Newt Gingrich: Nominating Mitt Romney would be picking ‘Obama-lite’
LAS VEGAS – With polls showing him trailing badly in Nevada, Newt Gingrich vowed today to contest the Republican presidential nomination all he way to the party’s national convention this summer because frontrunner Mitt Romney is no different policywise than President Obama.
“It isn’t good enough for the Republican Party to nominate Obama-lite,’’ Gingrich said to cheers from a crowd of a couple hundred gathered at a country music club just south of the Las Vegas Strip.
The former House speaker challenged Romney to a Lincoln-Douglas style debate with no timekeeper or moderator so they could highlight their political differences.
He said one was Romney’s suggestion earlier this week that the poor don’t need government attention unless there is a need to repair the social safety net. Gingrich countered that he favors linking continued unemployment compensation to job-retraining.
“Obama is big foodstamp; he is little foodstamp. They both think foodstamps are OK,’’ Gingrich said of Romney. “I don’t think foodstamps are a future for America. They’re a necessary bridge back to getting a job and back to being independent of government.’’
At another point, he targeted Romney’s vast wealth, made, in part, by mutual fund investments in mortgage lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
While Gingrich had similar investments, and led a firm paid $1.6 million by Freddie Mac, he said of Romney: “We did not create Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac so rich guys like Mitt Romney and Goldman Sachs can make money.’’
He also highlighted a new web video his campaign was releasing that highlighted Romney’s views on gun control, taxes, and health insurance reform.
It concludes with a snippet from an interview that billionaire George Soros, an active donor to Democratic causes, suggesting there is little difference between the political policies of Obama and Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts.
“Every once in a while, the clouds part and enlightenment comes in,’’ Gingrich said to laughter.
The Romney campaign noted that Gingrich has his own Soros connection.
“It is interesting to see the latest attack from Speaker Gingrich and his disintegrating campaign,’’ said spokesman Ryan Williams. “Unlike Newt Gingrich, Mitt Romney never sat next to Nancy Pelosi in an ad funded by George Soros on behalf of Al Gore’s global warming initiative. As recently as 2008, the Soros agenda had no better friend than Newt Gingrich. Nice try, Mr. Speaker.’’
The Nevada caucuses begin tomorrow at 9 a.m. PST. They will largely be concluded by evening, except for an area of Las Vegas being held open until 8 p.m. for those who had been attending religious observances.
A poll published this week by the Las Vegas Review-Journal showed Romney leading with 45 percent of likely caucusgoers, compared with 25 percent for Gingrich, 11 percent for former US Senator Rick Santorum, and 9 percent for US Representative Ron Paul.
Gingrich’s visit to the Stoney’s Rockin’ Country club – which features bikini-clad mechanical bullriding contests – came on the third consecutive day of a relatively light public campaign schedule for Gingrich.
On Wednesday, the day after Romney beat him in the Florida primary, Gingrich had one event in Reno.
Yesterday, he had two events in Las Vegas. Today, he also had two public events schedueld – again, both in Las Vegas.
The latter event was this evening, at the International Church of Las Vegas.
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