The number of debates in the Republican primary has essentially become a punchline. Nineteen verbal slugfests does seem a like a lot, but make no mistake — performing well the NBC debate to be held at 9 P.M. in Tampa on Monday night is now critical. After all, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich just pulled off a thirteen point win in the South Carolina contest on the back of his debate performances, erasing a double digit Romney lead in a matter of six days.
The latest polls from Florida show much the same thing happening there.
Romney’s apparently got the message, and is preparing for a fight.
Romney’s main attack today was on Gingrich’s oft cited tenure as paid employee of mortgage giant Freddie Mac, with Romney saying “You don’t pay someone $1.7 million just to write their history.” Surrogates got into the act as well, with former Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R-MN) trying to knock down the traditional Newt defense for the Freddie Mac charge, that he was simply a “historian” for the organization and not a lobbyist. On a conference call, Pawlenty called that attempted Gingrich distinction “incredible hairsplitting.”
The Gingrich camp clearly felt these blows: later in the afternoon they announced they’d confirmed the relevant consulting company would release the contracts from Gingrich’s Freddie Mac days shortly before the debate tonight.
Still, it’s a particularly potent issue in Florida, where the housing crisis hit especially hard. Romney’s campaign is already working on these lines, with a new ad up in the state essentially delivering the harsher charge that Gingrich got paid while homeowners went under.
Of course, Gingrich hasn’t exactly just let Romney bash him on the first full day of campaigning in Florida. “It used to be pious baloney, but now it’s just desperate baloney,” Gingrich said today about the attacks, referring to his previous statement about Romney’s insistence that the former governor isn’t a career politician. “Perhaps he’ll be able to open a delicatessen.”
Food stuff references aren’t exactly the stuff of legend when it comes to political broadsides, so expect the best lines to come tonight in Tampa. Most likely there will be a new Mitt — a candidate with some sharpened attacks and an ample cache of material from Gingrich’s political baggage. But Romney is playing Newt’s game now, and with debates as crucial as they’ve been in 2012, don’t look for Gingrich to run from a fight.
