WASHINGTON (February 20, 2013)--Former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich says President Barack Obama's campaign was "eight, maybe 10 years, ahead" of the Republican Party last year in understanding the rapidly changing face of the American electorate.

Gingrich told "CBS This Morning" Wednesday that GOP strategists have failed to respond effectively to the new demographic landscape.

Gingrich, who ran unsuccessfully for the Republican presidential nomination, said poor strategy and questionable consulting cost the Republicans at least nine U.S. Senate seats that "we should have won."

"You can't just be an opposition party. You have to be a party that has a better alternative,” he said.

Gingrich said Democrats have more readily adapted to a voting public that is "in many ways younger, more Latino, more African-American, than Republican strategists are capable of dealing with."