Gingrich heads to New Hampshire, targets Romney

Gingrich’s campaign released a full-page ad it plans to run in the New Hampshire Union Leader Wednesday that calls Romney “a timid Massachusetts moderate” and says “only a bold Reagan conservative can defeat President Obama.” His campaign is also planning to start airing a series of television ads in New Hampshire, South Carolina and Florida this week that compare their records.

"We are at the beginning of an extraordinary political campaign," the former House speaker told scores of cheering supporters at a caucus party in the Iowa Events Center late Tuesday night. "The ultimate goal of this campaign has to be to replace Barack Obama and get America back to work."

He later declared: "On to New Hampshire!"

Gingrich also congratulated Santorum for running a "great, positive campaign."

"I admire the courage, the discipline, the way he focused. I also admire how positive he was," Gingrich added. "I wish I could say that for all the candidates."

Gingrich was preparing to fly to New Hampshire Tuesday night, where he will face-off in that state’s Jan. 10 Republican primary. He already has campaign stops scheduled for Wednesday in Concord, Laconia and Manchester.

Gingrich, who represented Georgia in Congress for 20 years, experienced a spectacularly steep slide in the polls in the days leading up to the Iowa caucuses. He led the pack at one point in some surveys and then went into free fall mode under a barrage of negative attack ads from his rivals and their allies.

The negative ads prompted Gingrich to declare Monday that he didn’t think he could win the caucuses. He changed his tone later that day, saying he had made a mistake, had been chewed out by one of his precinct captains and that there was still hope he could pull off an upset.

The former West Georgia College history professor railed against the attack ads but promised to maintain a positive campaign. Yet, in perhaps in a sign that the competition will get nastier in New Hampshire, Gingrich called Romney a liar Tuesday. Gingrich has repeatedly suggested Romney is hiding behind a PAC running attack ads against him.

Gingrich said Republicans must choose between him -- "a Reagan conservative who helped change Washington" in the 1980s and 1990s  -- or Romney, a "Massachusetts moderate who in fact will be pretty good at managing the decay but has given no evidence in his years in Massachusetts of any ability to change the culture or change the political structure."

"We are not going to run nasty ads," Gingrich said. "But I do reserve the right to tell the truth. And if the truth seems negative, than it may be more of a comment on his record than it is on politics. This is going to be a debate that begins tomorrow morning in New Hampshire and will go on for a few months."

Gingrich also took aim at Paul, who has questioned how close Iran is to developing a nuclear weapon.

"His views on foreign policy I think are stunningly dangerous for the survival of the United States," he said.

Gingrich experienced some emotional highs and lows on the campaign trail in Iowa amid his stunning fall in the polls. He drew attention Friday when he got choked up and wiped away a tear as he talked about his late mother. But Tuesday during his visit to a Muscatine coffee shop overlooking the shimmering Mississippi River, Gingrich was ebullient as he gobbled up some chocolate and vanilla “Moose Tracks” ice-cream. He joked how one of his staffers got some “Heaps of Love” ice-cream.

Gingrich repeatedly cautioned that it is still early in the contest for the GOP nomination, comparing Iowa to “the first three minutes of the Super Bowl.” He is putting much of his resources in South Carolina, where Republican primary voters will make their selection Jan. 21. Gingrich has described South Carolina as a must-win state for his campaign. Since the contest was established there in 1980, every Republican winner here has gone on to become the nominee.

Gingrich made his final pitch to Iowan caucus-goers in the cavernous University of Northern Iowa Dome in Cedar Falls. With his wife Callista at his side, Gingrich highlighted his efforts in Congress to take on the Soviet Union, balance the federal budget, overhaul welfare and grow the economy. He also insisted he is the best candidate to go toe to toe with President Obama in a debate.

“This is not a time for another amateur," Gingrich told the Black Hawk County Republicans about Obama. "We have had three years of another amateur. Washington is too complicated. The problems are too hard.”

Stuart Griffin, who traveled from Brookhaven to volunteer in Gingrich’s campaign, said he thinks Gingrich needs to continue to defend himself from attacks in a civil way.

“One of the things I love about him is he refuses to talk bad about other Republicans,” said Griffin, who handles government relations in the healthcare industry.

U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, who has remained neutral in the race, said the negative ads have hurt Gingrich’s campaign but he wouldn’t count him out.

“Now he has an attitude that he is going to fight back in South Carolina and other states,” Grassley said before the caucus voting began here. “I think he will make some comeback but I don’t know whether he will make enough of a comeback. He is still very much in it because he is so smart.”