New Hampshire Primary 2012: Newt Gingrich Says Mitt Romney's Firing Comment Was 'Clumsy'

MANCHESTER, N.H. — Newt Gingrich pledged to take the fight to South Carolina and Florida after finishing well behind the leaders in Tuesday's New Hampshire Republican primary.

"We're going to offer the American people something very different," Gingrich told about 200 supporters at a downtown Manchester, N.H. hotel. "We're going to offer them the opportunity to participate in very dramatic, very fundamental change in Washington."

Later in his speech, the former House speaker urged those in the New Hampshire crowd to call everyone they know in South Carolina and Florida and get them to come aboard.

Gingrich fell behind Mitt Romney, Ron Paul and Jon Huntsman in the contest. He was locked in a tight battle with Rick Santorum for fourth place.

"This is step two of a long process," Gingrich said. "We have an opportunity, I think, to unify the country around a message of jobs, economic growth and very dramatic change,"

The first Southern primary, on Jan. 21 in South Carolina, is critical for the former Georgia congressman. And the race there promises to be bruising.

Gingrich has already put up ads in South Carolina attacking Romney for his "timid" economic proposal and hitting him for shifting views on abortion. "Massachusetts moderate Mitt Romney," the spot intones. "He can't be trusted."

And a pro-Gingrich PAC has snapped up $3.4 million in airtime and is expected to saturate the airwaves with ads taking aim at Romney's leadership at Bain Capital. Winning Our Future has assembled a 28-minute video which assails Romney for "reaping massive awards" while head of the venture capital firm.

Gingrich, 68, began his White House bid in Iowa pledging to run a positive campaign. But after being battered by a deluge of ads – most funded by pro-Romney PAC – Gingrich shifted gears and began to hit back hard.

Gingrich has said the race is about contrasts and has sought to cast himself as the bold conservative heir to the mantle of Ronald Reagan. And he argues that although Romney has now racked up back-to-back wins in Iowa and New Hampshire, he has done so with below the majority of the voters, meaning that most of the GOP's conservatives are voting against Romney.

South Carolina, Gingrich said, won't take kindly to a moderate from the state that brought the nation Democrats John Kerry and Michael Dukakis.

"The ideal South Carolina fight would be a Georgia conservative vs. a Massachussetts moderate," Gingrich told reporters Tuesday.

___

Follow Shannon McCaffrey: http://www.twitter.com/smccaffrey13

Also on HuffPost:

Comments

[jjdnyc]

07:49 PM on 01/10/2012

Wait - Romney is complaining about being taken out of context? Will no one in the media point to the obvious hypocrisy in this? His "out of context" slander of Obama late last year was exponentially more egregious and unfair. By way of reminder, Obama made a comment during the 2008 campaign to the effect that he knew that John McCain did not want to discuss the economy - that McCain knew that "we lose if we talk about the economy" – ie. McCain loses if McCain talks about the economy. Romney took that clip and presented it as if Obama was saying it about himself and in relation to the 2012 campaign. That was not a distortion but an out and out, bald-faced lie. And Romney has the temerity to complain about this trifle (I mean, he was talking about insurers, but he did utter the words” I like firing people” and he wasn’t talking about someone else.. He is shameless. But, why not be- the "left wing biased MSM" doesn't call him on it. Just as none of them ever push back on his preposterous lies about Obama having destroyed 2 million jobs or wanting to transform America into a welfare state etc.

[HowthCastle]

07:25 PM on 01/10/2012

I wonder if Mitt Romney has ever lusted for women in his heart?

[mackjaz]

06:29 PM on 01/10/2012

Studies confirm that 9 times out of 10, in marriages involving Newt Gingrich, the woman is the adult.

[DebitLeft]

07:34 PM on 01/10/2012

I think you actually mean 3 out of 3.

[41helper]

05:05 PM on 01/10/2012

Has Gingrich got a strong State. Just the state of his mind.

[Veronica Pate]

04:16 PM on 01/10/2012

.

[Ded Peasant]

03:31 PM on 01/10/2012

I like firing people and binge eating in front of the homeless.

[fitzroya]

03:25 PM on 01/10/2012

Romney would be superior in a debate with Obama? Romney doesn't listen to the full question. Romney didn't listen to Stephanopoulos' full question and the all-important preface rooted to right to privacy, and the contraception remarks Santorum made earlier in the week, saying there is no right to privacy in the US Constitution in his opinion.

Romney also didn't read his podium prompter to see the whole question and consider it, but instead latched onto questioning the part of the question he heard, instead of addressing the whole question relevant to the right to privacy, and differentiation between himself and Santorum.

Here is the full question including the all important foundation preface, acknowledging the source relevance: Santorum
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aaq6X0nxSzk

Here is what is circulating among the neocons seeking to vilify liberal Stephanopoulos.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKWij_v4Twk

One of these is the whole truth, and the other is an out-of-context opinion and product of a lie of omission. The difference makes all the difference.

[Marlyn]

05:36 PM on 01/10/2012

"he'd be superior in a debate" ???

I think Gingrich meant himself.

[fitzroya]

07:01 PM on 01/10/2012

Yes, you're right. I misunderstood that. Imagine, Gingrich complimenting somebody else that way? Guess I pulled a Romney.