Newt Gingrich, Mitt Romney set sights on different targets in caucus run-up
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DAVENPORT, Iowa – During their first appearances in Iowa after the Christmas holiday, leading Republican presidential candidates Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney had two different targets during a pair of appearances in the eastern part of the state.
Gingrich, the former House speaker from Georgia, reached out yesterday for the potent conservative Iowa caucus voting bloc with a battle cry for the soul of the GOP.
While President Obama argues that the trickle-down economics employed by President Bush contributed to the Great Recession, Gingrich argued differently during a luncheon speech to the Dubuque Rotary Club.
He urged the country and Republican establishment to return to supple-side economics, believing tax cuts and regulatory reductions will stimulate economic growth.
While he accused Romney of being a “Massachusetts moderate’’ unwilling to cut taxes – capital gains, for instance – as deeply as him, Gingrich largely didn’t engage his rival on policy grounds.
Instead, he repeated his call to answer negative ads aired by a pro-Romney “super PAC’’ with a 90-minute, head-to-head debate.
Romney, meanwhile, trained his focus solely on President Obama.
Completely ignoring his rivals, the former Massachusetts governor told a packed ballroom at the Hotel Blackhawk here on the banks of the Mississippi River that he and the Democratic incumbent had two different visions for the country: an “opportunity’’ society as opposed to an”entitlement’’ society.
Romney, too, called for lower taxes and less government, but he did it without targeting Gingrich.
REPORTER’S DIARY:
Date: Tuesday, Dec. 26, 2011
Locations: Des Moines; Dubuque, Iowa; Davenport, Iowa; Des Moines.
Mileage driven: 466 miles
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