Tonight’s debate
The Republican presidential candidates will debate national security issues from 8 to 10 p.m. on CNN.
WASHINGTON — A dozen debates into the GOP’s presidential talk-a-thon, and Newt Gingrich thinks he knows what has finally lifted him to the top of the polls.
“I think most people end up thinking I’m probably a better debater than my friends are,” the wonkish, sometimes bombastic former House speaker told a crowd Monday in New Hampshire. “If you stop and ask yourself: ... who do you want to have to debate [President Barack] Obama ... ?”
The line got big applause.
Tonight, the think tank founder and onetime history professor will get another chance to showcase his skills in debate No. 13, sponsored by CNN and a pair of conservative think tanks and focused on national security.
“It’s the ideal format for him,” said Rick Tyler, who worked for Gingrich for about 12 years before leaving the campaign this summer.
Gingrich has established himself as well-versed on the issues and inclined to challenge his news media moderators rather than Republican colleagues. Those performances have helped Gingrich recover from a disastrous start to the campaign.
In May, Gingrich raised the ire of many Republicans by criticizing a proposal by House GOP budget chairman Paul Ryan to revamp Medicare as a voucher program.
That was followed in June by the mass resignation of his senior staff, including Tyler, who was then the campaign spokesman. Many analysts saw the defections, which included the campaign manager, top strategists and key organizers in Iowa, as the death knell for the campaign.
As Gingrich languished near the back of the pack, other candidates rose in quick succession to challenge former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney for the front-runner spot: Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann; Texas Gov. Rick Perry; Georgia businessman Herman Cain.
But Bachmann was unable to sustain the momentum of her victory in the Iowa straw poll in August; Perry proved to be a poor debater; Cain was dogged by policy blunders and allegations of sexual harassment by former employees.
“Some of these ultra-telegenic rock star types, which Newt really isn’t, have stubbed their toes pretty badly,” said U.S. Rep. Phil Gingrey, a Marietta Republican and early supporter of Gingrich.
“And I think ... the more [people] watch, the more they realize that, hey, we need the best and brightest — and brightest with a capital B. We’ve got serious problems. We don’t need rookies in the Oval Office because they’re glib or they have a nice smile or can be very good at reading a teleprompter.”
According to the Gingrich campaign, his rise in the polls is mirrored by more substantive successes. Some of the same staffers who departed in June recently returned to help run the ground game in Iowa. In addition, the campaign says it has raised $4 million since Oct. 1.
Romney has yet to capture the hearts of the conservative Republican base because of more moderate positions he took on issues such as health care, climate change, gay rights and abortion while governing in liberal Massachusetts.
Gingrich’s four decades in politics provide opposition researchers with plenty of ammunition as well. In 1994 he was a GOP hero for engineering the election of Republican majorities in both houses of Congress. By 1996 he was a goat for alienating voters by shutting down the government in a budget showdown with President Bill Clinton.
Gingrich expressed support in the past for a government mandate that individuals purchase health insurance — a key piece of Obama’s health care law, which Georgia and other states are challenging before the Supreme Court.
He also did an advertisement with then-Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in 2008 saying the United States “must take action to address climate change,” which many conservatives believe is a hoax.
The Gingrich campaign last week set up a new section of its website dedicated to “answering the attacks.” On the health insurance mandate, the site said Gingrich changed his mind after seeing the problems with Romney’s and Obama’s health care plans. On climate change, the site states that Gingrich believes “there is no settled scientific conclusion” about whether human activities are causing a warming of the atmosphere.
Those statements may go down hard with some voters. “It’s hard to carry the charge of flip-flopper against Mitt Romney if you yourself are on record as being on different sides of many issues,” said Republican consultant Whit Ayres.
The attacks will only intensify with Gingrich’s ascension in the field.
“Once you rise to a certain level in the polls, all the opposition research comes out in force and provides the agenda for a few thousand journalists around the country,” Ayres said. “And that’s likely to continue as long as he is a leading contender.”
But another former Gingrich aide, online columnist Rich Galen, said Gingrich has amassed decades of proof of his political survival skills.
“One of Newt’s strongest points has been his ability to ride out a rough patch and emerge to drive down the highway at full speed,” Galen wrote last week. “As Bette Davis once almost said, ‘Fasten your seat belts. It’s going to be a bumpy ride!’ ”
Staff writer Victoria Loe Hicks and The Associated Press contributed to this article.
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