E-Mail
Print
ANALYSIS: Shorn of his front-runner image after a defeat by Gingrich in the South Carolina primary, Romney is campaigning for the vote in Florida with a full frontal attack on his main rival. This is the first harshly negative ad put up by Romney's campaign and it packs a number of attacks on the former House speaker.
The ad seeks to chip away at a central tenet of Gingrich's campaign _ that he is an insurgent and an outsider. In South Carolina, Gingrich used populist rhetoric and attacks on so-called elites. Romney's ad casts Gingrich as part of the elite, noting his high pay from Freddie Mac and contending his long congressional tenure makes him a "D.C. insider."
On the specific charges, Romney's ad is short on nuance. Gingrich did receive $1.6 million from government-backed mortgage lender Freddie Mac, blamed as one of the causes of the nation's housing crisis because it issued high-risk loans. But Freddie Mac was hardly the sole cause of the housing collapse. And it is difficult to lay the entirety of Florida's foreclosures at the doorstep of the lender, let alone Gingrich.
While speaker, Gingrich was sanctioned for ethics violations. But his resignation as House speaker had less to do with disgrace than political realities. After jostling with President Bill Clinton for four years, including marshaling the House effort to impeach Clinton during the Monica Lewinsky scandal, Gingrich lost sway over his caucus. When Republicans dropped more seats than expected during midterm elections in 1998, he resigned rather than face an insurrection. Since leaving the House, Gingrich has remained in Washington and taken on a number of jobs where his influence and former perch have been helpful.
The Romney campaign's injection of Obama at the end of "Florida Families" pushes another line of attack, that Gingrich is unelectable and Democrats would much rather run against him. That's far from clear, and exit polls in South Carolina showed that voters whose top priority is beating Obama overwhelmingly voted for Gingrich. The ad is a signal that Romney is entering a new phase of his campaign, one where he'll take on his GOP opponents more directly. Through Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina, Romney had limited his intra-party sparring, preferring to focus on Obama.
___Analysis by Associated Press writer Henry C. Jackson
From disappointing losses in Iowa and New Hampshire to a soaring victory in South Carolina, the level of vitriol in Gingrich's attacks on Romney has waxed and waned. After scaling back his barbs in two debates, Gingrich has seen his numbers slip. Opinion polls show a close race in Florida, with a slight advantage for Romney. This ad dramatically escalates Gingrich's attacks on Romney.
It is by far Gingrich's sharpest, most personal attack on the former Massachusetts governor to date. "What Kind of Man?" also seems to signal that Gingrich will fight bitterly for the GOP nomination.
The ad curiously begins with Huckabee, currently a TV personality and popular conservative Republican figure. Gingrich may be hoping to remind viewers that, at least four years ago, Romney's fellow presidential aspirants could barely contain their anger at him. Huckabee hasn't endorsed in this year's contest. The former Arkansas governor quickly disputed the use of his image in the ad. In an interview on Fox News Channel's "Your World," Huckabee said he was not referring to Romney specifically in the footage and did not give his consent for Gingrich to use the footage in the ad. Of Gingrich, Huckabee said he would "love for him" to pull the ad because he hasn't endorsed anyone in the primary.
As a narrator takes over, the ad makes a series of claims that Romney could justifiably dispute. It alleges that Romney voted for Democrats when he could have voted for Republicans. While this is technically true of the 1992 Massachusetts primary, Romney has said repeatedly that he was a registered independent so he could have more influence in a state where Democrats typically dominate. Romney has maintained that he has always voted for Republicans in general elections, and voted in the Democratic primary so he could vote for a weaker candidate and improve the GOP's chances.
As Gingrich's ad asserts, National Journal did report that Romney's investments in mortgage companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were not in a blind trust. And Romney's personal financial disclosure forms show he owned between $250,001 and $500,000 in the Federated Government Obligation Fund, which contained mutual-fund notes of politically sensitive Fannie and Freddie. An addendum to Romney' disclosure forms says certain assets, including the federated fund, were outside the scope of his blind trust. The investment was not on Romney's 2007 financial form, making it a relatively new one coming just as the housing and financial crises were hitting Americans full force. Romney and his campaign have, nonetheless, denied that he had any knowledge of his large investment in the fund.
The final factual claim, that Romney says he had no knowledge of an ad from his campaign against Gingrich, is true. Also true is that Romney's voice can be heard at the end of the ad, approving its message. But there is no way to determine whether Romney saw the ad before his campaign put it on the air.
Beyond the ad's specific claims, Gingrich has chosen to take an unusually personal tone that effectively calls his opponent untrustworthy and a liar. That's a sign both of Gingrich's frustration and the high stakes. Both Gingrich and Romney believe a Florida victory could catapult them to the Republican nomination.
The ad is also a variation on a theme Gingrich has tried to push about Romney. Gingrich's campaign wants voters to see Romney as a flip-flopper and someone who will say anything to get elected. But this ad is stripped of even a patina of civility. As Romney has done before him, Gingrich also raises the specter of a second term for President Barack Obama as the consequence of voting for his opponent.
Both candidates seem to be talking past each other on the issue of electability. In Iowa and New Hampshire, Romney was viewed by voters as more electable. In South Carolina, where Gingrich jolted the race with a victory, he was viewed as the candidate with the best chance of beating Obama. One thing both campaigns seem to agree on is Obama's effectiveness as a bogeyman in GOP primaries.
