Combative Romney risks widening Republican rift
In the dying hours of a Florida primary campaign characterized by unrelenting negativity and personal invective, Mitt Romney had the air Monday of a politician about to come out on the winning end of a bareknuckle political fight.
“There’s no question that politics ain’t beanbags, and we have made sure that our message is out loud and clear,” the former Massachusetts governor said of his attacks on Republican presidential rival Newt Gingrich. “His leadership capability has really been called in question by virtue of the people who’ve worked with him.”
That may have been the only understatement Romney or his campaign surrogates have made about Gingrich all week.
Following a barrage of character attacks in which the former House Speaker has been called — among other things — erratic, dangerous and unreliable, polls show Romney poised to capture Tuesday’s pivotal primary in the Sunshine State.
A Suffolk University poll released Monday showed Romney with 47 per cent support in Florida, a 20-point advantage over Gingrich. Two other polls showed narrower single-digit leads for Romney. At several final-day rallies across Florida, the normally reserved Romney exuded confidence. “With a turnout like this, I’m beginning to feel like we might win tomorrow,” he told an audience in Dunedin.
A Romney victory in Florida, which awards GOP convention delegates on a winner-take-all basis, would re-establish him as the front-runner heading into a relatively quiet February on the Republican presidential nominating calendar.
But it may also come at a long-term cost to party unity.
The Romney campaign’s decision to unleash a torrent of criticism about Gingrich’s personal and professional ethics has deeply angered conservatives in the rebellious Tea Party wing of the GOP.
Several Tea Party supporters of Gingrich said they view the attacks as a co-ordinated effort by Republican elites to eliminate a candidate who has support among grassroots party members.
Proof of a divide within the GOP was evident in the release Monday of results from a straw poll of 600 Tea Party supporters in Florida. The survey found Tea Party activists favoured Gingrich with 35 per cent support, compared to 31 per cent for former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum and 18 per cent for Romney.
The Romney campaign against Gingrich has focused on his times as House Speaker and on his postpolitics career as a paid consultant for Freddie Mac, the governmentsponsored mortgage giant considered partly responsible for the U.S. housing market meltdown.
Several high-profile Republicans — including former presidential nominees John Mccain and Bob Dole — have referred to Gingrich as a divisive, ethically challenged figure whose leadership was destructive to the Republican party.
Gingrich has returned fire with fire. He has attacked Dole and Mccain as political “moderates” who couldn’t defeat charismatic Democrats. “Every time we nominate a moderate, we lose,” Gingrich said.
He characterized Romney as a “liberal who is pro-abortion, progun control, pro-gay rights” and has “bought an amazing amount of ads to try to pretend he’s somebody he’s not.”
Gingrich, campaigning in Tampa Bay, also returned to a favourite campaign theme — vowing to approve the Keystone XL pipeline from Alberta’s oilsands if he is elected president.