POLITICO.COM : Newt Gingrich wins Republican Debate, Newt tempers some of his worst impulses. Mitt Romney appears more flustered, upset and confused than Gingrich. - Romney offers stupid wager of $10,000 bragging about being very rich and powerful !

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POLITICO.COM
At Republican debate, Newt Gingrich rolls on with steady performance
By JONATHAN MARTIN
December 11, 2011

At Republican debate, Newt Gingrich rolls on with steady performance


Some excerpts :

In a campaign that has been chiefly shaped by debates, Newt Gingrich demonstrated Saturday night why he tops the polls — and why he won’t easily be dethroned.

Facing tough questions from his Republican rivals and debate moderators in Des Moines, Gingrich parried blow after blow without losing his cool or showing the much-discussed undisciplined side of his personality.

It was the former House speaker’s first debate as the undisputed frontrunner and not only did he stand up to the fresh scrutiny, he reminded Republican primary voters of his command of the issues, his intellectual dexterity and his self-assured, forceful arguments.

When Mitt Romney scolded Gingrich for his provocative claim that Palestinians are an “invented” people, the former Georgia congressman concisely captured why his brand of bombast is playing so well with a roiling GOP electorate.

“I think sometimes it is helpful to have a president of the United States with the courage to tell the truth, just as was Ronald Reagan who went around his entire national security apparatus to call the Soviet Union an ‘evil empire’ and who overruled his entire State Department in order to say, ‘Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall,’’ said Gingrich, calling himself a “Reaganite” and then adding a memorable kicker: “ I will tell the truth, even if it’s at the risk of causing some confusion sometimes with the timid.”

Romney suggested Gingrich is a “bomb-thrower,” but the applause Gingrich received in the Des Moines debate hall after his answer illustrated that Republican primary voters prefer pugnacity to sobriety at this moment.

What makes Gingrich so formidable in these debates, and in the larger nominating contest, is that he’s not only appealing to the Republican heart, but to its head. The former history professor offers the sort of articulate answers matched on stage only by Romney, while using language that channels the give-em-hell vibe of GOP voters girding for a confrontation with President Obama.

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