Newt attack may generate sympathy for Romney
by Bob Hoig, Publisher
Midlands Business Journal
By overreaching on the attack, Republican hopeful Newt Gingrich just might inspire enough sympathy for front-runner Mitt Romney to knock Gingrich himself permanently out of the presidential race.
No conservative is probably out for sure until South Carolina and Florida primary voters have their say.
But for Newt, after his intemperate, Obama-like attacks on Romney as a businessman during the New Hampshire primary, things are not looking good. South Carolina comes Jan. 21.
Romney, winner now in Iowa and New Hampshire, even has some critics defending him against Gingrich’s remarks — Rush Limbaugh and Ron Paul among them.
It is a tenet of conservative thought that free enterprise capitalism is what Republicans, moderates and Independents are all about.
One aspect is that venture capitalists risk large sums of their own money to help businesses grow. Romney was just such an investor leading Bain Capital.
Not all the firms make it. Sometimes they don’t and must be closed and workers let go. Everybody understands that.
When they succeed, jobs and businesses are saved. Bain pulled it off with Domino’s Pizza, involving a large national chain and thousand of workers.
It happened with an entire industry, steel, spread over Ohio and Pennsylvania.
It was unwarranted Gingrich’s calling Romney a greedy “vulture” capitalist for trying his best and doing the job, occasionally in the face of seemingly suicidal labor unions.
One would have thought that as a scholar and lifelong observer of the corporate scene, Gingrich would understand that.
He was far closer to the mark in his criticizing the multiple failures of the Obama Administration’s doomed efforts to pick winners and losers in the clean energy industry — all on the taxpayer’s dime.
Gingrich eloquently deconstructed the Solyndra flop. It was an Obama darling among solar panel companies, one which unfortunately was allowed to run up $500 million in losses before bureaucrats and politicians cried “enough.” The jobs went down with the closing.
It is hard to imagine that Romney, Gingrich, or any of the Republicans in the presidential field would have stood by and allowed that boondoggle to stumble forward.
It was arguably Newt’s finest hour of 2011 at the first debate when he declared from the stage that any of the Republican candidates would be far better as president than the current officeholder.
Now, Gingrich has rekindled his reputation for erratic behavior, actions sometimes at odds with his own well-being. One result as a presidential nominee might make it hard to recruit great vice-presidential talent.
Three of the best on the Republican side seem open to Romney and now might not be for the new Newt, if he is the nominee.
Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey is already a committed Romney backer. Rob Portman and Marco Rubio, the U.S. senators from Ohio and Florida respectively, seem to fit well with the unflappable Romney.
Few politicians probably would decline an invitation to join a presidential ticket. But some might hesitate should the head of the ticket be regarded as overly mercurial or too difficult to work with.
Republicans and conservatives in particular are unhappy attacking free enterprise.
Romney’s comments after New Hampshire fit that mood and mode perfectly. He shifted the focus to where all in the GOP think it should be:
“Obama wants to put free enterprise on trial. In the last few days, we’ve seen some desperate Republicans join forces with them.
He did not mention Gingrich, Rick Perry or John Huntsman. He did not have to.
January 13, 2012
