Analyst: Milt Romney committed ‘major gaffe’ at latest debate

Analyst: Milt Romney committed ‘major gaffe’ at latest debate

Monday, December 12, 2011 5:19 PM | (Catholic Online)

According to a Huffington Post political analyst, GOP presidential candidate Milt Romney is now officially in trouble. His chief opponent Newt Gingrich is already enjoying major support in several states, and according to columnist Jon Ward, Romney’s appearance in the latest debate proved to be highly detrimental.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) – According to Ward, “Romney came out on the short end of most of his exchanges with the former speaker of the House. And to make things worse, he committed a major gaffe that hurt his own prospects. During an exchange with Texas Gov. Rick Perry, Romney proposed a $10,000 bet over whether Perry had accurately quoted from Romney’s book.”

This was especially injurious to Romney. Ward says the comment “reinforced the image of Romney as a wealthy businessman who is out of touch with regular Americans.”

In response, former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman’s presidential campaign bought up a Web site, www.10kbet.com.

The Democratic National Committee responded with a press release entitled, “Here’s What the Average American Family Can Buy with $10,000.” “It said the sum equals four months of pay for many American families, a year of college tuition at a state school, three times what the average family spends on groceries annually, and a year’s worth of mortgage payments for ‘the typical American home,’” Ward writes.

Ward praised Gingrich’s performance, saying that “Gingrich, meanwhile, handled his most perilous moments with aplomb. His biggest test came when ABC News moderators Diane Sawyer and George Stephanopoulos raised the issue of Gingrich’s past marital infidelities.

“Gingrich, who is married to his third wife, acknowledged the seriousness of his past missteps and argued gently that he is now a different person,” Ward writes.

Sizing up the opponents at the debate, Ward notes that during “the first exchange between Romney and Gingrich, Romney hesitated for a moment when prompted by Stephanopoulos to name areas of disagreement between himself and the former speaker. He then ran through a list of a few items before reaching his favored talking point. More than issues, he said, it’s their resumes that set them apart.

“Even when Romney tried to highlight controversial comments by Gingrich, the Georgian used their exchanges to play up that fire in the belly and bellicosity that has endeared him to the Republican conservative base, which sees in Romney a technocratic phony who says what he thinks his audience wants to hear and does nothing to inspire them,” Ward writes.

Ward notes that it’s not a done deal just yet. “If Gingrich takes on water of any sort, Iowa’s voters could throw a curve ball. They still have ultra-conservative alternatives, such as Perry, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) and former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa). Perry, in particular, had a strong debate performance on Saturday.”

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