resigned en masse, Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich attempted to change the subject.

"I am a candidate for president of the United States because I think we are in the early stages of the Obama depression," he told reporters Friday.

"I'm prepared to go out and to campaign very intensely but I want a campaign on ideas and on solutions and I want to do it in a way that brings Americans together into a large movement," ABC News quoted the former House Speaker as saying.