A more combative Romney is back on top

What happened

Mitt Romney reclaimed his status as the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination this week, crushing Newt Gingrich by 14 points in the Florida primary. The former Massachusetts governor regained his momentum by going on the attack against Gingrich, aggressively questioning his ethics in two debates and saturating local media with $15.4 million in negative ads. The focuses of Romney’s attacks were the former House speaker’s $1.6 million in consulting fees from the mortgage giant Freddie Mac, and the ethics scandal that ended his tenure as speaker. Gingrich had won South Carolina on Jan. 21 with his own assault on Romney’s tenure running a venture-capital company, but in Florida, he was outspent by a nearly 5 to 1 margin. About 92 percent of political advertising overall in Florida was negative, leading media tracker Kantar to label it the “most negative campaign ever.”

A visibly angry Gingrich vowed to fight on until the summer, reminding “the elite media” that voters in 46 states had yet to cast ballots in primaries or caucuses. “It’s now clear that this will be a two-person race between the conservative leader and the Massachusetts moderate,” he said. But Romney went into February with $20 million on hand, compared with the $2.1 million for Gingrich, who’s relied heavily on a single Super PAC donor. Romney said he welcomed the long fight ahead. “A competitive primary does not divide us; it prepares us,” he said.

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What the editorials said

What a bloodbath, said The Wall Street Journal. The kicking and eye-gouging wasn’t pretty, but by giving Gingrich a sound beating, Romney finally showed conservatives the kind of backbone that he’ll need for the “inevitable cage match with President Obama” in the general election. Gingrich has only himself to blame for this resounding defeat, said the Boston Herald. When Romney quite accurately called Newt “an influence peddler” for taking Freddie Mac’s money while the lender was inflating the housing bubble, Gingrich proved he can “throw a punch but can’t take one.” He stammered and “turned even whinier than usual,” like a bully who’d been punched in the nose.

Romney, however, “can’t just sit on his lead,” said USA Today. Exit polls showed that conservatives who “strongly identify with the Tea Party” still prefer Gingrich to him. Not only does Romney have to “unite the establishment and Tea Party wings of his party,” but he has to do so without alienating the independent voters who’ll decide the November election. Thanks to the GOP candidates’ exchange of brutal personal attacks, just 22 percent of independents now view Romney favorably, while 42 percent see him unfavorably.

What the columnists said

Romney’s “inevitability” has been restored, said John Dickerson in Slate.com. Republicans who identified the ability to beat Obama as the key issue supported Romney 58 percent to Gingrich’s 32 percent. Romney also had a large margin of victory among women and Hispanics—two groups Republicans can’t afford to alienate in November. By shedding his “clean-cut, Boy Scout, Ken-doll image,” said John Podhoretz in NYPost.com, Romney proved that he’d be “willing to show real toughness, even meanness,” in taking on Obama. This primary race is “all but over.”

It really is difficult to see how Gingrich can come back from this defeat, said Ross Douthat in NYTimes.com. After Romney directly challenged his ethics in debates, Gingrich looked morose and deflated. That undermines the “strongest rationale for his candidacy,” which was that he alone has the rhetorical chops to stand toe-to-toe with President Obama. “Without his debating magic, Gingrich doesn’t have any cards left to play.”

Try telling him that, said Fred Barnes in WeeklyStandard.com. Gingrich was defiant in the wake of losing Florida, promising a comeback in the procession of primaries in conservative states over the next month. That’s not entirely out of the question. Romney hasn’t found the “right vocabulary or tone” to appeal to movement conservatives, relying on promises to unleash “the genius and creativity of the American people” while “saving the soul of America.” Huh? “That sounds more like something Obama would say.” Until Romney can unite Republicans behind substantive proposals for shrinking government and reviving the economy, Gingrich will still be snapping at his heels.