrich cites the ability of lesser known candidates to compete in a limited territory with limited funds. Among those he named former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, Sen. John Thune of South Dakota and Santorum:

"I'm a fan of [the saying] 'if things aren't broke, don't fix em', and I believe the system that we have right now ... I think the system works reasonably well. ...

In the opening weeks, you've been in the Midwest, you've been in the Northeast, and you've been in the South, and now -- with adding Nevada -- you've been in the West in the very first weeks, at an affordable pace for unknown candidates. For somebody like Governor Pawlenty or Senator Thune, who are just starting out, or Senator Santorum.

If you don't have the scale of money that some candidates have, this is an enormously open and equal opportunity model to allow talent to emerge."

Video below (h/t GOP 2012):