That's not what he said though. He said he was the greatest president of the 20th century.
FDR is the reason we continue to suffer from ever growing gov't. Others before him can be blamed for laying the ground work, but the country got behind FDR and we were forever changed. FDR was a domestic albatross.
I don’t agree with Newt on that point but I still say a person can admire certain aspects while detesting other aspects. My guess is that Newt said that because of WWII and not out of praise for FDRs domestic programs. But it doesn’t really matter. I disagree with Romney on far more things than I disagree with Newt Gingrich.