ASPEN - Newt Gingrich sounded like a man running for president as he tackled the nation's economic, health and security problems with pan-ache Friday.

But the former House speaker remained coy about his White House ambitions.

"My primary obligation to this country is to develop an aggregation of solutions with sufficient depth and sufficient power that they enable us to change America at all levels," he told an overflow crowd at the Aspen Institute who came to hear him lecture on the future of American governance.

Declaring that the power of the presidency is "overrated," Gingrich said he was undecided whether to enter the crowded field of commander-in-chief wannabes.

"If at some point down the road there is so much pressure for me to run, I will run. But I have zero interest in being one of 12 people given 30 seconds to answer non-questions" in superficial political TV debates, he said.

Gingrich advocated evidence-based government, comically suggesting that Fed-Ex could track down illegal immigrants better than federal bureaucracies.

Combined, FedEx and UPS track 23 million packages a day, said Gingrich, whereas the federal government cannot find between 12 and 20 million people living in the nation illegally "even if they are sitting."

"For a couple million dollars, we could send a package to everyone who is here illegally and UPS and FedEx will find them," he told the chuckling crowd.

Gingrich, who recently publicly confessed to marital infidelities while speaker of the House, took no prisoners, blasting both parties alike, at one point calling the Bush administration fight against terror a "phony war."

"It's not phony for the soldiers risking their life in Afghanistan. It's not a phony war for the soldiers risking their life in Iraq," he said, but it is phony when the nation would be served better weaning itself off foreign oil.

Gingrich advocated fundamental reform of taxation, litigation, education, health care and energy policy to compete with China and India in the future.

Health care, he said, is more complicated than war and should be solved with free-market solutions and improved cultural and individual responsibility.

Asked who he would rather see as the Democratic presidential nominee, Sen. Hillary Clinton or Sen. Barack Obama, Gingrich predicted a combined ticket with Clinton on top due to her professionalism, experience and commitment to ideals.

"I regard her as the most formidable candidate the Democrats have," he said.

"No one has won betting against a Clinton in an election since 1980."

Whoever wins each party's nominations must clean up America's act, he said.

"We are in real trouble, and we better get out of the consultant-driven, money-driven focus baloney and get back to a dialogue of who we want to be."