Romney tried to prevent Gingrich from having one of his signature ‘moments.’ | AP Photo
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Here are some thoughts from Politico:
2) Gingrich was playing defense
This was an unusual role for Gingrich, who has traded barbs with his rivals in the past but has generally played the debate hall crowd like a fiddle, to great effect.
As Romney went at him, Gingrich generally tried to play the front-runner, looking to blunt the attacks or ignore them. There were plenty of opportunities to land haymakers on Romney, but Gingrich — other than reminding viewers of Romney’s attacks against John McCain and Mike Huckabee in 2008 — mostly took a pass.
At a few points, though, Romney really seemed to get under his skin, and Gingrich approached something a bit too close to anger.
He also made a fairly substantial unforced error when he volunteered, as Romney pressed him on his Freddie Mac contract, that he’d hired a “lobbying expert” who’d explain to his team what did and didn’t qualify as lobbying.
Yet Romney, midway through unleashing an opposition research dump, didn’t seem to pick up on it and left that mistake by Gingrich on the table.
The rest of the time, Gingrich was able to do what he does best — present a version of history that doesn’t always comport with the facts but that serves him well. He is able to deliver, with confidence, tailored versions of history. It’s something no one else on the debate stage can quite pull off, even if they wanted to. For instance, he was able to wax historical about his time in the conservative moment, an era that not all conservatives feel warmly about, but which no one else on the stage other than Rick Santorum could do.
In one of the non-Romney-related moments, Gingrich had the opportunity to suggest he didn’t need an endorsement from Ron Paul, but instead filibustered in a clear effort to avoid insulting the Texas congressman’s followers.
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