COMMENTARY | On Thursday, Jan. 19, Mitt Romney was looking back in hindsight. If there was one thing he would do differently in his campaign, "I would go back and take every moment I spent talking about one of the guys on the stage and spend that time talking about Barack Obama," he said at a presidential debate sponsored by CNN. "The right course for America is to return to our fundamental principles, and I would be talking about that more, and probably about my colleagues less -- because frankly, any one of them would be a better president than the one we've got."
That was before the South Carolina primary. Gingrich dealt Romney a double-digit loss in the Palmetto State. On Jan. 23, Holly Bailey reported in The Ticket that Romney has gone from hardly speaking of his Republican opponents to firing serious barbs at Gingrich. Romney wants to paint him a chaotic, sleazy candidate who would hurt the GOP if nominated.
Romney is stroking fears that Gingrich's ethics investigations from his days as speaker of the House will come back to haunt the Republican Party. He is dogwhistling about his opponent's consulting work for Freddie Mac and about the lobbying Gingrich did for Medicare and health care reform. Romney says the dirty records need to come out now, before it's too late.
There are a few reasons why Romney's pit bull tactics may just work. First, it's especially surprising that the evangelicals rallied around a thrice-married guy that cheated on two out of thee wives (that we know of). I would have thought they would go with Santorum who was much stronger on those issues. Apparently, Romney's Mormon faith didn't help much either. Stranger still is how the evangelicals rallied around a moral midget like Gingrich while Romney has all the positions evangelicals love. He also has the personal history to back it up. But the evangelicals couldn't support someone who believes in the Book of Mormon.
But these voters may prove to simply be a speed bump to the well-funded Romney machine. Florida and other key states, including Ohio, have a much different electoral population than South Carolina. Of the warring factions within the Republican party, the moderate wing is still the most influential. The far right has its moments in the spotlight. But most of us find ourselves swinging reasonably in the middle on the political pendulum.
Newt has now won one out of three. But his campaign is still pretty disorganized and he's not polling well in the other states. The only message that South Carolinians sent was that Republicans aren't ready to settle on one candidate yet. Gingrich won a battle but the war is far from over.
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