NORTH CHARLESTON, SC — The Mitt Romney who vanquished Rick Perry and swatted away other frontrunners like flies did not show up on the debate stage here Thursday night.
Instead, viewers of the final candidate forum before the Jan. 21 South Carolina primary watched Romney stumble through question after question about his tax returns and wealth. Romney was defensive and all over the place, about as far as one can imagine from the poised candidate that destroyed Rick Perry.
It was a huge shift for Romney, who’s emerged from more than a dozen debates as a winner, mostly because no one could land a blow against him. There have been gaffes a plenty, of course — from “I’m running for office for Pete’s sake” to the $10,000 bet — but Romney’s always had the air of a frontrunner, rather than the guy playing catch up.
That wasn’t true Thursday. After days of stumbling through stories about his tax rate and his resistance to release his returns, Romney’s bad few days came to a head at the debate.
When asked whether he’d release more than a single year’s tax returns, Romney said “maybe,” prompting boos and jeers from the audience. “I don’t know how many years I’ll release.”
“I’m not going to apologize for being successful,” he said. “I’m not suggesting these people are doing that but I know that Democrats will go after me on that basis and that’s why I want to release these things all at the same time. ”
Make no mistake: debate performance to this point has been a key gauge of Romney’s strength. When Tim Pawlenty wouldn’t step to him with his “Obamneycare” line, it was seen as a sign that Romney would go unchallenged on health care, a key vulnerability. When Perry told a crowd in Florida that they didn’t “have a heart” if they didn’t support in-state tuition for illegal immigrants, it was viewed as a victory for Romney’s plan to turn Perry into a liberal. When his opponents went up against him, Romney almost always kept them at bay.
Gingrich’s forces noticed the difference in Romney on Thursday.
“He’ll have to try to reprogram it for next time,” Gingrich spokesperson R.C. Hammond told TPM after the debate.
The dynamics of the race here are shifting in Gingrich’s direction and — as they have in past Gingrich surges — the two debates this week are playing a big part in that. But beyond South Carolina, Thursday’s debate showed just how vulnerable Romney can be when pushed on issues like his personal fortune. That’s not a good thing for a man who’s run his whole campaign on electability.
For their part, Team Romney doesn’t see a problem.
“I thought he did better today than he did in any of the other debates,” Romney surrogate John Sununu said. Asked why Romney looked more defensive than he had in the past, Sununu wasn’t buying it.
“I don’t think your analysis is even close to being right,” he said.
