(Image Source: New York Times)
BY ZACH TOOMBS
With South Carolina primary voting just five days away, the GOP candidates turned up the heat on frontrunner Mitt Romney. It’s a move that left many pundits crowning Newt Gingrich and Rick Perry the winners of the Fox News debate Monday night.
PERRY: “Mitt, we need for you to release your income tax, so the good people of this country can see how you made your money.”
GINGRICH: “Governor Romney, as governor, raised taxes, and Massachusetts was 47th in job creation.”
SANTORUM: “Actually, I’m asking you to answer the question. That’s how you got the time. It’s actually my time.”
On Twitter, Romney’s responses received harsh reviews. Fox used a social media meter to gauge the public opinion.
“On his record, the green is the people who thought he gave a good answer. The red, the people who thought that he dodged the question. Again -- the majority is below the line.”
POLITICO’s Alexander Burns also sighted Romney’s weak points in the night, writing:
“...there were a few rare moments when the former Massachusetts governor appeared to stammer and grasp for balance. And after weeks of declining to promise to release his tax returns, Romney relented — mostly — under persistent questioning from moderators.”
But Romney had his lighter moments as well. When the candidate fielded a question on his claim in 2007 that he had been a lifetime hunter of small varmints, The Washington Post had this to say:
“You can bet the Democratic National Committee will have fun with Romney’s incredibly awkward answer on hunting. And we quote: ‘I am not the great hunter.’”
Online, it was Perry’s harsh rhetoric that drew much attention, especially on the Obama administration’s reaction to a video showing U.S. Marines urinating on dead bodies in Afghanistan.
“When the Secretary of Defense calls that a despicable act... Let me tell you what’s despicable -- cutting Danny Pearl’s head off and showing the video of it.”
Perry’s words on Daniel Pearl -- a reporter killed by militants in 2002 -- prompted this response from journalist John Harwood.
“As someone who was a friend and colleague of Danny Pearl...Perry's reference to Danny was irrelevant and gross”
On Time Magazine’s The Page blog, Mark Halperin gives Romney an average grade, saying the frontrunner neither lost nor gained ground.
Halperin writes, Paul, on the other hand, had a rougher night and was:
Marbled-mouthed on defense cuts and the assassination of bin Laden. The crowd was ready to cheer for him but he didn’t give them sufficient cause.
POLITICO called Santorum Romney’s most formidable verbal challenger of the night. He, Gingrich, Perry and Paul will have one more debate to take shots at Romney before the South Carolina primary Saturday. The latest polls have Romney leading Gingrich in the state by about seven points.
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