Gingrich, Romney Targeted by GOP Rivals in Debate

By John McCormick and Kristin Jensen - Dec 12, 2011 12:40 AM GMT+0700

Newt Gingrich came under fire in a debate yesterday as the front-runner in the Republican presidential race, while top rival Mitt Romney opened himself to attacks of being out of touch with ordinary Americans by offering a $10,000 wager onstage.

Gingrich, whose temperament for the presidency has been questioned by his opponents, mostly maintained a cool demeanor in fielding criticisms focused on his record. Romney found himself immediately mocked after he denied an assertion by Texas Governor Rick Perry that he had supported broadly requiring individuals to have health insurance.

“I’ll bet you 10,000 bucks,” Romney said.

Perry replied, “I’m not in the betting business.”

Appearing on “Fox News Sunday,” Perry said the wager showed Romney was “a little out of touch with the normal Iowa citizen.”

The Democratic National Committee also jumped on the $10,000 offer, a sum it said in an e-mail to reporters was more than four months’ pay for most people and more than a year’s worth of mortgage payments.

Romney, the founder of the Boston-based venture capital firm Bain Capital LLC, is worth as much as $250 million, according to a personal financial disclosure he filed in August.

Gingrich Polling Lead

An NBC News/Marist poll released today shows Gingrich leading in South Carolina and Florida, states that also vote in January after Iowa and New Hampshire. Gingrich leads Romney by 19 percentage points in South Carolina and 15 percentage points in Florida among likely Republican primary voters, including those who are undecided, yet leaning toward a candidate.

Former Utah Governor Jon Huntsman, who isn’t actively campaigning in Iowa and didn’t meet polling criteria to participate in the debate, said Republican voters haven’t made up their minds yet.

“There have been so many ups and downs in this race, I’m getting whiplashed,” Huntsman said today in an appearance on ABC’s “This Week” program. “The marketplace is still open. People are shopping.”

Huntsman and Gingrich will meet tomorrow for a 90-minute debate at St. Anselm College in Manchester, New Hampshire.

Gingrich, the former U.S. House speaker, had been largely ignored by his Republican rivals in many of this year’s previous debates and often assumed the role of scold, berating the questioners at the forums. That wasn’t the case last night following his surge during the past month in polls.

He and Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts, each faced attacks last night from rivals, as both assailed each other.

Palestinian People

One exchange concerned Gingrich calling the Palestinians an “invented people” in a recent interview with the Jewish Channel cable television network.

Romney called the statement a “mistake” that would make relations with the Palestinians more difficult for Israel.

“I’m not a bomb thrower, rhetorically or literally,” he said, seeking to contrast his personality with Gingrich’s.

“Sometimes it is helpful to have a president of the United States with the courage to tell the truth,” Gingrich responded as he stood by his statement. “I will tell the truth even if it’s at the risk of causing some confusion sometimes.”

Obama Targeted

Romney earlier had contrasted his background with that of Gingrich’s, who he has derided as a career politician and Washington insider.

“The real difference I believe is our backgrounds,” he said. “I spent my life in the private sector. I understand how the economy works.”

Gingrich sought to turn the tables on Romney, saying he would have been a Washington insider himself if he had won an election in Massachusetts almost 20 years ago against then- Senator Edward Kennedy, a Democrat.

“Let’s be candid, the only reason you didn’t become a career politician is you lost to Teddy Kennedy in 1994,” Gingrich said. “You’d have been a 17-year career politician by now if you’d won.”

Appearing on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Senator Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican, said that Gingrich would win the state, the third to vote on the nomination, if the election were held tomorrow.

‘Leveled Out’

Graham said he thinks Gingrich has “leveled out as a person” from his days as House Speaker when he was criticized for being unpredictable.

“I’m not going to endorse him, but I think he could beat President Obama,” Graham said.

Rival Republican candidate Representative Michele Bachmann of Minnesota last night targeted Gingrich and Romney on the issue of a government requirement that people purchase health insurance.

