Crucial Romney-Gingrich Mudfights

The next two Republican debates, tonight and Thursday, “are shaping up to be the most important–and nasty–yet.”

Both come only weeks before Iowa caucuses on January 3rd, with primaries soon after in New Hampshire, South Carolina and Florida. These debates, predicts the Caucus, “are likely to be slugfests as desperate candidates search for a magic bullet to improve their political fortunes in the short time that is left.

“The best predictors for the tenor of a presidential debate are the hours and days that precede it…And the 2012 campaign for the Republican nomination has suddenly taken on a much harsher tone.”

In this mudfight, David Brooks observes, “we have one man, Romney, who seems to have walked straight out of the 1950s, and another, Gingrich, who seems to have walked straight out of the 1960s. He has every negative character trait that conservatives associate with ’60s excess: narcissism, self-righteousness, self-indulgence and intemperance…

“It’s really too bad. We could have had a great debate about the progressive-conservative tradition. President Obama is now embracing Roosevelt. Gingrich has tried to modernize this tendency.

”But how you believe something is as important as what you believe…”

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