CANARY IN A COALMINE.

An Ongoing Discussion.
 

 Words.

"One week ago, Newt Gingrich was on the ropes in South Carolina, under near-universal assault on the right from his attacks on Mitt Romney’s record at Bain Capital. Everyone from Rush Limbaugh to the Club for Growth and the Wall Street Journal had all declared their disgust. The conservative backlash had given Romney a double-digit lead in the polls. At a candidate forum hosted by Mike Huckabee, Gingrich was booed by the crowd when he tried to defend his Bain attacks.

Fast forward one week, and Gingrich is the winner of the South Carolina primary. Not only did Gingrich win, he crushed Romney 40.4 percent to 27.9 percent — a swing of more than 20 points in just a week. And a new poll shows that, after trailing Romney by more than 20 points in Florida last week, Gingrich has now opened an eight-point lead in the Sunshine State.

What happened? Simply put, Romney let Gingrich up off the mat.

...Gingrich was nimble and flexible in the face of adversity. Romney was stiff and flatfooted — and he lost the South Carolina primary as a result.

The damage to Romney’s campaign could extend beyond South Carolina for this reason: The central premise of Romney’s candidacy is that he is the best man to beat Obama. But in South Carolina, Gingrich borrowed directly from Obama’s playbook, launching the exact same attack Obama will use against Romney this fall if he is the nominee. Romney responded with all the agility of a deer caught in headlights. He had a chance to show just how he would take the fight to Obama in November — and he failed miserably.

This should raise a question in the minds of GOP voters: If Romney can’t defend free-market capitalism against Gingrich, how will he be able to defend it in the fall against Obama?..."

THE WASHINGTON POST: Romney'S Pawlenty Moment

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