Romney surges in Fla., but Gingrich attacking

(CBS News) 

The two leading candidates in Tuesday's crucial Republican presidential primary in Florida, Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich, were to hit the campaign trail hard in the Sunshine State Saturday.

With polls showing Romney surging, Gingrich was pulling out all the stops, including a new attack ad, to catch up.

But after two strong debates this week, Romney was sounding confident.

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At a campaign stop in Titusville, he told the crowd he's "had the fun of having two debates where I had to stand up and battle. And battling was fun and battling was won."

The latest polls give Romney reason to smile -- he has pulled back out front, with 9 point lead over Gingrich.

But those numbers can change -- and fast. So both frontrunners and the Super PACS that support them are spending millions on ads, such as a Gingrich attack featuring 2008 Republican presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee in which the former Arkansas governor is heard saying, "If a man's dishonest to get a job, he'll be dishonest on the job."

Huckabee later took issue with that, saying his words were taken out of context, and used without his permission.

The candidates and their surrogates also continued to spar over the issue of immigration.

Romney said the 11 million illegal immigrants currently in the country should return home and get in line behind those waiting to come here legally, and says many will do so voluntarily if they're denied work.

On Friday, Gingrich scoffed at that, saying, "The idea that grandmother's not going to be supported? The idea that she's going to self-deport? This is a fantasy."

But Romney already had a response for that in Thursday night's debate, when he said, "Our problem is not 11 million grandmothers. ... Our problem is 11 million people getting jobs that many Americans, legal immigrants would like to have."

Romney was to spend most of Saturday stumping in Florida's panhandle, a very conservative part of the state, a region you'd think Gingrich would have almost locked up. So it shows Romney is going to take it right to Gingrich.

To see Jan Crawford's report, click on the video in the player above.

[Citizen Jimserac]

Most of us independents would like to see a REAL campaign waged between Obama and a REAL Republican candidate. Romney is NOT a REAL candidate.
He is a manufactured nice guy, big smile, the handshakes and his "credentials" are experience as a vulture capitalist 1%er, a brief stint as Olympics manager and a brief stint as governor of a mid size state.

Romney does NOT have sufficient credentials to beat Obama no matter HOW MUCH "feel good" TV ads and money expended by super PACS for him expend.
In addition, Romney continually gets flustered when confronted with unexpected questions, which he handles with delaying tactics such as a quick "heh heh" chuckle followed by a smile like a little boy caught with his hand in the cookie jar, followed by stammering and talkative patter bearing no relation to the question. Obama will SMASH this level of amateurishness, count on it.

Newt on the other hand, YES, does have lots of "baggage" but he also has REAL EXPERIENCE, including time as speaker of the House (3d in line for the presidency) and is a REAL candidate. He does well in debates and he has a COMMON SENSE position on immigration, unlike Romney's absurd pretend "self deportation" nonsense. Mitt CAN beat Obama, Romney can only "pretend" that he can (big smile, more handshakes...)

Romney's experience is to make you feel good while his Bain company sets up the firings after token attempts to "turn around" the acquired company. Any who do not like what "Mitt" is saying? YOU'RE FIRED. There, that was easy, eh? Only MANAGING A COUNTRY IS NOT MANAGING A "BIZ" to be sliced and diced. We've got real people - citizens and non-citizens alike - workers, unemployed, teachers, students, veterans, elderly, disabled a great people in a great nation. WHAT...one wonders, is Mitt's vulture mentality plan for THEM, the majority of voters who WILL decide the next election. That's an easy one - "Mitt" has none.