SARASOTA, Fla. — Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, his poll numbers slipping in Florida, pivoted away from attacking rival Newt Gingrich and shifted his criticism to President Obama, whom he blamed for the economic slump that has hurt Florida almost more than any other state.
“Today, President Obama has amassed an actual record of debt, decline and disappointment,” Romney told a crowd of about 300, standing beneath a huge “Obama Isn’t Working” banner in a shuttered drywall factory. “This president’s agenda made these troubled times last longer. He and his allies made it harder for the economy to recover.”
Romney aides said the speech was aimed at defining Romney’s candidacy in Florida, where the unemployment rate is nearly 10 percent and the housing market collapse was particularly devastating.
Aides said the campaign fell short of defining his candidacy before last week’s South Carolina primary, where he placed second to Gingrich.
However, poll numbers show Gingrich leading in the Sunshine State, which votes Jan. 31. Gingrich is also leading in national polls, gaining momentum in part from last week’s strong debate performances and his South Carolina victory.
Gingrich, who Rasmussen Reports showed with a 9 percentage point lead on Monday, drew the biggest crowd of his campaign Tuesday. Several thousand people turned out for a rally in Sarasota, where he delivered a speech that touted his record as House speaker in the 1990s and as a self-described “Reagan conservative.”
He made a brief critical reference to Romney, pointing out that the former Massachusetts governor, whom he paints as a moderate, has hired the man who served as campaign manager to former Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, a moderate Republican who left the party to run as an independent.
Gingrich revved up the crowd by describing his plans to win the general election by challenging Obama to seven debates, each three hours in length and free of a moderator. If Obama declined, Gingrich pledged to follow him to every single campaign stop and rebut his speeches, “without a teleprompter.”
“As the nominee I get to come back to Tampa in August and we get to have a really big rally for that,” Gingrich told the cheering crowd, referring to the GOP convention scheduled for Tampa this summer.
Romney and Gingrich, who largely have the field to themselves, appear to be attracting very different types of voters.
Romney backers say their candidate is more stable than Gingrich.
“I think Mitt Romney has the heart of the American people as his number one priority,” said Pam Townsend, a public mediator from Tampa.
Gingrich, she said, “seems to be someone who thrives on public recognition” and is “self-absorbed.”
Gingrich’s showboat attitude, however, is just what some conservative voters say is needed against Obama, who has proven himself a dynamic campaigner.
“He’s in your face and he doesn’t beat around the bush,” Ruth Tracy, of Venice, said of Gingrich. “He’s the one who can debate Obama. He’s the one who can shout Obama down.”
While Romney and Gingrich crisscrossed Florida, their campaigns exchanging fire over Romney’s newly released tax returns, which showed he paid a below-average 14 percent in taxes, and Gingrich’s $1.6 million contract with mortgage giant Freddie Mac, issues likely to follow the two candidates into Thursday’s GOP debate.
