NEWT GINGRICH’S presidential campaign seemed to die for the third time on Thursday night, when the former speaker of the House delivered a lacklustre performance in the last debate before Tuesday’s Florida primary.
Gingrich owed his victory in South Carolina to scathing attacks on the “elite media” in debates there. But he was strangely passive in Jacksonville, spending most of his time defending himself and forgetting even his stock phrase about being a “bold Reagan Republican” as opposed to the “Massachusetts moderate” Mitt Romney.
Romney had apparently learned well from his new debating coach, Brett O’Donnell, who previously worked for John McCain and Michele Bachmann. Gingrich’s aides accused the Romney campaign of packing the audience with Romney supporters, which may have been true. When challenged by the newly combative Romney, Gingrich caved like a house of cards. The CNN commentator Alex Castellanos said he turned out to be “a one-trick pony”.
A confident Romney deflated Gingrich with three crisp “zingers” about deporting grandmothers, Gingrich’s investments and the former House speaker’s reluctance to stand by his insults of Romney on the air.
When the debate ended, an ebullient Romney reverted to gosh, gee-whiz mode, boasting to a television interviewer: “When I’m shot at, I’ll return fire; I’m no shrinking violet.”
The first clash of the evening occurred over immigration, when Gingrich – who was forced to recall an advertisement that characterised Romney as “anti-immigrant” – reconfirmed his position that Romney was the most anti-immigrant of the four remaining Republican candidates.
“That’s simply unexcusable,” Romney shot back with a look of fury. “That’s inexcusable... I’m not anti-immigrant. My father was born in Mexico. My wife’s father was born in Wales. They came to this country. The idea that I’m anti-immigrant is repulsive.”
Romney continued to hector Gingrich, demanding an apology and saying, “You should recognise that having differences of opinions on issues does not justify labelling people with highly charged epithets.”
Gingrich said he’d allow Romney to “self-describe”, whereupon Romney said, “I’m not going around and rounding people up and deporting them . . . I’m not going to go find grandmothers and take them out of their homes and deport them. Those are your words, not my words.”
Gingrich spoke of the need to allow grandmothers to remain legally in the US. Romney won his first big laugh of the evening, saying, “You know, our problem is not 11 million grandmothers.”
The Romney campaign is broadcasting an advertisement which accuses Gingrich of saying that Spanish is “the language of the ghetto”. Romney claimed he hadn’t seen the ad – which ends: “I’m Mitt Romney and I approved this message.” But that embarrassment was overshadowed by Gingrich being forced to admitted he had used the phrase, albeit not specifically naming Spanish.
The quote was taken out of context, Gingrich protested.
“We do not want anyone trapped in a situation where they cannot get a commercial job, they cannot rise . . . There are 94 languages spoken at the Miami-Dade College – 94 languages. And that’s why I think English should be the official language of government, and that’s why I think every young American should learn English.”
The candidates then sparred over Gingrich’s record as a paid consultant to the mortgage-lender Freddie Mac, for which he was paid some $1.8 million.
“We should have had a whistle-blower and not horn-tooter,” Romney said. “He should have been anxiously telling the American people that these entities were causing a housing bubble that would cause a collapse that we’ve seen here in Florida and around the country.”
Gingrich said his campaign “discovered to our shock” that Romney “owns shares of both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac... Governor Romney has an investment in Goldman Sachs, which is today foreclosing on Floridians.”
Romney repeated for the umpteenth time that his money is in a blind trust and that he is therefore not responsible for the way it is invested. “And Mr Speaker,” he said, delivering his second zinger of the evening: “I know that sounds like an enormous revelation, but have you checked your own investments? You also have investments through mutual funds that also invest in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.” Gingrich nodded in assent.
Gingrich somehow failed to bring up a report in the Los Angeles Times that Mr and Mrs Romney did not report at least 23 funds and partnerships listed in their 2010 tax returns – 11 of them overseas, including in Ireland – on their most recent financial disclosure to the election commission.
By the time the moderator asked about Romney’s taxes, Gingrich was running scared. “How about if the four of us agree for the rest of the evening, we’ll actually talk about issues that relate to governing America?” he said.
But it was Gingrich who made such an issue of Romney’s Swiss and Cayman Island accounts this week, the moderator noted. “I did,” Gingrich admitted. “And I’m perfectly happy to say that on an interview on some TV show. But this is a national debate, where you have a chance to get the four of us to talk about a whole range of issues.”
Romney then scored his third zinger, the equivalent of Gingrich’s “pious baloney” jibe in New Hampshire: “Wouldn’t it be nice if people didn’t make accusations somewhere else that they weren’t willing to defend here?” Mr Romney said.
“Okay. All right,” Gingrich said, before proposing “a two-way truce”.
Gingrich may have been destabilised by the outpouring of venom by Republican leaders in recent days. In a letter posted on the website of the conservative National Review, former senator and former presidential candidate Bob Dole warned Republicans to step back from Gingrich “before it’s too late”, saying that if Gingrich becomes the nominee, it will endanger Republicans standing for office at all levels of government.
Former vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin is one of Gingrich’s few famous friends. The “establishment” are “trying to crucify this man”, Palin told Fox News.