Romney and Gingrich clash in post-Carolina debate

Republican presidential contenders Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich clashed repeatedly in heated, personal terms in the first campaign debate since South Carolina’s primary scrambled the race to pick a challenger to President Barack Obama.

Mr Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, branded his chief rival as an “influence peddler” in Washington, only to be accused in turn by Mr Gingrich, the former speaker of the House of Representatives, of spreading falsehoods over many years in politics during a two-hour debate marked by interruptions and finger pointing.

Mr Gingrich has suddenly seized the nomination momentum, following weak finishes in the first two contests in Iowa and New Hampshire, with his solid victory on Saturday over Mr Romney in South Carolina.

Recent polls suggest he may have erased Mr Romney’s once double-digit lead in Florida, site of the next primary on January 31.

Mr Romney remains the favourite of much of the Republican establishment and has a big advantage in money and organisation.

Florida is also seen as friendlier territory for him than South Carolina, one of the most conservative states.

But the South Carolina win has allowed Mr Gingrich to position himself as the only viable alternative to Mr Romney, whom some Republicans see as too moderate.

The two other candidates remaining in the race, former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum and Texas Representative Ron Paul, shared the debate stage, but are seen as long-shots for the nomination.

The debate came one night before Mr Obama’s nationally televised State of the Union policy speech to Congress offering him his biggest, best chance to offer a vision for a second term in a year dominated by Republican infighting.

Mr Obama will speak to a nation worried about daily struggles and unhappy with his handling of the economy.

The president is expected to urge higher taxes on the wealthy, propose ways to make college more affordable and offer new steps to tackle a debilitating housing crisis and try to help US manufacturers expand hiring.

Only a week ago, Mr Romney seemed poised to put an early end to the nomination race. Polls showed him leading in South Carolina, but Mr Gingrich surged after strong performances in two debates in which he lashed out at liberal “elites”.

Now, Florida is a state Mr Romney can ill afford to lose in a nomination battle that is likely to stretch out for months.

Mr Romney was the aggressor from the opening moments of the debate, saying Mr Gingrich had “resigned in disgrace” from Congress after four years as speaker and then had spent the next 15 years “working as an influence peddler”.

Mr Gingrich shot back that Mr Romney’s attacks were riddled with falsehoods. He referred to statements by John McCain and Mike Huckabee, who both competed against Mr Romney for the 2008 presidential nomination, who had said Mr Romney could not tell the truth. He said Mr Romney was now doing the same in Florida.

“You’ve been walking around the state saying things that are untrue,” Mr Gingrich said to his rival.

In particular, Mr Romney brought up the contract Mr Gingrich’s consulting firm had with Freddie Mac, a government-backed mortgage giant that he said “did a lot of bad for a lot of people and you were working there”.

Mr Romney also said Mr Gingrich had lobbied politicians to approve legislation creating a new prescription drug benefit under Medicare, the government health care programme for the elderly.

“I have never, ever gone and done any lobbying,” Mr Gingrich retorted emphatically, adding that his firm had hired an expert to explain to employees the bright line between what you can do as a citizen and what you do as a lobbyist“.

Mr Romney counterpunched, referring to the $300,000 that Mr Gingrich’s consulting firm received in 2006 from Freddie Mac, the government-backed mortgage giant.

And when Mr Gingrich sought to turn the tables by inquiring about the private equity firm that Mr Romney founded, the former Massachusetts governor replied: “We didn’t do any work with the government. ... I wasn’t a lobbyist.”

At times, the other two contenders on stage were reduced to supporting roles.

Asked if he could envision a path to the nomination for himself, Mr Santorum said the race has so far been defined by its unpredictability.

He jumped at the chance to criticise both Mr Romney and Mr Gingrich for having supported the big federal bailouts of Wall Street in 2008.

He also said both men had abandoned conservative principles by supporting elements of “cap and trade” legislation to curb pollution emissions from industrial sites. “When push came to shove, they were pushed,” he said.