REPUBLICAN CANDIDATES ganged up on the frontrunner Mitt Romney on the eve of today’s New Hampshire primary, criticising the former governor of Massachusetts for destroying jobs in his previous career as a private equity investor.
Newt Gingrich, the former speaker of the House whose campaign was all but destroyed by negative advertising from Romney’s campaign, was the most virulent.
Alluding to Mr Romney’s role as a founder of Bain Capital, Mr Gingrich said: “What you have to raise questions about is, somebody goes out, invests a certain amount of money, say $30 million, takes out an amount, say $180 million – six to one return – and then the company goes bankrupt . . .
“Is capitalism really about the ability of a handful of rich people to manipulate the lives of thousands of other people and walk off with the money? Or is that, in fact, a little bit of a flawed system? And so I do draw a distinction between looting a company, leaving behind broken families and broken neighbours, and leaving behind a factory that should be there.”
Mr Gingrich made the attack as Mr Romney’s score in New Hampshire opinion polls fell for the fifth consecutive day yesterday. The Suffolk University/7 News tracking poll showed 33 per cent of intended votes for Mr Romney, down from 43 per cent.
The Libertarian candidate Ron Paul stood at 20 per cent, the former Utah governor John Huntsman at 13 per cent, Mr Gingrich at 11 per cent and the former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum at 10 per cent. Mr Huntsman, who was upbraided by Mr Romney for having served as President Obama’s ambassador to China, also attacked Mr Romney. “Governor Romney enjoys firing people,” he said. “I enjoy creating jobs.”
Texas governor Rick Perry, who gave up on New Hampshire to campaign in South Carolina, where the next primary will take place on January 21st, joined in. “There is nothing wrong with being successful and making money,” Mr Perry said. “There is something inherently wrong when getting rich off failure and sticking it to someone else is how you do your business, and I happen to think that is indefensible.”
Mr Romney is nonetheless expected to win today’s primary. But if the margin of victory is significantly lower than the 20 percentage points expected, it could dent his hopes of locking down the nomination this month.
