Romney credits change in tactics for Florida surge

Mitt Romney said yesterday he has overcome his South Carolina setback and returned to the Republican primary forefront by aggressively returning Newt Gingrich’s fire and by presenting himself as a Washington outsider.

Gingrich said Romney is “pretending he’s somebody he’s not”.

Romney said that in the days leading up to the South Carolina’s January 21 primary, he was getting beaten up rhetorically by the former House speaker on a variety of fronts and says he didn’t fight back very well. Now, Romney said, he has “pushed back” more effectively. He said he feels Florida’s voters are responding to his charges that Gingrich benefited from his business relationship with the mortgage giant Freddie Mac at a time when the housing market was taking a dive.