FRANCES MAO
JAN 20, 2011
New polls show that the Republican presidential nominee race is tightening quickly, with conservative favourite, Newt Gingrich, speeding up to almost level with anointed front-runner, Mitt Romney.
Having swept the primaries so far, Mitt Romney goes into Saturday's South Carolina caucuses with the momentum of the presumptive Republican nominee and is still odds-on favourite to win, despite heightened attacks from his opponents in recent days in the Tea-Party leaning state.
Mr Gingrich, who finished 3rd in New Hampshire, has vowed to confront Mr Romney head-on in Saturday's primary, with the intent of toppling the former Massachusetts governor.
Fellow contenders, Rick Perry and Jon Huntsman, both called it quits this week, with the former passing on his small support base to Mr Gingrich in the hope that it'll be the bump needed to get him across the line on Saturday. Huntsman on the other hand, endorsed Mr Romney, urging Republicans to line up behind “the man most equipped to defeat Barack Obama,” citing his electability. A convincing win in South Carolina will all but sew up the race in Mr Romney's favour, and deal a very likely, fatal, blow to the three remaining opponents' chances of attaining the presidential nomination.
Yet, Mr Gingrich, the one-time favourite in the South Carolina and Florida primaries who was eclipsed by Mr Romney's rising star, now goes into tomorrow's vote within striking range of the leader, according to a Politico poll which shows Romney atop the GOP field with 37 percent and the former House speaker at 30 percent.
But he will first have to deal with consolidating the support of America's bible-belt voters. He faces stiff competition from rival conservative and Iowa runner-up, Rick Santorum, who won the official endorsement of the state's prominent Christian coalition on Monday. Both men are battling for the same powerful bloc of evangelical voters, leaving a divided conservative field that has allowed Romney to remain at the front of the field, despite a lingering “Anyone-but-Mitt” ethos.
Mr Romney's prolonged front-runner status has seen him face an onslaught of criticism from both ends of the spectrum- the White House and his Republican rivals. For weeks now, he has been fending off renewed attack ads, from Super PACs aligned with Gingrich, which have blasted his corporate history. As an executive of Bain Capital, a private equity firm that made millions of dollars restructuring companies, he has been accused of helping destroy jobs for profit.
Many see Gingrich's bracing vitriol as retaliation for Romney's actions in Iowa. Sitting atop the polls leading up to the start of the primaries, Gingrich felt the sting of Romney's moneyed campaign machinery when the Romney camp seized on the former House Speaker's chequered past: a Capitol Hill record disgraced by ethical violations and a marital history peppered with infidelity, in an attack campaign blanketing. With 45 percent of negative TV ads aimed squarely at Gingrich, according to the Campaign Media Analysis Group, the thrice-married candidate saw a collapse in poll numbers ahead of the Iowa caucus, finishing with a 4th place result.
Determined to not be consigned to just another 'Flavour of the Week” candidate though, he has focused on getting back in the race by bringing down Mr Romney, and is picking up speed again in his favoured southern states.
Mr Romney has also come under fire from Democrats who have been quick to posit the anointed frontrunner as a champion of the wealthy. Mr Romney, whose private wealth is estimated to be about $US250 million, revealed yesterday in response to insistent queries from his rivals, that he “probably” pays a 15 percent tax rate, a bracket suited to struggling lower income earners. This compared with Newt Gingrich's reveal that he owed $US613,517 in 2010 on more than $US3.1 million in income — a 31.6 percent rate.
The head of the Democratic National Committee, Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, said Mr Romney had shown through his campaigning “that he is completely out of touch with the concerns of America's working and middle-class families.” The Romney campaign worked hard to dampen the flames, when Mr Romney offered to wage a $US10,000 bet with then candidate, Rick Perry, during a nominee debate broadcast last October.
Nevertheless, Mr Romney is considered by the GOP as the republican standard- bearer to lead, with broad appeal and possessing the best chances to go head to head with Obama in November. Seen as the candidate who is most “presidential”, his heavily criticised business experience on the flip side is seen to be a major drawcard for the GOP, against the backdrop of the US's battling economy, and a crucial factor in attempting to uproot Obama from the White House.
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