President Barack Obama “guarantees a permanent war” with Republicans by forcing the party’s hand on the issue of income-tax hikes on top earners, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said Sunday.

“The president won,” Gingrich said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “The president has a very clear, simple position. He wants to prove he can dominate, and he proves he can dominate by getting the rates up, and he has a veto pen.”

The Georgia Republican said he believes Obama wants to block House Speaker John Boehner on the issue of spending cuts and said that might lead to a political run on the House through 2014.

“Personalities matter,” Gingrich said. “He guarantees a permanent war because everybody on the right at every level sooner or later is going to get sick of it.”

On the issue of 2016, Gingrich and the others seated at the television program’s roundtable agreed Hillary Clinton will be the Democratic presidential nominee. If that’s the case, Gingrich said the party must evolve in order to compete.

“Trying to win that will be truly the Super Bowl,” he said. “The Republican Party today is incapable of competing at that level. We didn’t blow it because of Mitt Romney. We blew it because of a party which has refused to engage the reality of American life."

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