CONCORD, N.H. – The Republican presidential candidates on Sunday ripped into frontrunner Mitt Romney, using their second debate in just 12 hours to assail Romney’s conservatism, his record as Massachusetts governor and his political ambitions just two days before nation’s first presidential primary.
The attacks on Romney, who is widely favored in New Hampshire, were in stark contrast to the previous night’s debate in Manchester when the five candidates trying to define themselves as the conservative alternative to Romney largely spared him while assailing each other.
“Can we drop a little of the pious baloney?” former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said after Romney portrayed himself as a businessman rather than a politician.
Gingrich repeated his charge that Romney is a “Massachusetts moderate” who “will have a very hard time getting elected” because he doesn’t offer much of a contrast to President Obama.
“There’s a huge difference between a Reagan conservative and somebody who comes out of the Massachusetts culture with an essentially moderate record who I think will have a very hard time in a debate with President Obama,” Gingrich said.
Former Sen. Rick Santorum, who virtually tied Romney for first place in the Iowa caucuses, also swung hard, saying he would be a far more effective advocate for conservative causes than Romney, who chose not to run for a second term as governor.
“If his record was so great as governor of Massachusetts, why didn’t he run for re-election?” Santorum asked. “I mean, if you didn’t want to even stand before the people of Massachusetts and run on your record, if it was that great, why didn’t – why did you bail out?”
The debate took place just as a new Suffolk University poll showed Romney support declining for the second day straight.
Once at 43 percent in the polls, Romney is down 8 points, to 35 percent.
Romney’s loss is a gain for Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, who is in second place in New Hampshire. Paul, according to Suffolk, rose three points and is now at 20 percent. Former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, whose entire campaign is staked on the primary, rose two points to third place.
Gingrich, at 9 percent, and Santorum, at 8 percent, each dropped slightly, suggesting they have peaked among New Hampshire voters.
Huntsman needed a solid debate performance Sunday and he basically delivered, earning frequent applause from the studio audience. Huntsman scolded Romney for criticizing Huntsman’s stint as Obama’s ambassador to China.
“He criticized me while he was out raising money for serving my country in China, yes, under a Democrat, like my two sons are doing in the United States Navy,” Huntsman said of Romney. “I want to be very clear with the people here in New Hampshire and this country: I will always put my country first.”
Romney was unapologetic.
“I just think it’s most likely that the person who should represent our party running against President Obama is not someone who called him a remarkable leader and went to be his ambassador in China,” Romney responded.
The unusual morning debate turned particularly combative near the end, when Gingrich and Romney sparred over attack ads being financed by political action committees that support them.
Each denied responsibility for the ad run against the other, saying they couldn’t control what groups independent of their campaigns did.
Huntsman seized on the acrimony, linking it to bickering and gridlock in Washington that has so disgusted voters.
“There is no trust left among the American people and the institutions of power and among the American people and our elected officials,” Huntsman argued. “And I say, we’ve had enough, and we have to change our direction in terms of coming together as Americans first and foremost and finding solutions to our problems.”
Texas Gov. Rick Perry, largely a non-factor in New Hampshire because he is not competing to win here, aimed his answers at the GOP electorate of South Carolina, site of the first southern primary Jan. 21.
Perry touted his record as a job creator and true Washington outsider, all good positions for winning the South Carolina vote.
“We’ve got to have someone, an outsider, that will walk in, and not be part of the insider group that you see here,” Perry argued.
Romney’s aides were quick to declare their boss the winner.
“Mitt Romney absorbed their best shots and came out stronger,” Romney aide Eric Fehrnstrom said.
Huntsman spokesman Tim Miller disagreed.
“Jon Huntsman won this morning’s debate in Concord by distinguishing himself to voters in New Hampshire and around the nation that he is the leader who can unify the American people, renew trust in their elected leaders, fix our economy, and move our country forward.”
