Gingrich, Romney, and the battle for Florida

What happened

As the focus in the Republican presidential nomination race narrowed to two candidates, Mitt Romney this week responded to Newt Gingrich’s 12-point win in the South Carolina primary by amping up his attacks on the former House speaker. At a debate in Florida, which will hold its primary next week, Romney called Gingrich a “failed leader” who “resigned in disgrace” as speaker in 1998 after being fined $300,000 for ethics violations. He accused Gingrich of later working as an “influence peddler in Washington,” noting that he was paid $1.6 million to advise Freddie Mac at the same time the mortgage giant was “costing the people of Florida millions upon millions of dollars.” Gingrich denied that he had ever worked as a lobbyist, calling Romney’s attacks “the worst kind of trivial politics.” The fierce battle continued on Florida’s airwaves, with a pro-Gingrich Super PAC spending $6 million on ads claiming that Romney “invented government-run health care” as governor of Massachusetts.

Romney also sought to end speculation over his financial affairs by releasing his 2010 tax returns and an estimate for 2011. He paid $3 million in taxes on $21.7 million of income in 2010, putting his effective tax rate below 14 percent. “I paid all the taxes owed,” Romney said, “and not a penny more.”

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What the editorials said

Romney’s returns highlight exactly what’s wrong with our tax system, said the New York Daily News. The candidate is in the top 0.0025 percent of all earners but pays a lower rate than many middle-class families. Romney has rejected Obama’s proposed hike in top earners’ tax rates. But that stance could cost him dearly if he wins the GOP nomination, as Obama will depict him as the “personification and beneficiary of unfairness.”

Romney isn’t cheating the tax man one bit, said the Boston Herald. His effective tax rate is closer to 45 percent, since much of his income comes from investments that have already been subjected to a 35 percent corporate tax rate—“the highest in the world, by the way.” All Romney is guilty of is working hard and investing wisely.

What the columnists said

Romney has lost his strongest asset—his aura as the GOP’s inevitable nominee and the candidate most likely to beat Obama, said Jonathan Chait in NYMag.com. The attacks on his venture capitalism and tax status have had a huge impact. Two weeks ago, he was viewed unfavorably by 34 percent of voters. Now it’s 49 percent. Among independents, whose votes he’ll need to win the White House, the figure is even worse: 51 percent hold negative views of Romney, compared with 43 percent for Obama. Most voters just don’t believe that this Mormon multimillionaire can understand their lives, said Chris Cillizza in WashingtonPost.com. And revelations about his exotic financial arrangements—including investments in tax havens like Luxembourg and the Cayman Islands—will only alienate him further from ordinary Americans. “There is nothing more dangerous in politics than ‘otherness,’” and Romney reeks of it.

That’s why Gingrich will win the nomination, said Michael Walsh in NationalReview.com. The former speaker understands that the base doesn’t want some establishment-approved “milquetoast candidate,” but one who’s “itching for a fight with everything the Obama Democrats stand for.” A Gingrich-Obama showdown would be like a prizefight “between a puncher and a boxer,” and if heavyweight Newt lands a blow on the nimble but insubstantial Obama, “it’s lights out.”

I’m afraid that’s wishful thinking, said Bret Stephens in The Wall Street Journal. Americans might be eager to replace Obama, but not with either of these clowns. Gingrich is entertaining in debates, but he’s far too histrionic and erratic to inspire confidence. The robotic Romney stands for nothing, and has self-destructed with his inept defense of his time at Bain Capital and his foolish resistance to releasing his tax returns. With candidates like this, “Republicans deserve to lose.’’ Those of us who “despair of a second Obama term” can only “hope Obamacare is repealed by the High Court, the Iranian bomb is repealed by the Israeli Air Force, and the Senate switches hands.”