She criticized Gingrich for his support in 1993 of the so- called individual mandate for purchasing health insurance when then-President Bill Clinton’s administration unsuccessfully tried to redesign the nation’s health-care system. And she attacked Romney for helping push into law, as governor of Massachusetts, a state law with an insurance mandate.

Romney reiterated that it should be up to each state to decide whether to adopt the mandate, and that it was wrong for Obama to make it the centerpiece of the 2010 federal law overhauling the U.S. health-care system.

Wager Offer

Perry argued during the debate that Romney had asserted in a book he wrote that other states should embrace the mandate provision. Romney disputed Perry’s claim, and it was then that he offered the bet.

Bachmann repeatedly called the front-runners “Newt- Romney,” suggesting that they aren’t true conservatives and that she is “the proven, consistent conservative” in the Republican contest.

“He and I are not clones,” Romney replied.

Gingrich, who has been married three times and acknowledged being unfaithful to a previous spouse, faced implied criticism of his personal life.

“If you cheat on your wife, you’ll cheat on your business partner,” Perry said when asked whether infidelity should disqualify someone for the presidency.

Former U.S. Senator Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania said it shouldn’t be a disqualifier, while adding that a person’s character should be weighed.

‘Character Issues’

“Character issues do count,” he said. “Trust is everything.”

Gingrich said his personal life should be viewed in its entirety.

“I’ve made mistakes at times,” he said. “I’ve had to go to God for forgiveness. I’ve had to seek reconciliation. But I’m also a 68-year-old grandfather. And I think people have to measure who I am now and whether I’m a person they can trust.”

U.S. Representative Ron Paul of Texas, whose campaign is running an ad in Iowa labeling Gingrich a “serial hypocrite,” spotlighted the constancy theme. Reiterating his long-held opposition to an assertive government role in the economy, he said there would “be a little bit of trouble with anybody competing with me on consistency.”

Paul said Gingrich has been “on different positions on so many issues,” as he criticized him for supporting the bank bailout in 2008 and for working as a consultant to the government-backed home mortgage company Freddie Mac.

Gingrich received about $1.6 million from Freddie Mac through two contracts. Gingrich has said he did no lobbying for the company, which he now criticizes as a candidate.

Third-Party Candidate

Appearing today on “Meet the Press,” Paul refused to rule out a run as a third-party candidate.

“I’m not going to rule anything out or anything in,” Paul said. He said he had no plans to run as a third-party candidate.

The debate was moderated by George Stephanopoulos and Diane Sawyer of ABC News and broadcast on that network live from Drake University in Des Moines. It was also sponsored by the Des Moines Register newspaper, Yahoo.com, the Republican Party of Iowa and WOI-TV, an Iowa ABC affiliate.

It was the 12th formal debate this year for the Republican candidates, who will meet again on Dec. 15 for a session in Sioux City, Iowa. The state conducts caucuses where voting in the nomination race starts.

The debate was the first since businessman Herman Cain’s departure from the race on Dec. 3 amid allegations of sexual indiscretions.

Gingrich had the support of 25 percent of likely caucus participants in the latest Iowa Poll from the Des Moines Register. Paul was next with 18 percent, followed by Romney at 16 percent. Sixty percent of poll participants said they could change their minds, while 11 percent said they are undecided.

Perry’s Decline

Perry, who has fallen in polls after poor debate performances that included an “oops” moment when he couldn’t name all three federal agencies he would cut as president, is trying to reestablish momentum before the Iowa caucus with a two-week bus tour through the state.

His campaign may have suffered another setback when he struggled during an editorial board meeting with the Des Moines Register to remember the name of Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who he has called the type of “activist judge” he wouldn’t nominate as president.

On “Fox News Sunday today,” Perry said he hadn’t “memorized all of the Supreme Court judges.”

Voters “aren’t looking for a robot that can spit out the name of every Supreme Court justice,” he said. “They are looking for somebody who’s got values that are based with a deep rudder in the water.”

To contact the reporters on this story: John McCormick in Des Moines, Iowa, at jmccormick16@bloomberg.net; Kristin Jensen in Washington at kjensen@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Mark Silva at msilva34@bloomberg.net