Dems: It’s Romney’s to lose

Posted Jan 23, 2012 by William March

Updated Jan 23, 2012 at 03:13 PM

Mitt Romney clearly is worried about the surging Newt Gingrich, but U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Weston—who’s also chairman of the national Democratic Party—feels pretty sure Romney is the man President Barack Obama will face in November.

In a news conference call with reporters Saturday, Wasserman Schultz spent nearly the entire call bashing Romney, with only a few comments at the end directed at Newt Gingrich.

She said the primary “should be (Romney’s) race to lose, but he’s been doing a good job of losing,” referring to Gingrich’s upset in South Carolina. “The more voters learn about Mitt Romney, the less then like him.”

She said Romney’s promise to release two years of tax returns is “wholly insufficient … It’s part of Mitt Romney acting like he’s the entitlement candidate, that he can play by a different set of rules.”

Like many Republican Romney critics, she noted that Romney’s father, George Romney, released 12 years’ worth of tax returns when he ran for president. She said Romney’s economic plans would “keep his own taxes low and make them lower while doing nothing for the middle class.”

Asked whether she considered Gingrich’s recent comments on food stamps racist—he has called President Barack Obama “the food stamp president” and says black people “should demand paychecks and not be satisfied with food stamps”—Wasserman Schultz said the language was “divisive” and “coded words that are carefully chosen” to appeal to the right wing.

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Romney goes medieval on Gingrich

Posted Jan 23, 2012 by William March

Updated Jan 23, 2012 at 02:53 PM

In surrogate comments, a new ad and statements to reporters in Tampa this morning, Mitt Romney is hitting hard at Newt Gingrich, hoping to shore up his Florida firewall and halt the Gingrich surge in its tracks.

Romney is hitting Gingrich on nearly every front—his highly paid work for the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac housing agencies, his record as House speaker and alleged ethical violations, and his personal temperament.

The language is tough. A quote from the new ad, titled “Florida Families”: “While Florida families lost everything in the housing crisis, Newt Gingrich cashed in.”

In a press gaggle following an appearance in Tampa this morning, Romney suggested that Gingrich’s past makes him too risky to be the nominee. He raised the spectre of an “October surprise,” a burst of negative publicity late in the campaign over a previously unknown controversy—the kind of event that can kill a campaign.

In fact, he said, “We could see an October Surprise a day from Newt Gingrich.”

In a conference call with reporters this morning, former candidate Tim Pawlenty, now backing Romney, and Florida House speaker designate Will Weatherford of Wesley Chapel demanded that Gingrich release records of his time as what Pawlenty called “a lobbyist and influence peddler” in Washington after he left Congress.

“We should have a chance to know who he represented and for what purpose and at what price,” Pawlenty said. He said Gingrich “has spent almost his entie adult life either as a member of the Congress or as an influence peddler … to suggest that he’s an outsider simply defies the facts.”

Weatherford mocked Gingrich’s assertion that he consulted for the housing agencies as a historian, not a lobbyist.

“I think we’re all aware of how tuition is going up, but $1.7 million for a history lesson? I think that’s got to be a record somewhere,” he said.

“The possibility of Newt Gingrich being our nominee against Barack Obama is essentially handing the election over to Obama,” he said.

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Romney commits to debates

Posted Jan 21, 2012 by William March

Updated Jan 21, 2012 at 01:11 PM

Ending several days of uncertainty, Mitt Romney has committed to participate in two debates leading up to the Jan. 31 Florida primary, including the University of South Florida debate Monday night.

Questions arose about the fate of the Tampa event when Romney declined over the past week to promise to appear.

In an email statement today, Romney spokesman Ryan Williams said Romney “looks forward to participating in two spirited debates in Florida and showing Sunshine State voters why he is the strongest candidate to defeat President Obama and fix our economy.”

NBC News also issued a statement noting that the debate will be “the first weekday primetime airing of a primary debate on a broadcast network in the 2012 election cycle.”

Whether the debate would get national television play and whether Romney would participate seemed uncertain during the week, after senior Romney political strategist Stuart Stevens said in an interview Wednesday that there have been too many debates and that the campaign hadn’t committed to either the Tampa debate or one in Jacksonville Jan. 26. NBC then changed its listings for Monday night, putting other shows in the debate’s 9-11 p.m. time slot.

Rolmney’s commitment to debate in Florida, a state in which he hopes a big win will seal his inevitability as the GOP nominee, came as he appeared to be facing a stronger-then-expected challenge from Newt Gingrich in South Carolina.

As recently as Jan. 10, Romney held double-digit leads in polls in South Carolina. As South Carolinians went to the polls today, however, Gingrich appeared to be leading—he held a five-point lead in the Real Clear Politics average of polls in the state as of Friday.

 

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What’s up with the USF debate?

Posted Jan 20, 2012 by William March

Updated Jan 20, 2012 at 03:00 PM

Uncertainty appears to be increasing around the University of South Florida presisdential candidates debate scheduled for Monday night.

First, Mitt Romney refused to commit to participate in the debate. He’s not saying he won’t be there; he’s just declining to promise he will.

Now there’s a mystery about whether the debate will be broadcast as planned on NBC during prime time Monday night. The network has just changed its listings for 9-11 p.m. Monday, the time slot for the debate, to include Fear Factor and another hour-long show instead.

NBC wouldn’t say Thursday whether it had a commitment from Romney to participate, but promised a statement today.

The statement, issued about noon from network spokeswoman Erika Masonhall, said simply,  “Preparations for the NBC News, National Journal, Tampa Bay Times debate continue. We fully intend to proceed with this long-planned event and we hope and expect all the qualifying candidates will participate.”

Does this mean the debate won’t be televised on NBC during prime time? Maybe taped for another time slot? Maybe aired on MSNBC rather than NBC? Outright cancellation seems unlikely. We’re still waiting for further word from the network.

At least one of the sponsors, the Tampa Bay Times, isn’t suggesting anything amiss. Shortly before 2 p.m., it posted a blog item inviting readers offering a live stream of the debate and fact-checking tweets.

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Michelle Obama in Tampa Thursday

Posted Jan 20, 2012 by William March

Updated Jan 20, 2012 at 12:38 PM

First Lady Michelle Obama will visit Tampa, Sarasota and Palm Beach Thursday, just as the Republican presidential primary race catches fire in Florida, to talk about healthy eating.

She will join Bob Unanue, president of Goya Foods, and other Latino organizations to promote their nationwide effort to encourage health and wellness, at National Supermarket at Armenia and Waters avenues Thursday morning.

Goya is the nation’s largest Hispanic-owned food company, according to the White House announcement.

They’ll be promoting Mi Plato, or My Plate, a U.S. Department of Agriculture initiative to help families make healthy meal choices.

Obama will then attend Democratic fundraisers in Sarasota and Palm Beach.

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