Heard Mitt say that Newt wasn't a business man he was K street lobbyist. Comment is getting picked up on MSM.
Newt needs to emphasize what his small business does. How much of his income is earned from the patriotic historical documentaries, books etc.
Romney is going full negative on Newt and has now taken up the job his SuperPACs were doing before. This is certainly the sign of a desperate candidate. I don’t know if it will stick. My feeling is him rattling off a long series of accusations will make him look worse than Newt, and none of them will really stick.
Newt will probably have to explain some of these, like why he resigned from the House right after winning reelection. From what I can tell, Newt resigned because they got bad election results in 1998 and they would have voted him out as Speaker because of it. He apparently didn’t want to remain as a regular House member, but I think that’s only natural for anyone. The resignation came almost 2 years after the ethics charges were dismissed/settled, so it has nothing to do with them, but Mitt seems to be trying to make it sound like the ethics charges resulted directly in Newt’s resignation.
This new article starts out with nasty, nasty stuff from Mitt and Politico doesn’t even try to sugar coat it...
Politico: Mitt Romney: Newt Gingrich is a ‘failed leader,’ ‘disgrace’
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0112/71802.html
Also, Romney was on Huckabee Sunday night, who IMO gave him very leading questions geared up to give him mile-wide openings to bash Newt, questions that it sounded like the Romney campaign provided to him. Romney opened up attacks on Newt the kind of which he has never done personally before, adopting a lot of the messages that only his SuperPAC had used before. Ethics violations, $300,000 settlement, 35 years as a Washington insider, lobbying for 15 years, working for health care companies, lobbying for Medicare Part D, taking $1.6 million from Freddie Mac for being a historian, sitting on the couch with Pelosi for climate change legislation, his House members turning on him, being “kicked out” of the House, erratic leadership, etc. Romney got all of that out in 2 minutes or less.
Don't think they're fixing to shine again anytime soon.
They have greatly underestimated true conservatives and the tea party.
Mitt wasn’t a businessman either. He was a banker - someone who loaned other people’s money to struggling businesses, which then had to turn around...or fail. And from what I’ve read, when his group would loan money, others would...and if the business collapsed, Mitt would clear out first with as much of the cash as possible.
That is not running a business. He provided capital, and that is good as far as it goes, but it isn’t the same as starting up a business and providing goods and services and meeting payrolls and taxes and leading others to work harder and better.
He was a risk-adverse banker. A banker who made a lot of money, even when the business failed. How will THAT sound in a general election?