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White House hopefuls get personal in Florida debate
Mitt Romney painted rival Newt Gingrich as a Washington "influence peddler" and unfit for the White House, as falling poll numbers forced him onto the offensive in a fierce Republican debate.
Republican candidates Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrinch exchanged personal barbs in an attempt to increase their number is Florida primaries
Romney began the maiden Florida primary debate late Monday swinging hard at Gingrich, as he scrambled to get his campaign back on track and reassert himself as the candidate best able to beat President Barack Obama in November.
The contest was a marked role reversal from previous debates, when an insurgent Gingrich had railed against the frontrunner's past, portraying Romney - a multimillionaire businessman - as a ruthless corporate raider.
The tone was set earlier in the day by two new polls showing Gingrich surging past the former Massachusetts governor, just eight days before a vote that could either confirm Gingrich's surge or reinstate Romney as the favourite.
Romney zeroed in on Gingrich's work for state-backed mortgage lender Freddie Mac, a firm many Republicans see as being complicit in the housing bubble and the ensuing Great Recession, which hit Florida particularly hard.
Gingrich, shedding his trademark bombast, tried to rise above the fray, as the audience looked on with a silence not seen in previous debates.
Gingrich said his role working for Freddie Mac had been as an "historian."
The former Georgia lawmaker released his contract with the firm just hours before the debate to try to defuse the toxic issue.
Amid the feisty back and forth, the other two Republicans still in the race, Christian conservative Rick Santorum and Texas congressman Ron Paul paled into the background, left watching as the frontrunners dueled it out.
After the aggressive opening, the rhythm settled and there were fewer fireworks than some previous encounters.
Florida is a larger and more diverse state than the others which have so far voted, and Romney will be hoping that his campaign war chest and well-oiled machine will give him the edge.
More than 220,000 voters have already cast early ballots, a state party official told AFP. And the Rasmussen poll found Romney was leading in those votes by about 11 percentage points.
US media on Monday reported the wife of a Casino mogul will inject $5 million into a pro-Gingrich campaign group.
A Rasmussen poll found Gingrich was now running at 41 percent in Florida, with his rival at 32 percent. Just last week, Romney had a 22-point lead in the Sunshine State.
A second poll by InsiderAdvantage/Majority Opinion Research had Gingrich leading by 34.4 percent to 25.6 percent.
