Republican debate: Mitt-Newt fight flares, then fizzles

I agree it started out hot and then it was lukewarm. I thank NBC for not allowing the crowd to dictate the flow of the debate; eliminating the ability of the candidates to play to the crowd instead of answering the questions. Either way, there was no clear winner tonight, so the game continues.

Mitt Romney went for a face-to-face assault against his surging primary opponent in Monday night’s Florida debate, calling out Newt Gingrich as an “influence peddler” who had to “resign in disgrace” from the House of Representatives.

In the first minutes of the debate, Romney quickly went on the offensive, accusing the man who routed him in last weekend’s South Carolina primary of being unscrupulous, unreliable and simply unelectable.

“I think [the election is] about leadership. And the speaker was given an opportunity to be the leader of our party in 1994. And at the end of four years, he had to resign in disgrace,” Romney said. “In the 15 years after he left the speakership, the speaker has been working as an influence peddler in Washington. And during those 15 years, I helped turn around the Olympics, helped begin a very successful turnaround in the state of Massachusetts.”

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