MASON CITY, Iowa -- Presidential contender Newt Gingrich said at a stop here on his bus tour across Iowa that he took his wife on a Greek cruise last spring to provoke a confrontation with his campaign team.

It worked. Much of his team quit almost immediately upon his return from the vacation, which, coming just days after he officially launched his candidacy, seemed somewhat ill-timed.

Gingrich said it was quickly clear to him that he was not going to be the candidate his consultants wanted him to be -- and that he has no regrets about taking the trip. He said he and his wife, Callista, were struck while filming a documentary about Ronald Reagan that, if you add up all the days Reagan spent on his ranch during his eight years in office, it amounted to a full year away from Washington.

“This was an extraordinarily effective president,” Gingrich said. “He spent one year out of eight at his ranch. He was achieving a sense of balance and a sense of distance. He wasn’t sucked into the Washington baloney.”