By Susan Page and Jackie Kucinich
USA TODAY
JACKSONVILLE -- Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich made it clear Thursday that they were prepared to come out swinging at what is likely to be their last face-to-face confrontation before a pivotal primary Tuesday.
Romney suggested Gingrich wasn't temperamentally suited to be president, sending out a mass e-mail with the subject line, "Unhinged: Dr. Newt and Mr. Hyde." It followed with a letter from former Senate majority leader Bob Dole, the party's 1996 presidential nominee, that said Gingrich favored "off-the-wall" ideas to get attention and warned his nomination would imperil GOP candidates down the ballot.
Gingrich, meanwhile, ridiculed disclosures mined from the 2010 tax returns that Romney released Tuesday.
"We're not going to beat Barack Obama with some guy who has Swiss bank accounts, Cayman Island accounts, owns shares of Goldman Sachs that forecloses on Floridians, is himself a stockholder in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac while he tries to think the rest of us are too stupid to put together the dots to understand what this is all about," Gingrich said at a rally of Tea Party supporters.
He derided not only Romney but also the parade of elected Republicans who have been lining up behind him -- and against the former House speaker.
"The Republican establishment is just as much an establishment as the Democratic establishment, and they are just as determined to stop us," Gingrich declared. "Make no bones about it. This is a campaign for the very nature of the Republican Party."
The 19th debate of the campaign season, held at the University of North Florida and aired on CNN, came just five days before a crucial primary that may sort out the rollercoaster nomination contest.
Also participating in the debate were Texas Rep. Ron Paul and former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum, but the Florida contest has become a two-man showdown between Romney and Gingrich for victory in the first mega-state to vote this year.
Meanwhile, Romney was forced to deal with more fallout from a Swiss bank account that was closed in 2010. He is amending financial disclosure forms to show he earned interest from the account, a change his campaign dismissed as "trivial."
In 2010, Romney and his wife, Ann, had earned $1,783 in interest from the bank account, held in Ann Romney's blind trust. Romney had stated in federal financial disclosure forms filed in 2007 that he had a UBS money market account valued at between $1 million and $5 million, but it did not specify that the account was based in Switzerland.
Gingrich continued to draw large, enthusiastic crowds, but several Florida polls indicated that his two-week surge may have been capped.
Romney leads Gingrich in the Sunshine State by seven to eight percentage points, according to the three automated polls released on Thursday. A fourth survey, sponsored by Quinnipiac University, showed Romney to be a stronger candidate against Obama in Florida, one of the nation's prime battleground states.
Romney tied President Obama 45%-45% in Florida, the survey showed, while Obama would defeat Gingrich 50%-39%.
In a nationwide NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, Gingrich led Romney 37%-28% among Republicans likely to vote in the primaries, but Romney fared better against Obama. The president led Romney by six percentage points and Gingrich by a yawning 18 points.
At a rally in Jacksonville, Romney avoided mentioning Gingrich by name but hinted would not be the case a few hours later. "We are getting ready for another debate tonight," Romney told them. "I can't wait."
"We may talk about the differences between ourselves," he said. "There may be some give-and-take. That's always fun and entertaining, I know."