Thursday morning saw Mitt Romney finally shift onto the offensive over Newt Gingrich’s surge in the polls. He brought out two surrogates – former NH Gov. John Sununu and Sen. Jim Talent.
They both raked Gingrich over the coals for his cutting remarks about Paul Ryan’s medicare plan, and Talent had some choice words about Gingrich’s time as House Speaker. These were the highlights:
Sen. Jim Talent pulled a “more in sorrow than in anger” routine over Newt Gingrich, saying that while he’s often smart, “he also says outrageous things that come from nowhere, and he has a tendency to say them at times when they most undermine the conservative agenda.” Talent also said of Newt, “he’s not a reliable and trusted conservative leader because he’s not a reliable leader.”
Along with Former Gov. Sununu he also offered a “contrast” between the two candidates on Paul Ryan’s Medicare plan, which Gingrich derided as “right wing social engineering.”
“That was just inaccurate,” ex-Sen. Jim Talent said. “The Speaker’s remarks just came from nowhere. Paul Ryan was completely blindsided, that’s why he said ‘With allies like this, who needs enemies on the left?'”
Here’s the funny thing: Gingrich and Romney actually have similar positions on Medicare, neither of which is Ryan’s plan. Both of them ended up proposing creating a premium support program in which seniors purchase private health insurance a la Ryan, but they both crucially said they’d keep traditional Medicare as an option alongside the system — something Ryan, very pointedly, would not do.
